Once they took off, they never looked back. The Big Green women's lacrosse team ruthlessly fired upon Vermont goalies Kate Farnsworth and Brooke Kastelic to earn a decisive 22-10 victory yesterday afternoon at Chase Fields.
"Going into it, I knew that Vermont would be a fairly weak team," Dartmouth Coach Amy Patton said. "We played, for the most part, up to our level."
Co-Captain Lauren Holleran '95 agreed. "It was pretty easy. It wasn't that much of a challenge," she said.
Dartmouth did not give Vermont even a minute before starting the demolition. Kim Mendelson '97 foreshadowed her team's intentions for the day with a quick goal just 46 seconds into the game.
By 10 minutes into the game, Dartmouth had already built a five-goal lead while holding Vermont scoreless. Maura Schneider '96 had a quick sticked goal off a direct pass from co-Captain Mya Mangawang '95 from behind the net.
Wallis Cook '95 and Lauren Holleran '95 also used good teamwork on a give and go play to the net, resulting in a goal by Cook.
In this 10-minute stretch, Holleran and Sarah Devens '96 each also tallied a goal.
At this point, Vermont managed to get within Dartmouth's fan. Sara Vartanian shovelled the ball to Wendy Sheridan who found a way into the Dartmouth net.
But this goal only served to increase Dartmouth's intensity and vigor. Between 12:20 and 13:09, Dartmouth had three more goals. Holleran ran the ball down to outside the 12-meter mark then turned on her speed and used the fast-break to increase Dartmouth's lead.
Jenny Edwards '95 used a flat pass from the right side of the goal to get the ball to Cook who once again scored.
The third goal came from Lauren Demski '96 who avoided several defenders to find her way to the goal.
At 13:48, Vermont's Lucy Wright attempted to break Dartmouth's tremendous momentum with a goal for her team bringing the score to 8-2, still anybody's ball game.
Again, one goal was not enough to even slow up the Dartmouth barrage. At 14:13 into the half, Cook had her third goal of the game. Within the next two minutes, Cook scored once more and Holleran had two, giving Dartmouth a 12-2 advantage over the Catamounts.
The game progressed in a similar manner for the rest of the half with Cook scoring two more goals, Vermont's Kim Van Gaasbeck scoring two, and Serena Black scoring one, giving Dartmouth a nine point lead at the half.
At the beginning of the half, Dartmouth replaced goalie Kirsten Prettyman '95 with Nicole Gercke '98. This was Gercke's first time between the posts for the Big Green.
Vermont started out the half with a goal by Sheridan. Dartmouth followed quickly with goals from Devens, Holleran and Julia Morrill '98.
Dartmouth allowed another Vermont goal at 8:20 into the half from Peg Leder.
Morrill and Cook each tallied second-half goals while Devens added three more.
Prettyman re-entered the game with 12:38 left in the half.
From beginning to end, Dartmouth maintained control of the game. This control showed on the draw controls, of which Dartmouth took 21 to Vermont's 13.
A dozen Dartmouth players had points on the afternoon. "It was nice that a lot of players saw time," Patton said.
The game "went as we expected," Vermont Coach John Carter said. "Dartmouth is playing much better than last year. It was really good for my team to play a team with that level of intensity."
Dartmouth plays next against Brown on Saturday.
"Brown is strong. Their record really isn't indicative of their team," Patton said.
Brown comes in posting a 0-4 Ivy League record, 5-4 overall.
Patton calls the team "young and inconsistent," but said the have a lot of speed.
"If we can come out and play well we should come out with a win," Holleran said. "It's important; it's for a piece of the Ivy title."
The game begins at noon at Chase Fields on Saturday.
