The Dartmouth women's field hockey team closed out its fall campaign with yet another heartbreaking loss, 1-0, at Harvard. The game really epitomized the season for the Big Green, as they just could not get on track and get any momentum going to sustain a stretch of victories or pull it together late in games to win the close ones.
Early on, both sides battled for ball control to get their offense going. The Big Green's best shot at the cage came with 5:14 remaining in the half. It actually appeared that Kelly Hannigan '97, had scored on a penalty corner from Amy Yost '97, but the goal was disallowed when it was ruled the ball was not stopped when Hannigan struck it. This unfortunate break left the scored knotted at 0-0 going into the second half.
Harvard got all the scoring they needed with 8:36 remaining in the game when Daphne Clark beat Dartmouth's goalkeeper Kendra Kosko '99 for the 1-0 lead.
There were not many good opportunities for either side throughout the game, as evidenced by the goalies low save totals, 6-5 in Harvard's Anya Cowan's favor.
The win moved nationally ranked Harvard to 9-6, and ended the Big Green's season with a three-game losing streak and an 8-9 overall record.
Dartmouth is a relatively young squad with a lot of talent in the '99 and '00 classes, and the Big Green should look forward to more success next fall.
"Overall, I think we were successful in the standpoint that we know now we can play well together," Lauren Scopaz '00 said. "We had some lack of experience, but I think this season was a good learning experience. We've been through some tough losses, but I think we learned from that."
Had they been able to be on the other side of even half of their close losses, they may have been headed to post-season play, but the chips just did not fall their way.
"I think we really came together as a team, especially toward the end of the season," Scopaz said. "It's unfortunate how we didn't get a lot of the wins that we should have."
"We lost six games by one goal," she added. "I think that shows how strong we were, even though our overall record may not show that."
The bright spots for the Green were big wins over Penn and Yale and playing national powerhouses the University of Massachusetts and Maine very closely.
Individually, Scopaz had a sensational rookie campaign, leading the team in scoring with 28 points, and goal keeper Kosko, who came into the season with virtually no varsity experience, ended yielding only 1.87 goals per game.
The Big Green recognize that with hard off season training, next year has much promise.
"Basically we have to continue to work hard as we have been," Scopaz said. "We need to keep learning from each other and pushing each other to show next year through our record how well we can play together."
