The women's lacrosse team notched an important 10-7 Ivy League victory over the University of Pennsylvania Saturday.
The team, however, was unable to rally from a slow start yesterday against third-ranked Penn State and fell to the Nittany Lions 9-5 on a cold, snowy afternoon in Hanover.
The important victory over Penn gave the Big Green their first win in Ivy League play, raising their record to 1-1. The weekend split gave the Big Green an overall record of 5-3, with all three losses coming to opponents who were ranked in the top five spots of the Brine/IWLCA poll at the time of the game.
Against Penn, the Big Green, after trailing for most of the first half, broke a 4-4 halftime tie with goals from Julia Morrill '98 and Catherine Passano '98 in the first two minutes of the second half.
A quick Quaker goal did little to stop the Big Green surge, as Morrill added two more of her four goals on the afternoon, while a goal by attacker Maura Schneider '96 extended the Big Green's lead to 9-5.
With the Big Green leading 9-7, Weze Shorts '99 tallied the final goal of the afternoon on a free-position with just over 17 minutes remaining in the contest, securing the victory and allowing the Big Green to hand the Quakers their first league loss in three games.
"We played our hearts out against them and stepped it up, controlling all the draws," Shorts said. "We wanted to win that game to get our first Ivy league win which was important to us."
Although it played with Penn State, a fellow NCAA semifinalist last year, for most of the contest, Dartmouth could not overcome from a lackadaisical start that allowed for the Nittany Lions to take a 5-0 lead before the Big Green could respond.
After allowing an early goal, Dartmouth fiercely held off a Nittany Lion offensive as the defense and goalkeeper Sarah Carlson '99 continuously frustrated scoring efforts.
After holding the ball for nearly two and a half minutes, however, Penn State's Tam Crowe converted on a free-position goal to give Penn State a 2-0 lead, demoralizing the Big Green as they then proceeded to give up three more goals in the next 10 minutes.
"I think we were nervous coming into the game and held on to our sticks too tightly," Allison Wiener '99 said. "We weren't making connections and we were poor in our basic passing and throwing. It seemed as if we were beating ourselves rather than Penn State was beating us."
Dartmouth finally came to life at the end of the first half after Coach Amy Patton pulled the first line off of the field to discuss strategy. The fresh legs brought new life to the team and were the answer to the quickness of the Penn State attack.
The Big Green responded to the deficit, as junior attacker Sarah Drake drilled a shot past the Nittany Lion goalkeeper to put Dartmouth on the scoreboard with five minutes remaining in the half.
The Big Green seized the momentum off of the goal, forcing a turnover at midfield. After a penalty was called deep in the Penn State zone, Jennifer Greene '98 found an open Marisa Bassett '97 whose goal suddenly closed the Penn State lead to three goals at halftime.
"The bench added an important spark and was important because I think there were a lot of tired legs from yesterday's game," Wiener said. "They went in and played hard, found the passing lanes and got two very important goals."
However, Penn State was not about to let the Big Green get any closer, as their leading scorer Michelle DeJulis scored backtoback goals to increase the Nittany Lion lead to 8-2 before Morrill's free-position goal brought the Big Green back within five goals with 12 minutes left.
Dartmouth dominated the end of the game after a questionable illegal checking call at midfield resulted in a Nittany Lion goal.
The Big Green rally, initiated by two Kelly Hannigan '97 goals before the two minute mark to make the score 9-5, fell short as they could not convert any further opportunities in the final minutes.
"Our team played hard until the end and kept focus on the Penn State goalkeeper and trying to score. We finally stepped it up and put the fire on, but it was just too late," Wiener said.
The Big Green's next contest is Wednesday when they travel to the University of Massachusetts.
