Fall Sports games: where, when and how?

Alyse Graham-Martinez

1:59 am, Sep 13, 2024

Contributing Reporter

Courtesy of Yale Athletics

Students are back on campus, the air is getting cooler and the semester is in full swing. All of which means one thing: it’s fall sports season. 

Yale has five fall sports: men’s and women’s soccer, women’s volleyball, field hockey, men’s and women’s cross country and football. Although golf and tennis are considered spring season sports, they play some matches in the fall, as well.

The game schedule for each team is available on the Yale Athletics website, where tickets can also be purchased. Yale students get one free ticket for all home games. 

The Athletics Office also posts updates on upcoming sports on its Instagram. The office also hopes to use its newsletter “This Week @ Yale” to further inform the community about events and sports at Yale in an effort to get people out to games, according to Boudreau.

To get to the games, students can take the free athletic shuttle, which is also used for club sports. Buses run from Payne Whitney Gymnasium, making two stops at the athletic fields outside the Smilow Field Center and the Lacrosse Field House.

On football game days, the bus begins running at 9 a.m. All home football games kick off at noon at the Yale Bowl.

Field hockey is played at Johnson Field, and the softball team plays at DeWitt Stadium. Women’s volleyball, gymnastics and basketball all compete in the John Jay Lee Amphitheater in Payne Whitney Gymnasium.

The Athletics Office wants to foster attendance at games from students and the greater New Haven community. This weekend, Yale field hockey plays Brown at 1 p.m. on Sunday, and children from two local field hockey clubs will walk out. 

Additionally, Yale Athletics is running giveaways at both the field hockey game and the next volleyball game against Colgate. According to John Judge, the deputy director of athletics, the giveaway prices will include restaurant gift cards, free food and free T-shirts, but are not limited to these. 

On Aug. 31, the University welcomed first years to Yale Athletics at the “Yale Up” event, where students competed for their colleges in basketball and tug-of-war. Mary Boudreau, the assistant athletics director of marketing, described the event as successful and said that the office “wants to take that energy and spread it through the year.”

Inspired by last year’s residential college sports night, the Athletics Office is hosting several college nights where students can “bring college flags and mascots and show not just their Yale pride but their residential college pride as well,” Boudreau said. The first of these is on Oct. 12 at the home football game against Dartmouth. 

Judge hopes to increase the number of students at games because “they are the extra teammate our teams need.” Home field advantages are important, and created by fans and students, he said.  

“It’s great feeling that support from peers — it really motivates me to swim my fastest,” swimmer Delilah Skaistis ’28 told the News. 

Yale football’s home opener is on Oct. 5 versus Central Connecticut College.