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Stellar Soccer
A share of the Ivy title helped balance the books on a sobering season for Elis athletes.
February 1993
by Ben Hoskins ’93
Ben Hoskins ’93, a senior in Trumbull College, is a former sports editor of the Yale Daily News.
At best, only one bit of wisdom can be plucked from the peaks and valleys of the 1992 fall athletic season. “Expectations be damned” might be it. After posting its best season ever by reaching the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championships in 1991 and returning virtually its entire starting lineup, the men’s soccer team was primed to repeat as a dominant power. Instead, the Elis struggled from early in the season, and failed to retain the Ancient Eight title or even return to the ncaa tournament. In contrast, the women’s soccer team, which was thought to be destined for another mediocre season, had its most successful finish in history, grabbing their first-ever Ivy League title, and nearly claiming the postseason ECAC tournament crown.
In football, preseason prognosticators got it right: The Elis posted two quick wins, but eventually fell to stronger opponents en route to a 4–6 record and a sixth-place finish in the Ivy League. The disappointing showing included their first shutout at the hands of Harvard since 1966, a 14–0 loss, and a crushing defeat, 36–7, by eventual Ivy cochampion Princeton.
Women’s volleyball produced a 19–9 record. The spikers, led by senior captain Sarah Cristianson and Katie Roy, one of the most proficient middle blockers in the country, raced out to an 11–2 mark before dropping a pair of crucial midseason Ivy games to Cornell and Brown. An impressive stretch run pushed the team into the annual league tournament, where they stumbled to a fourth-place finish.
Rounding out the action, the field hockey team ended the season at 6–9. The squad also started well, with a 7–1 dismantling of regional power Fairfield, but faded during the heart of their schedule. On an individual note, team captain Anne Lehman, who finished her Yale career by becoming the College’s all-time points leader, claimed her third consecutive spot on the All-Ivy team and was named the league’s Player of the Year.
Another strong Eli athlete, senior Heather Slay, once again ran her way into the NCAA cross country championships. After finishing a distant 88th in the country last year, Slay ran the five-kilometer course in 18:08 and crossed the line in 39th place.
The highlights:
Women’s Soccer
Last spring, coach Felice Duffy had two major aims in mind for her squad—forgetting the previous year’s 5–10 record, and increasing the offensive output of a team that averaged one goal a game.
Complicating the task was the loss of Laura Valade, the 1991 Ivy Player of the Year. Accordingly, Duffy installed a new offense which featured three forwards instead of the usual two. With the trio of Amy Busch, Dawn Bushnaq, and Jen Teti, results came swiftly. In their first three games, the Elis scored nine goals while avenging last year’s losses to Vermont and Brown. The victory over the Bruins, a 3–2 squeaker played in Providence, would hold special significance for the Elis at the end of the season when identical records gave each team a share of the Ivy championship.
After slipping by Providence 1–0 in overtime for Yale’s fourth consecutive win, at least two things were clear. The Eli offense had picked up considerably, but it wasn’t at the expense of the defense. In goal, four-year starter Tina Pihl combined with a solid back line for two shutouts. Pihl and her supporting cast—Mignon Hess, Ashley Cimini, Allison Leach, and freshman standout Jenna Hoge—were playing tough, physical defense and were displaying a confidence and aggressiveness rarely seen in 1991.
The four-game streak also showed that the Elis had indeed found a replacement for Valade. Teti, a quick, skilled forward, who would later be the second consecutive Yale player honored as Player of the Year, had tallied four goals and four assists to lead both her team and the league in scoring.
The women experienced a midseason dip, falling to defending league champion Cornell and national power Hartford. Cornell managed to make a single goal stick over the course of the game and dealt the Elis their first loss (The only Ivy loss of the season). Four days later, the Elis met Hartford, a team ranked second in the country for most of the year, and were handed this year’s only sound defeat, 4–0.
The Bulldogs bounced back with wins against Rhode Island and New Hampshire, but fell to nationally ranked teams from the universities of Connecticut and Massachusetts. With two thirds of its season gone by and its record standing at 6–4, Yale had shown promise, but now faced the heart of league play.
The boost the Elis needed came from a key road game at Dartmouth, which was previously undefeated in Ivy play. The Elis supplemented a Hoge goal off a corner kick with a stingy defense led by midfielder Janet Moore, and tallied their fifth shutout of the year.
