The streak could not last forever.
The Dartmouth women's lacrosse team, ranked number two in the country, ended its five-game winning streak and perfect season yesterday, losing 9-7 at Pennsylvania State one day after trampling the University of Pennsylvania, 14-4, on Saturday.
Penn State, ranked eighth heading into the game, came out on top with a 9-7 defeat of Dartmouth.
On Saturday, Dartmouth traveled to face Ivy-League rival Penns. Dartmouth took off from the start, pulling itself up to a 8-1 lead after the first half.
The team continued to cruise past the Penn defense, outscoring them 6-3 in the second half, and bringing the final score to 14-4.
Midfielder Kim Mendelson '97 led the team in scoring with five goals and one assist for a total of six points. She was followed closely by senior co-Captains Lauren Holleran '95 and Mya Mangawang '95 who had four and three points respectively.
Holleran came out with four goals while Mangawang had three assists.
Goals also went to attack Wallis Cook '95 who had two and attack Carrie Freeman '96, defenseman Jenny Edwards '95, and defenseman Samantha Sparks '96, who each added one.
Attack Sarah Devens '96 and Julia Morrill '98 each had two assists and defenseman Andrea Krumholz '97 had one.
Dartmouth dominated throughout the game. Dartmouth posted 32 shots to Penn's 10. The Big Green also controlled the draws coming up with 13 of 20 draws.
The biggest difference in this game was the ground balls. Dartmouth snagged 54 of the loose balls to Penn's 14, a difference of 40 balls. In a game like women's lacrosse, where possession is such a huge factor, it is nearly impossible to win after being beat that badly on the ground balls.
Kirsten Prettyman '95 had another good game between the posts. She finished up with a 67 save percentage for the game, saving six of the 10 shots fired at her.
Yesterday the Big Green moved on to its next opponent, eighth ranked Penn State.
By the second half, Dartmouth was up by one, 7-6 after a goal scored by Devens.
Penn State was quick to retaliate, however. With 11:50 left on the clock, Penn State found a way into the net to tie up the game. It did not let up, putting in another just 19 seconds later.
Penn State tightened up its defense and went into a stall on offense from then on out, barring Dartmouth from the goal and sealing the victory.
Devens and Cook each had two goals and one assist. Prettyman saved 16 shots.
The loss was a shock to the Big Green, who defeated the formerly top-ranked Princeton Tigers at home last Saturday.
But the loss could have come at a worse time.
"Losing to Penn State was no fun," Holleran said. "But if we had to lose a game to receive a wake up call, this was the one. They are a good team, they aren't an Ivy and it's early enough in our season to be able to learn a good lesson from it. Hopefully this will be the start of a winning streak."
Dartmouth ended the weekend with a 5-1 record overall, 2-0 in the Ivy League. The team hosts the University of Massachusetts this Wednesday on Chase Field at 4:00.
