Streaks were the key component of the Penn women's lacrosse team's Ivy opener against No. 15 Yale on Saturday.
Penn was trying to avoid a two-game losing streak for the second time this season. Yale was riding a two-game winning streak headed into Saturday's matchup.
And in the end, it was a streak of four consecutive goals by Yale junior Miles Whitman that helped the nationally ranked Elis edge the Quakers, 10-8.
"Whitman got on a hot streak in the first half and just took off," Penn coach Karin Brower said.
Whitman's four consecutive goals helped reverse a 2-1 Quaker lead into a 5-3 Yale lead with 11 minutes, 15 seconds left in the first half. The Quakers would never regain the lead.
The Red and Blue opened the scoring just over a minute in to the game when junior midfielder Lindsay Cassidy shot just over the shoulder of Yale goalie Amanda Law found the back of the net.
After Yale sophomore Katie Sargent tied the game at one a minute later, Penn regained the lead when freshman Emily Cochran scored at 23:01.
This gave the Quakers a 2-1 lead before Whitman's onslaught.
"We started out with the early lead but after the four straight goals, we were battling back the rest of the game," Brower said.
Two more goals by the Elis around a goal by Penn senior attacker Alison Polk-Williams gave Yale a 7-4 lead at halftime.
Despite trailing at halftime, the Quakers offense made a gallant comeback in the second half, scoring three of the first four goals over the opening 11 minutes to narrow the Yale lead to 8-7.
Cassidy recored her third goal of the game during Penn's run, but as she stalled so did the Quakers' offense.
Yale would pull away as Sargent scored a pair of goals 18 seconds apart to restore the Elis' three-goal advantage.
Penn senior midfielder Crissy Book scored her second goal of the game at 15:36 to bring Penn within two, but the Quakers could not come up with any more offensive support for the remainder of the game.
"We came close a number of times to tying the game, but in the end we came up empty," Brower said.
The Quakers looked to pull within one with just over a minute left when senior co-captain Christy Bennett got a one- on-one situation with Law. Her shot bounced of the Yale goalie's face mask to end Penn's scoring opportunity.
While the Quakers were unable to score during the last 15 minutes of play, the Quakers were able to play a closer game compared to last year's 17-10 loss at Yale.
"Penn gave us a tough matchup throughout the entire game," Yale senior Ali Cobbett said. "At any point it looked like they could come back and tie the score."
Despite the loss, the Quakers' strong performance against a national powerhouse bodes well for the remainder of the Ivy League schedule. Penn will face rivals Cornell, Dartmouth and Princeton -- all of whom they lost to last year -- at Franklin Field this season.
