After nearly two weeks off from game play, Dartmouth's field hockey team came into this past weekend aching for a challenge. The previously undefeated Big Green got that and more from Saturday's opponent, the Princeton Tigers.
Hoping to avenge last season's ugly 5-0 loss at Princeton, the Big Green was geared up for their Ivy League opener. The game opened with tight play around midfield with neither side gaining a clear advantage.
As the end of the first half approached, the Tigers' Ashley Sennett broke free and scored to put Princeton up 1-0. Dartmouth came into the half trailing only by the one goal, and vowed to take it to Princeton in the second half.
Lauren Welsh '03 made good on that promise, nailing home a rebound past Tiger goalie Kelly Baril at 29:14 to tie the game. Princeton struck back quickly, however, as Ivy League Player of the Week Ilvy Friebe banged home a score four minutes later, beating Kirsten Anderson '02.
As play once again returned to its defensive-minded style of the early first half, Princeton added an insurance goal at 15:43 when Cory Picketts scored off of a penalty corner. Friebe and Claire Miller assisted on the goal.
The Big Green was unable to mount a late game charge and finally succumbed 3-1. Anderson made four stops for Dartmouth in the losing effort while Baril only needed to turn back a pair of shots for the win.
The loss dropped Dartmouth to 3-1 on the young season while the Tigers moved to 5-0. The Big Green had precious little time to recover from the loss as the Eagles of Boston College came to Hanover Sunday morning looking to pick up where Princeton left off.
The Big Green had much different designs for the Eagles as they turned in one of the season's most impressive performances in pounding BC, making the Eagles wish that they could turn around and fly home to Chestnut Hill.
"We really wanted to represent ourselves much better on Sunday especially after being beaten by someone on our home field. We wanted to turn around and really give someone a beating to protect out turf," Anderson.
The drubbing began only nine minutes into the contest as First Team All-Ivy defender Carolyn Steele '03 netted a penalty corner for a 1-0 advantage. Kristin Barlup '02 and Lisa Thomas '03 picked up assists on the score.
Welsh added her seventh goal of the season at the tail end of the first half. Caitlin Barrett '04 then provided a knockout blow to the Eagles. At 34:08, Barrett netted a beautiful pass from defender Rebekka Stucker '04 to make the score 3-0.
Lindsay Moyer '05 set Barrett up 10 minutes later and the sophomore nailed her second goal of the game for a four-goal lead. Thomas put home a rebound shortly thereafter to add insult to injury and cap off the 5-0 beating.
Anderson picked up her third shutout of the year by making four stops on BC. The Eagles' Lauren Hill made four solid saves on Dartmouth, preventing a more lopsided score.
Earlier in the season, Dartmouth had polished off California-Berkeley, Miami of Ohio and St. Louis to get to 3-0. In the opener against Cal, Anderson came up huge with eight saves and Welsh, Stucker and Lauren Talbot '04 each scored.
Welsh scored a pair of goals against the Redhawks, but it was Talbot who netted the game winner with 3:08 to play in the first half, assisted by Stucker. Anderson made three stops as Dartmouth rolled 3-1.
The Billikens provided little more challenge to the Big Green machine, as Welsh had another multi-goal game and Thomas provided a goal in between as Dartmouth captured another game 3-0. Anderson and Alexia Huffman '05 combined for the shutout, as Anderson had to make only one stop before giving way to Huffman with 8:15 remaining.
Dartmouth controlled the game most of the way, launching a 17-shot barrage on the St. Louis net in the 3-0 victory.
Dartmouth continues its road to an ECAC Championship appearance this weekend with a trip to UPenn on Saturday at 12:00 p.m. followed by a date with No. 15 William & Mary at Villanova on Sunday.
"We're just hoping to raise our level up a little bit each game, and we know that William & Mary will be tough on the backside of the weekend. Hopefully we'll play as well as we did on the backside this weekend," said Anderson.
