Good news rang for the women's soccer team last night, as the Big Green accepted a bid into the annual NCAA Championships to begin this weekend.
Dartmouth will play the University of Connecticut in Connecticut sometime this weekend. The two teams still have to decide on a mutual day and time.
Dartmouth ended its season Saturday with a convincing 2-0 win over Columbia, leaving the Big green at 12-3-1 overall and 6-1 in the Ivy League.
Harvard, this year's Ivy League champions, received an automatic bid into the 32-team tournament and will also play this weekend.
When the Big Green travel to UConn, they will be seeking revenge against a team that overpowered them 5-1 in mid October. In all other games this season, Dartmouth has not given up more than two goals, so the large deficit against UConn was disappointing to say the least.
"It's [the earlier loss] is not indicative of what to expect this weekend," Megan Owens '96 said. "I think we will come out as a completely different team than what they saw before."
In the earlier loss, Dartmouth had three own goals in a game that definitely did not display what the Big Green defense has proven all season to be about. In fact, in the other 15 games Dartmouth has played, it has allowed only nine goals.
"We just have to make sure our defense is on par or they will pound us like they did before," Owens said. "I think we have to defensively keep them in front of us, and we can't let them get easy shots."
On the other side of the field, Dartmouth will look to Jenna Kurowski '97 and Melissa McBean '97 to get the momentum started. McBean has had 15 points in the last nine games, while Kurowski ranks fifth in the Ivy League in overall scoring with 14 goals and 33 total points.
But all the season stats and previous meetings will be placed aside when the weekend hits. Both teams will enter the game with clean slates and only one idea in mind -- to make it to the round of 16.