After coming up one game short of the national championship, one would not expect the Dartmouth women's lacrosse team to be concerned with building experience. But that is about all they will be able to do against the United States Women's National Team this Saturday at Boston University. The National team is a collection of the most talented women lacrosse players in the United States.
"We'll be able to see new stuff that we can do," Weze Shorts '99 said. "We're not too far behind talent wise, but they're just so experienced."
"We'll be able to experiment with new things and take risks. We'll have to be really focused -- I know that if I'm one inch out of position, they will take advantage of it," goalkeeper Sarah Carlson '99 said.
Dartmouth will be missing all of the '00s (five girls) as well as Gretchen Bell '01, so the game will provide a valuable opportunity for the '02s to get acclimated to the team's playing style, especially against top notch competition. Dartmouth hopes to take advantage of its youthful legs by running the ball to create fast break scoring opportunities. It will be difficult, however, to pry the ball from the sticks of the potent National team offense.
The National team defeated Dartmouth 16-4 in their last encounter two years ago in Maryland. The U.S. squad is the three-time defending champion of the quadrennial World Cup, which they last won in Japan in 1997. Each of the girls on the team has graduated from college, mostly from Maryland and Virginia, and now devotes a good portion of their lives to lacrosse a far cry from the scattered lives of the student-athlete at Dartmouth.
The game is part of a tripleheader to kick off the beginning of the women's lacrosse program at Boston University, which will begin its first season this coming spring.
Dartmouth has one tie to the national team. Former Big Green standout Lauren Holleran '95 played for the national team but was not a member of the squad that captured the World Cup in 1997.
While a win is most likely out of the question, Saturday's game will give the team a chance to forget about their loss in the NCAA semi-finals to Virginia. Most of all, this exhibition will allow the Big Green to have fun testing themselves against the best in the world.