At this point, the Elis found themselves in a previously unknown spot. With a 7–4 record, they had cracked the national rankings at number 18, and they were only a half game behind conference leader Cornell. A feisty Crimson team next stretched the Elis, but after Teti outmaneuvered a pack of Harvard defenders, her shot found the net, and Yale held on for a 1–0 win.
The following weekend showed that even when a team plays well, being lucky helps. After dismantling Columbia with no difficulty on October 23, the Elis were given a much needed assist from Dartmouth, which beat Cornell. The combination of events put Yale and Brown (with identical 4–1 Ivy marks) in a tie for the Ancient Eight lead.
If there was a defining moment in the Bulldogs’ season, it came on a cold Tuesday night in late October. In a bid to play the spoiler, Princeton stocked its defensive half deep with players, hoping to stifle the Yale attack and gain a tie.
What could have been a disappointing end to an otherwise inspired year changed for the better with two minutes left in the second overtime period. Hess, working an advantage over a tired Princeton player, moved up from her usual defensive position, took a pass from Jennifer Plant and, from the top of the penalty box, slammed a shot that eluded the outstretched hands of Tiger goalie Kim Douglass.
After racking up six goals against Penn, a team that only started varsity play two years ago, the Elis had clinched a share of the league title and had posted the most wins in the history of the women’s soccer program. Despite having to share the title with Brown, they had won bragging rights within the conference due to their victory over the Bruins.
The Bulldogs’ number 18 ranking wasn’t quite good enough to garner them a spot in the NCAA tournament, which selects only twelve teams, but it did earn them third seed in the ECAC tournament. In the first round Yale drew Vermont, a team it had beaten 3–2 in the season opener. This time it wouldn’t even be that close, as forwards Bushnaq and Louise Woodroofe combined on two first half goals to put the game out of reach early, and Yale cruised to a 2–0 win.
Bushnaq and Woodroofe paced the Elis in their second-round matchup against Boston College as well. Bushnaq jumped on a beautiful pass from Teti and drilled a shot into the left corner of the net for her seventh goal of the year. Woodroofe, a late bloomer who gave the Elis five goals in three games, put the contest away when she added the Blue’s final tally in the second half, moving the Elis into the title round.
The Elis finally met their match on the home field of the 13th-ranked Lady Knights of Rutgers, the champions of the last two ECAC tournaments. Despite that final loss, the team finished with a best-ever record of 13–5.
Football
With the departure of tailback Chris Kouri and quarterback Nick Crawford, the two, 1,000-plus-yard gainers who powered the Eli offense in 1991, and the loss of 12 other starters, Yale was at a crossroads as 1992 began. Should they scrap the ground attack, the trademark of recent Bulldog squads, and turn to a passing game, or should they stay with a proven favorite—a multiple-back set? The quandary deepened for Coach Carm Cozza as he approached his 28th season when in the preseason two quarterbacks, Steve Mills and Chris Hetherington, vied for the starting position. Both could run with the ball, but Hetherington seemed to have the stronger arm.
Any hopes for a departure from the norm were stopped short in the inaugural contest when, with Mills at the helm, the Elis stuck to the ground, and were successful in a 22–17 victory over Brown.
What also became obvious in the Elis’ opening game was that Mills and Price, helped by the aggressive blocking of backs Dave Kelley and captain Dave Sheronas, would be a more than adequate replacement for Crawford and Kouri. Price ripped up the Brown defense for 151 yards on 29 carries, as the Elis displayed just how potent the option could be.
While it was encouraging to win in the first outing of the season, there was a collective gasp as the Holy Cross game approached on September 26. The Crusaders, coming off an undefeated season, had not lost to an Ivy League team in the last 23 games, and brought a punishing size advantage to the Yale Bowl. However, the Elis had a secret weapon: Tropical Storm Danielle.
The storm, which had dumped several inches of rain on New Haven the previous night, made the field nearly unplayable, causing numerous slips, slides, and fumbles on both sides. Despite a 98-yard day for Price, the Bulldogs netted a mere 54 yards on offense, and coughed up the ball half a dozen times.
