In what may prove to be the craziest, hard-hitting, and downright woolliest game this season, the women's soccer team outlasted the Bears from Brown yesterday by a score of 1-0 in Providence.
The Big Green struck hard and fast as co-Captain Kate Andrews '96 punched a header past the Brown keeper in the opening minute. Jenna Kurowski '97 tallied the assist with a perfectly aimed corner kick in front of the goal.
From then on, it was just a matter of staying on top and playing tough defense to foil Brown's renowned screw-the-passing-game-just-go-for-the-breakaway strategy.
But all this was easier said than done.
True to their mascot's character, the Bears played a very physical game -- as in, they liked to play the body instead of the ball.
Of course, the fact that the referees only called six fouls on the home team and an incredible 26 on the team in green, didn't help the Dartmouth cause either.
But in the end, good old perseverance and gutsiness did.
"[The Bears] weren't really that threatening," co-Captain Holly Thomas '97 said. "After we scored, the game shaped up into a midfield game and we just made some adjustments along the way."
"We didn't play our game, but we held onto what we could," Thomas added. "Brown looked for longballs and so for the rest of the game, we just battled back and forth with longballs."
Frustrations mounted in the second half as Dartmouth was penalized with a red card. The next 10 minutes turned out to be trying times for the Big Green as they played down one player.
But even with the odds in their favor, the Bears could do no damage as sophomore goalie Carrie Bourdon had a stellar 90 minutes in front of the Dartmouth net. Bourdon's five saves in yesterday's game upped her save percentage to .818 on the season.
In the closing minutes, the Brown squad stirred some worries on the Dartmouth bench as they launched a last-second scoring drive down the middle. The Big Green defense held its ground to end the rush and get the clear as the game clock hit zero.
For all the scrapes, cuts, and bruises that the women's soccer team had to put up with this weekend, a 1-0 win was a good one. And in the big scheme of things, Sunday's game was probably good medicine for a team that's heading into their toughest match of the season on Saturday against the University of Connecticut.
The Big Green are now 6-1 for the season, 3-0 Ivy, and riding a five game hot-streak.
