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ITHACA, N.Y. – The Cornell women's lacrosse team has clinched a berth in the Ivy League Tournament for the third straight year with its 8-7 victory over Yale at Schoellkopf Field Saturday. The Big Red improves to 7-7 (4-2 Ivy) and the Bulldogs drop to 8-6 (2-4 Ivy).

The teams saw a tied game on five separate occasions throughout the 60 minutes of play, as well as two goals – one from each team – that were waved off.

Lindsay Toppe opened up scoring at 20:57 in the first half to give Cornell an early 1-0 lead. Yale answered back with goals from Jen DeVito and Erin Magnuson to put the Bulldogs up 2-1 with 11:10 left in the half.

Cornell's Emily Tripodi then tied it up at 2, but DeVito finished a pass from Magnuson to again give Yale the one-goal lead. Just 12 seconds later, Tripodi connected on a pass from Rachel Moody to tie the game again, but with 3:34 left before the intermission, Cathryn Avallone took advantage of a free-position attempt to give Yale a 4-3 lead going into the locker room.

Chelsea Rowe found the fourth equalizer of the game at 3:43 into the second half, unassisted. Barely a minute later, a goal by Amanda D'Amico was waved off, but the Big Red never let up and it was Sarah Hefner who capitalized on a free-position attempt to give Cornell a 5-4 lead with 24:03 left to play. Rowe found her second of the game to extend the Big Red's lead to two and Yale took a time-out to regroup.

The time-out seemed to help and 50 seconds after it was called, the Bulldogs' Magnuson tallied a pair of free-position goals to tie the game for the fifth time, at 6-6.

Cornell freshman attack Catherine Ellis showed off her quick hands and notched the Big Red's next goal at 13:21, after she picked up a ground ball on her original shot that was saved by Yale goalkeeper Erin McMullan, and found the back of the net.

Toppe added her second goal of the game with 11:36 left to play to give Cornell a two-goal lead and its final tally of the match.

A Yale goal by Magnuson was waved off with 8:01 left to play and the Bulldogs never gave up. Kerri Fleishhacker put Yale back within one after she slipped the ball past Cornell goalkeeper Carly Gniewek on a free-position attempt with 1:47 remaining in the game.

Despite being outshot 26-24 and picking up three fewer ground balls, Cornell held on to earn the 8-7 victory and a place in the Ivy League Tournament.

Lindsay Toppe, Chelsea Rowe and Emily Tripodi each had two goals for the Big Red and Catherine Ellis and Sarah Hefner scored one goal each. Rachel Moody added one assist. Gniewek came away with seven saves in the crease.

Erin Magnuson tallied three goals and one assist to lead Yale, while Jen DeVito chipped in two and Kerri Fleishhacker and Cathryn Avallone each added one. Erin McMullan finished the day with 10 saves.

The Big Red returns to action next Saturday, April 26 for senior day when they take on Penn at 1 p.m.