The only Eli score came in the second quarter with the Crusaders leading 3–0. Starting with good field position after a poor punt, the Bulldogs moved down the field to the Holy Cross 16-yard line, where the drive faced a crucial fourth down with two yards to go. Mills hit tight end Carter Hunt, who rambled for 12. A few plays later, Price crossed the goal line to give the Elis a7–3 lead, which held through a scoreless second half.
The 2–0 Elis next traveled to the University of Connecticut (for their first game at Storrs in 64 years) to face a team that had beaten Yale in nine of the past 10 meetings. Things started well for the Bulldogs, as they burned the Husky defense for 72 yards and a touchdown on their first drive, But UConn responded with three quick scores of its own, and by halftime, it was clear that the speed of the Husky attack, especially tailback Wilbur Gilliard, who gained 198 yards rushing on the day, would be too much for the young Eli defense. Final score—UConn 40, Yale 20.
After eating up nonleague opponent Fordham 31–12 the next week, the 3–1 Bulldogs entered the main course of their season—six straight Ivy League games. This second season, however, grew steadily grimmer for the Elis, who would go 175 down the stretch, their only victory a 23–0 shutout of Columbia.
Starting with Dartmouth, and its star quarterback Jay Fielder, the Bulldogs began to sag. The Big Green quarterback ripped Yale for 30 first-half points while amassing 419 passing yards. Particularly demoralizing was a perfectly executed fake punt late in the second quarter. The Elis did impress in the second half, mounting a three-touchdown flurry but finally fell, 39–27.
Trouncing Columbia raised Yale’s record to 4–2, but then the tide began to ebb. In a 13–10 loss to Pennsylvania, the Elis marched four times into Quaker territory and controlled the ball for more than 20 minutes in the first half, but all they could get was a field goal. Things didn’t improve in the second half, as the Penn defense swarmed around Mills, sacking him eight times, and holding Price to 85 yards on the ground.
Cornell, still in the hunt for a league title, spotted the Elis a touchdown on their opening drive before punching out five straight touchdowns of its own on a cold Saturday at the Bowl. Once again, a strong quarterback, this time the Big Red’s Bill Lazor, took advantage of an injury-plagued Eli defense and threw for 248 yards and 17 completions in 27; attempts. A touchdown late in the game for Cornell moved the score to 35–14, rounding out a discouraging afternoon for the Bulldogs.
It didn’t get any easier in the H-Y-P showdowns of the last two weeks. Against Princeton, gutsy play by an inspired Eli defense combined with a few Tiger miscues kept the score at a respectable 6–0 margin at the half. Despite gaining 280 yards before intermission, the Tigers were held to a pair of Jeff Hogg field goals, and Yale had a chance to play spoiler to Princeton’s hopes for an undefeated Ivy season.
It wasn’t to be, as the Tigers scored a safety on a botched Yale punt attempt and added a touchdown 40 seconds later when highly touted running back Keith Elias scampered into the end zone on a six-yard run.
In the fourth quarter, after adding three more scores to move their lead to 36–0, the Tigers committed a rare miscue, fumbling the ball on their 8-yard line where defensive back Darryl Simchak scooped it up and got the Elis on the board for their sole tally.
The 109th playing of The Game matched Harvard and Yale teams with similarly dismal seasons behind them. The Crimson scored early on a one-yard sneak by quarterback Mike Giardi, capping a 67-yard drive. Giardi increased the score to 14–0 in the third quarter on a similar play, running the ball in from the 5-yard line.
Despite driving twice to the Harvard 2-yard line, Yale could not notch a single point. Late in the third quarter, Price, who gained 162 yards on the day, broke down the left sideline for a 33-yard scamper, finally landing on the Crimson 2. A loss of five yards moved the Elis back to a fourth-and-goal situation from the 7-yard line when Mills missed an open Dave Iwan and was intercepted in the end zone. Later, with time running out, Price had the ball punched out of his hands on the Harvard 2.
While the season had more than its share of misery for the Blue, there were bright spots which should carry over to 1993. Price recorded the third-highest single-season rushing total in Yale history (1,141 yards). He, along with Mills, Hetherington, and most of the defensive starters, will return for the Elis next season.
The bleak outcome of the season was not the sole loss for Yale, as the long-standing tradition of freshman football ended. Next year, in the wake of the Ivy League presidents’ decision to reduce the size of the annual football recruiting class, for the first time next year, freshmen will be able to step straight from high school into the varsity ranks.  |
