COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Katherine Dick (Fr., Florence, Italy) scored five times to earn Player of the Game status as No. 18-ranked/North Atlantic Division Champion Yale University used a 6-4 scoring advantage in the third quarter to muster past No. 20/New York Division Champion Cornell University, 13-12, in a 13th/15th Place game at the second day of the 2024 Women’s National Collegiate Club Championship.
Competing at Texas A&M University’s Campus Rec Center in the final game on the second day of the 30-game, 16-team, three-day championship event, the Bulldogs claim their inaugural position at the National Collegiate Club Championship since 12th in 2006 at Northwestern University. A six-time qualifier for the event (2001, 2005, 2006, 2013, 2016, 2024) with five division titles, the team did not compete at either the 2001, 2013 or 2016 National Collegiate Club Championships. The team did attend the 2005 National Collegiate Club Championship at Texas A&M University as the runner-up from the New England Division and tied with Knox College for 13th place.
At the 2024 event, Yale ties with Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University for 13th Place as the No. 17/Atlantic Division Champion Hokies knocked off Texas Division Third Place finisher Texas State University by 16-4 count in the other 13th/15th place game. Cornell and Texas State tie for 15th Place in the final 16-team championship standings as the 13th and 15th positions are not played out due to pool availability and timing during the championship weekend.
Cornell – which previously garnered 11th (2018), 13th (2012) and 15th (2005, 2006, 2011, 2019) Place finishes – jumped on the scorebard first as Emma Moore (So., Green Lake, Wis.) tossed in the opening salvo with 3:57 left in the first quarter. Violette Perry (Jr., Christchurch, New Zealand) answered for Yale at 3:41 before Moore struck again with a man-up tally at 3:18. Dick stuffed in an equalizer at 2:18 before Ho’ohila Kawelo (Jr., Kane’ohe, Hawaii) returned the lead to the Big Red at 3-2 with 1:55 remaining in the opening seven minutes of action.
Dick delivered another score by stroking a shot into the cage 22 seconds into the second quarter (6:38), before Kimberly Bond (Jr., San Diego, Calif.) (5:41), Sam Detor (Jr., Wayzata, Minn.) (4:43), Chesney Melissinos (Fr., Los Angeles, Calif.) (4:10, man-up), Olivia Meisner (Gr., New Orleans, La.) (1:31) and Kawelo (1:17) scored for Yale and Cornell as the lead flipped from one-goal leads for the Big Red and back again throughout the remainder of the second quarter.
Clinging to a 6-5 lead through the contest’s opening 14 minutes of competition, Cornell was unable to collar the Bulldogs as Perry put away another equalizer 16 seconds into the third quarter to deadlock the teams at six-all.
The back-and-forth pattern returned as Moore (5:33) and Dick (5:16) finished shots to even the scoring damage at seven-all.
Yale gained its inaugural lead less than a minute later as Meisner dented the twine with 4:33 on the clock to push the Bulldogs ahead 8-7. Juliet Gottfried (Sr., New York, N.Y.) followed with an insurance goal at 4:16 for the first lead of more than one goal during the duration of the contest.
Moore trimmed the Big Red’s deficit down to 9-8 (3:51), but Gottfried was the villain to Cornell in returning Yale’s scoreboard advantage to a pair at 10-8 with 3:33 to play in the game’s third seven minute stretch of competition.
Cornell rallied back, however, as Kawelo (2:05) and Emily Fitzgerald (Jr., Sydney, Australia) (31 seconds, penalty shot) erased the gap between the teams to allow the squads to begin decisive fourth quarter tied at 10-all.
Yale gained the early advantage in the fourth quarter as a penalty shot by Perry (6:12) and a natural tally from Dick (5:24) were true to return a two-score lead to the Bulldogs at 12-10. Bond completed a hat-trick at 2:42 to shrink the gap to 12-11, but an insurance man-up power-play score with 20 seconds left by Dick delivered the eventual game-winning goal to make it 13-11.
Cornell was unable to dig itself out of the deficit as a score by Bond with six seconds left proved too little to overcome a two-score disadvantage in falling 13-12.
For Yale, Dick (five), Perry (three), Gottfired (two)m Meisner (two) and Detor exceeded the Big Red’s offensive output as goalkeeper Michelle Wu (Gr., Cheshire, Conn.) stymied the Big Red with seven saves.
Moore (four), Kawelo (three), Bond (three), Melissinos and Fitzgerald all put away shots in the loss for Cornell. Alex Bentley (Jr., San Antonio, Texas) stopped eight Yale tries on offense in taking the loss.
| 1st Q | 2nd Q | 3rd Q | 4th Q | – | FINAL | |
| No. 20 Cornell University |
3 | 3 | 4 | 2 | – | 12 |
| No. 18 Yale University | 2 | 3 | 6 | 2 | – | 13 |
| Yale Goals: | Katherine Dick (5); Violette Perry (3); Olivia Meisner (2); Juliet Gottfried (2); Sam Detor | |||||
| Cornell Goals: | Emma Moore (4); Ho’ohila Kawelo (3); Kimberly Bond (3); Chesney Melissinos; Emily Fitzgerald | |||||
| Saves: | Yale – Michelle Wu (7) ; Cornell – Alex Bentley (8) | |||||
| Exclusions: | Yale – 7 ; Cornell – 4 | |||||
| Advantage Opportunities: | Yale – 2-for-4 ; Cornell – 3-for-7 | |||||
| Sprints: | Yale – 3-for-4 (1st, 2nd, 3rd) ; Cornell – 1-for-4 (4th) | |||||
| Cards/Misconducts: | None | |||||
| Officials: | Edwin Barrera, John Rightmyer | |||||
Yale University’s Olivia Meisner (#2)
Yale University’s Caroline Utermann (#4) & Cornell University’s Emma Moore (#18)
Cornell University’s Kira Wilson (#9) seeks an opening as Yale University’s Olivia Meisner (#2) defends
