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Opening day of the 2026 NCAA Division I women's lacrosse season is Feb. 6.
Throughout the month of January, we'll pose three burning questions for each team ranked in the USA Lacrosse Division I Women's Preseason Top 20, presented by CWENCH Hydration, starting with No. 20 James Madison and finishing with No. 1 North Carolina.
Join the conversation on social media @USALMag (IG/X/FB). Wrong answers only.
The most transformative class in the history of Yale women’s lacrosse put the Bulldogs on the map over the course of the last four seasons.
Few teams made bigger gains than Yale during that four-year window. Coming out of COVID-19, which cost Yale essentially two full seasons, the Bulldogs went 55-19 from 2022-25. Head coach Erica Bamford produced multiple All-Americans and led Yale to its first outright regular season Ivy League championship in 2024.
But things have changed since May. Coming off back-to-back NCAA quarterfinals appearances, Yale is returning only 22 players from the 2025 roster — though eight first-year players were included in Inside Lacrosse’s Power 100 freshman rankings, a signal that there is still plenty of talent on campus.
With Yale entering 2026 seemingly behind Princeton (No. 5) and Penn (No. 12), and with strong programs elsewhere around the Ivy League like Harvard and Brown, how will the Bulldogs fare this season?
These three questions could go a long way in determining their fate.
A sixteen-player senior class defined Yale’s 2025 season, one in which the Bulldogs again thrust themselves into national contention. They finished the year fifth in the USA Lacrosse Division I Women’s Top 20, a recognition of both their 2025 success and their recent consistency.
Among those now-graduates were two of the best at their respective positions in the country — attacker Jenna Collignon and midfielder Fallon Vaughn (both second-team All-Americans). Replacing their contributions, a combined 117 goals and 35 assists last season, won’t be a simple plug and play.
What will be easier, though, is maintain the culture built by those two and their peers. Bamford will lean on that as Yale retools.
“The 2025 senior class left their mark on Yale not only for their productivity but also for building a strong culture,” Bamford said. “I am excited for our continued growth as a program.”
Ashley Kiernan is the program’s top returning scorer, though she didn’t start in any of her 18 appearances last year. She went for 11 goals and 12 assists as a sophomore, and more will be expected of her in the spring. The same can be said for Megan Kitagawa, who had five goals and 10 assists over 14 games without a start.
Karina Herrera, Ashley Newman, Kelly Holmes, Lily Spinner, Chloe Gwaku, Paris Panagopoulos and Lindsay Thomas are others who scored last season but played minimally.
The character and identity of our team will be similar.
Yale coach Erica Bamford
Yale will have just one captain in 2025, senior defender Emmy Pascal. She was an honorable mention All-American last season and returns for her final season as one of the top defenders in the country.
Pascal is one of six seniors on the team, a significant shift from the senior-laden roster of a year ago.
“Our senior class is poised to lead and sustain success,” Bamford said. “As our captain, Emmy has been a tremendous leader, and she is strongly supported by her classmates.”
On-field leadership in the midfield and on attack will need to be developed with so many players stepping into starting roles for the first time in their NCAA careers. But with the culture piece in place, those players should feel empowered to take that next step in their games.
With such a large class gone to graduation — and especially given the impact of that class — it’s fair to question what the on-field product will look like in the year following their loss.
Bamford recognized that, offering the acknowledgment that schemes could look a little different in an effort to “maximize individual styles and talents.”
What won’t change, though, is the team’s demeanor.
“The character and identity of our team will be similar,” she said.
Yale scored 13.4 goals per game and allowed 8.8 goals per game last season, ranking in the top in team defense. They were 13th nationally in scoring margin at 4.6 goals per game.
Kenny DeJohn has been the Digital Content Editor at USA Lacrosse since 2019. First introduced to lacrosse in 2016 as a Newsday Sports reporter on Long Island (yes, ON Long Island), DeJohn specializes in women's game coverage. His search for New York quality pizza in Baltimore is ongoing.
