On a day in which Dartmouth selected a Big Ten product as its sixteenth president; the 12th-ranked women's lacrosse team scored a win for the Ivy League as it defeated Big Ten powerhouse and 11th-ranked Penn State 11-9 in a high-noon showdown at Chase Field yesterday.
With their fourth straight victory, the Big Green improve to 4-1 (2-0 Ivy) while the Lady Lions dropped to 5-5 on the season. This is the first time in four years that Dartmouth has overcome Penn State.
The Lady Lions enjoyed an early 1-0 lead as a result of a goal from Jen Johnson two minutes into the contest, but that was the last time the pride from State College had the lead all afternoon.
Dartmouth rebounded with three straight goals, two from leading scorer Jacque Weitzel '00 and another from tri-captain Jen Greene '98.
Weitzel led the Green on the afternoon by scoring on four occasions and assisting on another tally.
Penn State's Julie Tice scored to cut the lead to one, but Emily Fenwick '00 answered back to make the lead two once again.
The Lady Lions drew even when Johnson ripped twine twice in a 52-second span.
But, the Big Green proved to be doubly quick scoring twice in the last 26 seconds of the half to take a 6-4 lead into intermission.
After the lead was trimmed to 7-6 by Penn State, Colleen O' Brien knotted the score at 7 with exactly 10 minutes to play in the game.
The Big Green took control of this game because of their more accurate passing and willingness to give up the ball in order to create better opportunities for teammates, something the Lady Lions failed to do all afternoon.
Weitzel gave the Big Green a short-lived lead as Jill Kaden struck back to even the score just two minutes later.
The Big Green simply had too much offensive firepower late in the game as Melissa Frazier '00 and Julia Morrill '98 scored to extinguish any hopes that the Lady Lions had to claim a road victory.
The Nittany Lions cut the lead to one when Cheryl Videon scored on a beautiful move to the net.
But, Kate Graw '00 provided Dartmouth with an insurance goal that ended the scoring for the afternoon.
Sarah Carlson '99 was strong in net all afternoon as she made 12 saves, while Lauren Retzlaff made nine between the pipes for Penn State.
Fenwick also contributed two goals for the Big Green effort yesterday.
Dartmouth travels to the University of Massachusetts on Wednesday to tangle with the Minutemen before taking on Ivy League rival Cornell in Ithaca.
Penn State represented one of the tougher challenges the Big Green have faced. They will need that experience later on in the season when they face the top three teams in the nation in a week -- Princeton, Duke and North Carolina.
Wednesday's game against the Minutemen begins in Amherst at 4:00 p. m.
