Dartmouth women's lacrosse coach Amy Patton has always felt that the first round game of the NCAA tournament is the most difficult to win. With that in mind, her fourth seeded Big Green took to the turf at Scully-Fahey field to take on No. 13 Penn State yesterday afternoon.
The Big Green eased Patton's nerves, however, defeating the Nittany Lions 9-7, with Liz Merritt '01 tallying three goals and an assist and Suzy Gibbons '01 netting a pair of goals for the win.
The Big Green jumped out early in the first as Amy Zimmer '01 scored just two minutes into the game. Gibbons quickly followed suit, netting two goals to build up the Big Green's lead to three goals.
Merritt scored at 15.38 to make it 4-0.
Penn State never crossed the midfield line into Dartmouth territory in the first 15 minutes of the game, but when they finally did, junior Molly Ford got the Lions on the scoreboard at 12.08.
Freshman Katie Jeschke then beat Big Green goalie Sarah Hughes '02 to cut Dartmouth's lead to two. It was Jeschke's 33rd goal of the season.
The Big Green and the Lions traded goals late in the half as Merritt and Jeschke tallied their second goals of the game to bring the score to 5-3. Dartmouth then held the ball for the last shot, controlling it in Penn State's zone.
The control setup featured Zimmer and Whitney Jamison '03 behind the net, Alison Moulin '02 and Merritt on the wings, Gibbons at the point and Lana Smith '04 and Jen Newitt '02 making cuts in front of the net to keep the pressure off the ballhandlers and give targets for scoring passes.
"All you can do [against Dartmouth's control offense] is pray that they make a mistake and then take advantage of it," said Nittany Lion coach Suzanne Weinberg.
Dartmouth had its chances in the last two minutes to score and kill Penn State's momentum going into the half but could not convert.
Moulin opened scoring in the second half as she netted a goal at 27.57 and Merritt added her third of the game at 26.04 to extend Dartmouth's lead back to four goals.
Penn began to chip away at the Big Green's lead, as senior and co-captain B.J. Lucey netted her 16th goal of the season for the Lions and leading scorer Colleen O'Hara scored as well, to make it 7-5.
Patton and the hundreds of fans in the stands got scared a few moments later when O'Hara had an open shot in front of the net. Hughes came up huge with a high stick save to hold the lead.
Dartmouth then got whistled for a foul and Penn State had a free position shot to cut the lead to one. Hughes made a fantastic save, and the ball kicked out of the goal area and into Dartmouth control.
After Hughes' heroics, Dartmouth came charging back and regained the four goal lead, when Merritt took a great lead pass, knifed to the right post of the net and the made a gorgeous slip pass toNewitt who bounced it through the legs of goalie Megan Ames for an 8-5 advantage.
Dartmouth began to play a stalled control game in the last six minutes, and it paid off as Smith tallied her sixteenth goal of season on a wide open goal with Ames trapped behind the net trying to gain control of the ball. Smith was assisted by Moulin on the play.
With under four minutes left in the game, Dartmouth began to play it safe, passing back and forth in front of the Penn State net, when with one minute left Ames intercepted a Dartmouth pass and hurled it down the field.
O'Hara picked it up for Penn and scored with just 29.6 seconds left to make it 9-6. Play continued in front of the Dartmouth net and Lucey netted her second goal of the game with just 2.6 seconds left. However, time ran out for the Blue Lions and they fell to Dartmouth for the second time this season.
"Dartmouth was a very disciplined team and each of them knows their roles," commented Weinberg.
"How poised they are is definitely something Penn State is making a mental note of for next year," she added.
Hughes had an excellent game between the pipes, making six saves and turning back several Penn free position shots. For the Lions, Ames made eight saves and was crucial in keeping Penn State in the game in the first half.
This was the 16th meeting of the two teams and the second of the season. Penn leads the overall series 10-6, but Dartmouth has taken the past three games. The teams last met on April 1, and Dartmouth came away with a 12-11 victory.
Dartmouth will now advance to the second round of the NCAA playoffs and will meet Ivy League rival Princeton this Sunday, May 13, on Scully-Fahey Field at 1:00 p.m. Princeton defeated Cornell 14-4 in the first round of the NCAA tournament yesterday afternoon.
The Big Green played the Tigers in Ivy League action earlier this season in what was expected to be a tight game. Instead, Dartmouth blew Princeton away, 13-5, never relinquishing the lead for the entire game. Princeton finished the season with a 15-10 loss to Georgetown and a 12-4 overall record.
"Princeton is going to be fired up for the game, we are going to be fired up, its going to be a great game," said Hughes. "Last game [against Princeton] surprised us, but also gave us a lot of confidence."
Winners of the four quarterfinal games will advance to the semifinals and finals May 18-20. Finals will be played at Homewood Field, Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Maryland.
"I think discipline is going to win the game for us, as we look to keep moving on. That's what we have been doing well all year," Patton said.
In other tournament news, every favorite won its first round game except for Virginia. The No. 8 Cavaliers were upset by No. 9 James Madison 11-8.
Dartmouth was the only top five seed to win by a single digit margin as Maryland won 23-9 Duke won 17-3 and Georgetown won 20-5 in addition to Princeton's 14-4 win.
North Carolina and Loyola had tighter games at the sixth and seventh slots respectively, but advanced with comfortable wins.