The women's soccer team had some fun this weekend. And why not? The Big Green were on top of their game; they had their opponents in their back pockets the whole time; and it was just a gorgeous two days to be kicking the ball around.
On Saturday, the Big Green cruised past a sputtering Cornell squad with a 4-1 victory over the basement-bound Big Red.
The lopsided score was predictable right from the start as the Big Green jumped to an early two-goal lead in the first 17 minutes of play.
With 14 minutes down, senior forward Melissa McBean drove the ball down the middle and fed it to Christina Hallenbeck '97 in the box. Hallenbeck took the pass on one bounce and chipped it high and over the Cornell keeper to put Dartmouth up by one.
Three minutes later, Hallenbeck was again in on the play with a long cross from the right side to senior midfielder, co-Captain Kate Andrews '96. Andrews handled with a one-touch pass to the left and Jenna Kurowski '97 charged from the 18 to rifle a booming shot high to the left corner.
Kurowski's injury and subsequent exit from the game following the play was a sad spoiler to a well-sequenced attack by the Big Green. Kurowski got some rest on the bench for Sunday's game and is expected to return for the next game on Saturday.
For the rest of the half, oooohs and ahhhhs filled the stands as Dartmouth continued to put pressure on the Cornell defense. On three consecutive attacks, Hallenbeck sent right-side crosses high and into the box as Betsy Dobbin '97 rushed in for the header. And each time, the ball sailed just inches right, inches left, or inches high of the net.
With 3:43 remaining in the half, Cornell forward Ashton Chen managed to score on a fluky one-on-one breakaway following an aggressive corner kick play by the Big Green which pushed their defense up front into the scoring zone.
In the second half, Sue Eastman '99 restored the two goal lead for Dartmouth with a diving header off a corner kick from Andrews off the right side.
Several plays later, Cornell threatened the Dartmouth lead once more with another one-on-one breakaway by Chen. Annie Eckstein '98 came out to cut off the angle and punched the ball high and away on a dramatic lunge-save.
With 18 minutes to go, the Big Green tallied its final goal off a Megan Owens '97 penalty kick from just outside the 18 that sailed over the Cornell wall and drifted left into the upper corner.
The flow of Saturday's game drew heated frustrations among those wearing the red jerseys.
As one Cornell player shouted to her teammates during a throw-in, "come on guys ... don't just stand around ... move."
Cornell's coach got into the action, also, shouting at his players, "don't run away from the ball."
Saturday's game was a chance for the Big Green to show the world why they're ranked among the nation's best. They did that, and then some.
On Sunday, in their match against the University of Rhode Island, the Big Green did more of their "show-and-tell" with an easy 3-0 shutout.
How easy was it? Considering Dartmouth outshot the Hens 27-0, Big Green goalie Annie Eckstein '98 could have just sat in the net playing tiddly winks the whole game and URI still wouldn't have scored.
And that's where the Big Green has been successful all along -- scoring the goals.
Ten minutes into the contest, Melissa Roth '00 tallied the Big Green's first goal off a cross from senior Camille Powell.
Cindy Goodwin '97 upped the lead to two with 17 minutes to go in the half as she punched in a follow-up goal after sophomore April Rasala's shot rebounded off the post.
In the second half, Melissa McBean '97 knocked in the gamewinner following a direct kick by Megan Owens '96 which deflected and rolled back out.
"This weekend was a good warm-up for us," Andrews said. "It was great to past Cornell on Saturday, and then for Sunday's game we just kind of ran through the motions and fortunately those motions were enough to win."
"We were all pretty happy about how things went this weekend," Owens said. "We scored seven goals and we had a nice variety of goalscorers too. I think our wins this past weekend will serve as confidence builders for the rest of our games this season."
With their victories over Cornell and the University of Rhode Island, the Big Green upped its record to 11-2 and remained undefeated in Ivy League play with a perfect 5-0 record. Their next match, against Harvard on Saturday, promises to be a hotly-contested showdown between the league's top two teams.
