Brenna McDonald

Ivy women’s basketball Media Day highlights

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As the 2024-25 season quickly approaches, the Ivy League hosted its annual women’s basketball Media Day on Thursday. The three-hour event, hosted by Lance Medow, can be viewed on the conference’s YouTube channel.

Prior to the event, the league announced the results of its preseason poll.

Princeton, which has claimed the Ancient Eight title for the last six years, was picked first with 122 out of a possible 128 points and 10 first-place votes.  Columbia, which has tied for the top spot in each of the last two seasons, came in second with 110 points and five first-place votes.

Harvard, which has finished the last two years in third placed, was tabbed for third in 2025, earning 101 points and one first-place spot. 

Penn, the final participant in last year’s Ivy tournament, was picked fourth with 75 votes, while Brown, which finished last year tied with Penn for fourth, was four points back in fifth place.

Sixth place went to Yale, which was as high as third place in 2022, with 48 votes. 

While Cornell and Dartmouth ended last season tied for seventh place, the Big Red got the nod for seventh in this year’s poll with 30 points and the Big Green were eighth with 19 points.  

Below are highlights from this year’s virtual Media Day:

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Yale women’s basketball looks to move up in Ivy pecking order

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The Yale women finished last season at 8-19 and 5-9 in the Ivy League. Gone from last year are leading scorer and assist leader Jenna Clark, leading rebounder Nyla McGill and third-leading scorer Brenna McDonald. Good news or bad news?

Well, Ivy media has pegged Yale as a sixth-place finisher.

Yale third-year coach Dalila Eshe says her team will have improved “culture” and be “incredibly athletic, running a high-octane offense.” She defines culture as “buying into the program and [being] like-minded.”

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Penn women’s basketball tops Yale, 66-52

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There was no mystery about the Penn women’s basketball mission this weekend: Travel to New England and beat their two rivals for the last spot in Ivy Madness. And they accomplished half of that mission Friday night in New Haven, never trailing in a convincing victory over Yale, 66-52.

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Yale women’s basketball puts it all together in 72-48 win over Quinnipiac

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The Yale women’s basketball team returned five players who scored 10 or more points in a game last season, along with its top four scorers and rebounders. There was reason for optimism coming off of a 13-14 season which included 7-7 in Ivy play.

But the Bulldogs have opened up the season 3-10.

Even so, Yale’s on a one-game winning streak after finally putting together 40 minutes of solid basketball Saturday at John J. Lee Amphitheater with a 72-48 wire-to-wire win over in-state rival Quinnipiac.

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Yale women’s basketball falls at Stony Brook, 81-66

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In a contest featuring two of the nation’s top point guards, Yale’s Jenna Clark bested Stony Brook’s Gigi Gonzalez on the stat sheet, but the Bulldogs came out on the losing end to the Seawolves in a Wednesday matinee at Long Island’s Island Federal Credit Union Arena.

The senior from Pittsburgh finished the day with 26 points, five rebounds, five assists and two steals for Yale, while Gonzalez totaled 19 points, five rebounds, two assists and one steal.

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Ivy women’s week nine roundup: Ancient Eight’s Top 10

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The conference’s next-to-last weekend began on Friday night with a nationally televised game between Princeton and Harvard, two of the four teams headed to the Ivy Tournament.  The last time they met in January, the Crimson came away with a 67-59 victory, ending the Tigers’ 42-game Ivy League win streak.

Playing in front of more than 1,700 fans at Jadwin Gymnasium, Harvard took a 14-12 lead after the first quarter.  The visitors used a late 13-2 run to open up a 12-point lead before Princeton cut it to 10, 30-20, at the half.

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Ivy hoops roundup – May 11, 2020

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Yale women’s incoming class announced

Yale women’s basketball announced its three-member Class of 2024 Monday. The class consists of:

  • Brenna McDonald, a 6-foot-2 forward from Natick, Mass. who was named to the Boston Globe Dream Team her senior year
  • Haley Sabol, a 6-foot-2 forward from Pittsburgh who was a first-team all-state selection her junior and senior years for Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va.
  • Elles van der Maas, a 6-foot-2 guard from Sydney who made the 2018 All-Australian team

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