Princeton jumped out to an early three-goal lead and never looked back in Saturday's NCAA women's semifinal lacrosse game, resulting in a disappointing loss for Dartmouth and an end to the Big Green's national championship hopes.
Number three ranked and defending national champion Princeton led number two ranked Dartmouth throughout the game to come out with a 13-8 win and a berth in the finals.
The victory avenged Dartmouth's 10-9 win over Princeton April 1 in Hanover. "When we played Dartmouth earlier this year, I think it was the poorest we've played all year. I was happy to see us come back today and play one of our best games," Princeton Coach Chris Sailer said.
This marks the third straight year that Princeton has made the national championship game. It was the first year that Dartmouth has made it to the semifinals.
Maryland also made it to the final round after beating Penn State 12-7 on Saturday in the semifinals.
Maryland and Princeton played yesterday in the final game in a rematch of last year's final when Princeton wound up on top. This year, however, top-seeded Maryland defeated Princeton 13-5 to win the national championship.
The tables were turned on Dartmouth early on when Princeton took a quick three-goal lead.
In previous games this season, Dartmouth has been the team to take the early lead as Dartmouth has outscored its opponents 99-41 in first halves this season.
Princeton was the team to jump out on Saturday, however. Only 4:36 into the game, Abigail Gutstein took a pass from Cristi Samaras and fired on Dartmouth goalie Kirstin Prettyman '95 to score.
"It took us a while to get started," Dartmouth Coach Amy Patton said. "We got nervous after the first goal and then, when we got our opportunities, we did not put the ball in the cage."
Gutstein, goal-hungry, was back at the Dartmouth goal one minute later, scoring unassisted and bringing the score up to 2-0.
Three minutes later, Princeton's Amory Rowe picked up the scoring fever then and, fed from behind the net by Lexa Castiello, dropped one into Dartmouth's net.
"I have to give a lot of credit to Princeton. They came out to play and put us in a hole early," Patton said.
"Getting out to a 3-0 lead was very important, and building on top of that was what let us win the game. Our poise and our familiarity with getting to the Final Four helped us," Sailer said.
Dartmouth seemed to sense the urgency in the game at that point. From then on out, Dartmouth stayed right with Princeton but was not able to dig itself out of the deficit.
Maura Schneider '96, back for the first time since May 2 when she went down with a knee injury against the University of New Hampshire, and Julia Morrill '98 teamed up for Dartmouth's opening goal. Morrill took a pass from Schneider and fired on Princeton goalie Erin O'Neill just more than 19 minutes into the game.
Sarah Devens '96 closed the gap further three minutes later, rolling the crease and scoring to the upper right.
For the next minute and 20 seconds, it was Princeton's game again. Samaras took two goals, one on a free position and one from Rowe, in just more than a minute. She was followed by Rowe, who scored unassisted. This Princeton surge increased the Tiger's lead to 6-2.
A Dartmouth timeout after Rowe's goal with 6:14 left in the first half, settled the team enough to allow co-Captain Lauren Holleran '95 to let one fly just eight seconds after resuming play, bringing the score to 6-3 for Princeton. The two teams held each other in check for the next six minutes to leave the score at 6-3 at halftime.
Holleran came out after halftime again inspired by Patton's words. She scored on a backhand shot at 2:21 in the second half, closing the gap to two points again.
Again, Princeton answered with a triplet of goals. J.J. Lonsinger came first one minute after Holleran's goal, followed by two free position goals, one each by Rowe and Casey Coleman. These goals brought the Tiger lead to 9-4.
For the next 16 minutes, the Big Green and the Tigers played a game of tag. For each Dartmouth goal there was a Princeton goal and for each Princeton goal there was a Dartmouth goal.
Wallis Cook '95 began with a goal assisted by Devens. Samaras followed on a free position. Cook answered that goal with one for Dartmouth. The last two goals in the series came from Princeton's Lisa Rebane, assisted by Samaras, and Holleran, who collected a hat trick off a pass from Devens.
Devens broke the pattern with 7:38 to play, and brought the score to a three point difference of 11-8.
Remembering a game two seasons previous when Princeton was able to score two goals within nine seconds to come away with a win in overtime, both teams realized this was still anybody's game.
Princeton denied Dartmouth any more goals and was able to score two itself in the remaining seven and a half minutes.
Rebane had both of these goals. The first was on an empty net, after a foul by Prettyman gave Rebane a free position and put Prettyman behind her. The second goal also came on a free position.
"I was a little surprised by some of their scorers. We think that their main offensive weapons are Amory [Rowe], Cristi [Samaras], Lisa [Rebane] and Abigail [Gutstein]. But they got some of their defenders involved today and that made a difference," Patton said.
"Our whole defense really picked up. Every person was working so hard," O'Neill said. "The key today was that we went on an early run, which is something we've never really done. This time we got them down early and got on them mentally."
Dartmouth finished the season 12-3.
