The No. 4 Dartmouth women's lacrosse team will take on the No.13 Penn State Nittany Lions at 4:00 p.m. this afternoon at Scully-Fahey Field in a rematch of one of the season's most hotly contested matchups.
"They're [Penn State] a good team who played us tight in the regular season and will make it a challenging first round game for us," Whitney Jamison '03 said.
The Nittany Lions are led by new coach Suzanne Weinberg and the team returned eight starters this season, including co-captains B.J. Lucey and Megan Ames. Ames, a senior goalkeeper, started every game for the Lions in 2000, and Lucey had 27 goals last year. The Lions went 8-9 last season, and finished 8-9 this season as well, ending the season with two wins against Lafayette and Ohio State.
The Nittany Lions have an overall record of 13-12 in the NCAA Tournament, having taken the title in 1987 and 1989. Penn State has also notched two runner-up finishes and five third-place finishes.
Penn State has a 10-5 all-time record versus the Big Green, having lost the last match up on April 1, as Dartmouth came away with a 12-11 victory. Suzy Gibbons '01 had a game-high six points (three goals, three assists) and Alison Moulin '02 had three goals to lead the Big Green.
Penn State came to life late in the game, but second half hat tricks from Alison DeCecco and Katie Jeschke were not enough to overcome the Dartmouth advantage.
"They are a stronger team than their record reflects, so we need to be focused on this first round," Katy Cuneo '02 said. "When we beat them three weeks ago we were a different team and we had a rough time in the second half. We've come a long way since then."
The Big Green went 12-3 this season, 6-1 Ivy, and shares the Ivy League title with Princeton. The Big Green also took the title in 1995, 1998, and 1999. Dartmouth was riding high this season on a 10 game winning streak that was snapped by two heart breaking losses to 2nd ranked Duke and top seed Maryland, losing by a goal in each game.
The number four ranking is the highest for the Big Green since the 1998 season and this is the Big Green's fourth straight trip to the NCAA tournament. In 1998 and 1999, the team advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, and last season, though once ranked No. 2 in the nation and having a 10-game winning streak, the injury-ridden Big Green were knocked out of the playoffs by Duke in a 7-6 defeat.
Gibbons, a tri-captain, leads the Ivy League in overall scoring with 42 goals and 13 assists, and tri-captain Amy Zimmer '01 is third with 25 goals and 22 assists.
Should Dartmouth defeat Penn State, the Big Green would then host the winner of the No. 5 Princeton against No. 12 Cornell game on Sunday, May 13 here in Hanover at 1:00 p.m.
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.
"Coming off the last two weekends, we have great momentum going into this game," remarked Jamison.
"It feels good to know that we have the heart and determination that is so essential going into NCAAs," she added.
