In its tune-up for its season finale against top-ranked Maryland, the women's lacrosse team continued to hammer non-league opponents from neighboring states as the Big Green stormed over Vermont 16-8 Wednesday afternoon in Burlington. The Big Green will now take their 9-5 record to College Park on Sunday to face the Terrapins.
As in the previous game against the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth jumped out to an early lead in the first half to put away the Catamounts. Behind another first half outburst from attacker Kim Mendelson '97, the Big Green built an 8-3 lead.
The offensive rhythm continued in the second half, as the Big Green was able to freely substitute and still increase their five-goal halftime lead. Vermont managed to add five goals, but Dartmouth's advantage was never in doubt as the Big Green cruised to a 16-8 victory.
Mendelson paced the Big Green with five goals, continuing her late season outburst. She has scored 26 goals in the last five games, and now leads the team with 35 tallies on the season. Three other Big Green players, Dune Thorne '98, Kristin Lucas '99 and Samantha Sparks '96, each found the net twice as eight players scored for Dartmouth.
Jennifer Greene '98 dished out four assists to tie the Dartmouth season assist record at 20 that was set by last year's offensive Player of the Year Lauren Holleran '95.
"We came out strong and took it to them as a team, but then we suffered a little bit of a lapse," defender and co-Captain Lauren Demski '96 said. "But we really played together for the last 15 minutes of the game and put them away."
On a disappointing note, Wednesday's game was the final game of the year for freshman Weze Shorts '99, who broke her nose during warm-ups in front of the Dartmouth goal. Shorts, a midfielder from Massachusetts, has been a starter for most of the season.
However, Dartmouth's two game win streak is small in comparison to Maryland, last year's defending national champion, which brings a 33-game win streak into Sunday's contest. Maryland was able to put away Princeton, a team who handed the Big Green their worst lost of the season, very handily on Tuesday, beating the Tigers 14-7. A win would give Dartmouth a double digit win season for the second straight year.
"To beat Maryland we are going to have to play the game of our lives," Demski said. "The things we need to do are play really aggressive defense and attack them in the midfield, and then make good passes and get the offense going like we've been able to do the last few games, basically come together as a team and do everything right. This is Moe [Maura Schneider '96], Sammie [Sparks] and my last game, and it would be an incredible feeling to go out beating Maryland."
