Yale University hoops player Kiley Capstraw earns fourth Ivy League weekly honor

WEST ORANGE, NJ — First-year guard Kiley Capstraw, a West Orange High School graduate who shot .500 while totaling 20 points and nine rebounds as the Yale University women’s basketball team earned two Ivy League road wins last weekend, has been named Ivy League Rookie of the Week. The league announced the award on Monday, Jan. 9.

This is the fourth time this season Capstraw has earned the award; all of those selections have come in the last five weeks.

In Yale’s 57-47 win at Dartmouth on Friday, Jan. 6, Capstraw scored 11 points, second on the team, while hitting five of her 10 shots. She also had seven rebounds, one away from her season high. In the Bulldogs’ 71-70 overtime win at Harvard on Saturday, Jan. 7, she had 9 points, including a critical 3-pointer in overtime. She finished the Harvard game with zero turnovers, the second time this season she has played 29 or more turnover-free minutes in a game.

Capstraw is Yale’s leading scorer and is 12th in the league, averaging 11.6 points per game. She leads all Ivy League first years in scoring and is the only first year in the league who is leading her team in scoring. She and Brown’s Grace Arnolie are the only players who have earned more than one Ivy League Rookie of the Week honor this season. Arnolie has won the award twice.

The Yale record for Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors in a season is six, held by four players: Katy Grubbs, Class of 1999, in 1996; Melissa Colborne, Class of 2010, in 2007; Sarah Halejian, Class of 2015, in 2012; and Camilla Emsbo, Class of 2023, in 2019.

The Ivy League record is 10, held by three players.

At WOHS, Capstraw led her team to its first Essex County Championship, in 2019, and was a member of the National Honor Society. Yale, 8-8 overall and 2-1 in league play, hosts Cornell on Saturday, Jan. 14, at 3 p.m.