The Dartmouth women's soccer team, sporting a six-game winning streak and cruising its way to another strong finish, takes its swagger to Ithaca, N.Y., tomorrow to take on the Cornell Big Red.
The Big Green battled Ivy rival Yale last Sunday to earn its sixth-straight victory, improving its overall record to 7-3-1, and boosting its Ivy League standing to 2-1. Both of these records place Dartmouth second in the Ivy League standings, behind Princeton's perfect 11-0-0 record, 4-0 in Ivy competitions.
Cornell, also boasts a winning record, at 6-3-1 overall, but failed to compete well in league competitions, winning only one while dropping three matches.
Co-captain Mary McVeigh '03 was named to the Ivy League weekly honor roll for her performance against Yale, in which she netted her 20th goal and the 54th point of the career, which places her at ninth and seventh place, respectively, in school history.
Erin Osborn '05 played only four seconds against Yale, but her game was on a level higher than that of anyone else on the field, heading in the game winner off a corner kick by Anne Peick '04.
While Dartmouth can lay claim to a winning tradition in the recent years, Cornell is unable to do the same. The struggling Big Red program has never won as many games as it has this season. Cornell's six wins halfway into the season is the highest win-total since the 1999 Big Red squad, which went 9-8-1.
The rejuvenated Big Red team stars freshman Shannon Fraser, who leads the team with three goals and eight points for the season, with all three goals winning the games for Cornell.
Junior forward Emily Knight, who tallied two goals and a team-leading three assists, anchors the Big Red offense with her speed and excellent control of the ball.
Senior midfielder and a two-year captain Sarah Olsen, who has been an All-Ivy selection since her freshman year at Cornell, is the focal point of the Cornell team. She has led the team in scoring all three seasons and still continues to be a formidable presence on the defensive end.
Sophomore goalkeeper Katie Thomas guards the goal with a remarkable presence. As a freshman last year, Thomas earned the team MVP honors while posting a 1.25 goals against average.
She has been even more impressive this season, compiling a 1.02 GAA before crumbling before Harvard, allowing four goals. Before the competition against Harvard, Thomas' GAA was a paltry 0.64, and her save percentage was an astounding .886.
Cornell's defense looks to be impenetrable on paper. However, looking at its schedule reveals that a large portion of its wins, as well as a large portion of its impressive statistics, came against weaker opponents.
Cornell's offense has also been largely ineffective. Cornell attempted 173 shots in ten games this season, for an average of 17.3 shots per game, outgunning Dartmouth's offense which created 166 shots in 11 games, an average of 15.1 shots per game.
However, Cornell connected on only ten shots, 5.8 percent of its total attempts, averaging one goal a game. Scoring will be even harder against Dartmouth, which hasn't permitted many chances to its opponents in recent games.
