Dec. 21, 2007

The 2007 Yale volleyball season featured easily the most challenging schedule in program history. The Bulldogs took on six teams that reached the NCAA Tournament, including three that ended the year in the top 10. A total of 13 All-Americans took the floor against a Yale team that finished 16-10 in 2007.

The Bulldogs opened the season in impressive fashion--sweeping three matches at the Yale Invitational. Yale posted 3-0 victories over Rhode Island, Sacred Heart and Maine en route to the tournament championship. The following weekend, the Bulldogs hosted the annual Yale Volleyball Classic, where perennial powers Penn State and Stanford were in the field, along with Delaware State. Stanford defeated Penn State in five games to win the tournament championship. The Nittany Lions, though, got their revenge three months later when the two met for the National Championship, winning in five.

Yale's first road trip of the year was a quick one to Long Island. The Bulldogs knocked off Binghamton and Towson before falling to host Long Island, another team that qualified for the NCAA Tournament, in the final match of the tournament.

After defeating Brown 3-0 to open the Ivy League slate, Yale hit the road for four straight. The Bulldogs suffered a 3-0 setback at Dartmouth before rebounding to beat Harvard. Yale was tripped up again at Princeton, then knocked off Penn to improve to 3-2.

The Bulldogs knew another loss would all but eliminate them from the Ivy race. They responded with home victories over Cornell, Columbia and Harvard, then came back from a 2-1 deficit to beat Dartmouth in five games. The team won its sixth straight at Columbia, but fell at Cornell in another five-gamer. After beating Penn, Yale ended its home season with a 3-1 loss to Ivy champion Princeton. Yale beat Brown to finish 10-4 in conference play, its fourth straight season with 10 Ivy wins. The Bulldogs finished in second place behind Princeton, the first team in Ivy League history to go 14-0.

Yale concluded the campaign with three matches in Long Beach, Calif., at the Baden Thanksgiving Classic. After falling to host Long Beach State, the Bulldogs took a game off a Florida team that was ranked No. 8 in the final national poll. Yale ended the season with a five-game loss to UC Santa Barbara.

Four Bulldogs earned All-Ivy selections. Alexis Crusey was named First Team All-Ivy for the second straight season. She finished among the top 10 in the conference in both kills (fourth, 4.05) and digs (ninth, 3.93). Kelly Ozurovich set a Yale freshman record with 449 digs, the second-highest single-season total in school history. She earned a place on the All-Ivy second team, as did Ally Mendenhall. Mendenhall distributed 1,087 assists and was named Ivy Player of the Week after finishing one kill shy of a triple-double in the win over Dartmouth. Senior Kali Nelson capped her career with an honorable mention All-Ivy nod.