The women's soccer team sent a loud and clear message that the sport can be high scoring as they racked up 16 goals en route to two resounding victories this past weekend.
Even without the on-field leadership of Captain Michelle Conroy '95 and the quickness of injured all-American Melissa McBean '97, the Big Green still showed extreme poise and confidence as they boosted their overall record to 4-1 and 1-0 in the Ivy League.
In a league match Saturday, Dartmouth outshot the University of Pennsylvania 34-0 on the way to a decisive 8-0 victory. Cindy Goodwin '97 tallied her second goal as the first half ended to give the Big Green a 6-0 half-time lead.
"I think it's great that we're finally scoring," Goodwin said. "We've really improved on moving the ball quickly and passing the ball around, but we have to stay humble and keep working hard."
A let down, though, was nowhere in sight Sunday when the Big Green scored a second straight shutout, this time defeating the University of Maine 8-0. Dartmouth was able to get off 45 shots while holding Maine to two.
"The games weren't the greatest test of us," Mya Mangawang '95 said," but they did test our discipline and our ability to get our intensity up and keep it at a high level."
On a soggy field Sunday, Dartmouth was able to get strong support from the bench, including three goals from first-year player Betsy Dobbin '97.
"Many of our younger players have come from a long distance and the transition is more difficult," Coach Steve Swanson said. "We need to get their confidence going, but the team has been good integrating them in."
"It's good to get everyone out playing," Kate Andrews '96 said. "After the games against [the University of New Hampshire and the University of Connecticut], we knew we had to start moving the ball more quickly and getting more accurate shots off."
After returning from a pre-season in Europe where the team was put on the defensive by tough competition, Swanson said he was glad to see the Big Green make an offensive transition.
"In Europe our mind-set was all defensive," Swanson said. "It was nice to get to go on the other side and really be aggressive and do some things offensively. We have gotten better since we've gotten back from Europe. We are definitely getting better at pressuring offensively."
This weekend, the Big Green showcased the needed consistency and quickness to become a dominant offensive team.
"We wanted to come out stronger in the first 10 minutes because we had been flat at the beginning, and we were able to do that," Andrews said. "We need to focus on playing hard for the full 90 minutes because if we come out and play hard we can play with anyone."
The players won't have long to enjoy their victories as they must now prepare for a Wednesday face-off at the University of Vermont.
"They are a pretty physical team," Mangawang said. "Hopefully we didn't get into any bad habits this weekend, but we're a mentally tough team, and we should get into the game right away."
