Dartmouth women's lacrosse added yet another win to their undefeated record Tuesday afternoon as they trampled the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with an 18-6 victory. The Big Green's record now stands at 8-0 and is currently ranked seventh in the nation.
It was all Green Tuesday afternoon, as Katieanne Christian '05 netted the first goal of the game six minutes into play. The UMass Minutewomen immediately retaliated as Kerri Connerty scored with 18:37 left on the clock. However, the rest of the first half, the lady laxers saw nothing but net as they ripped 10 straight goals. Freshman midfielder Kristen Barry started the streak as she scored her first goal of the game unassisted at 12:32. Barry was followed by co-captain Sarah Sanborn '05 who netted her two goals of the game back-to-back. The first, was an unassisted goal only 14 seconds after Barry's, while the second goal came a mere 30 seconds after that. Sanborn's second goal was assisted by Sarah Szefi '07, who led the team with three assists for the day.
Attacker Whitney Douthett '07 netted her one goal of the game halfway through the first half. Christian took Sanborn's lead and also netted two back-to-back goals a minute apart. Midfielder and Colorado native Annie Leibovitz '06 added to the effort four minutes later as she scored two goals separated by Christian notching her fourth goal of the half.
With 3:29 left on the clock, sophomore Margo Duke fed Kristen Zimmer '06, who ripped in the last Big Green goal of the half. With 47 seconds left on the clock, UMass Minutewoman Connerty made a last effort and scored her second goal of the game. As the first half came to an end, Dartmouth had a comfortable and impressive 11-2 lead.
The second half of play saw just as much action as Zimmer opened with a goal 55 seconds in. Christian followed with her fifth goal of the game only 15 seconds later. Junior Casey Hazel scored her first goal of the game with 26:26 left on the clock. The last twenty minutes of the game, the Big Green netted four more goals from Christian, Barry, Szefi and Pittman '07 with assists from Zimmer and Douthett.
Although the Minutewomen made an effort to come back with four goals in the second half, the Big Green was unstoppable. Standout goalkeeper Devon Wills '06 didn't see too much action throughout the game, although she made four saves until giving up her spot in the goal to relief goalie Kelly Roy '06 with eight minutes left in the game.
Christian, who ripped an amazing six goals Tuesday afternoon, scored the most goals by a Big Green player in a game since Jen Newitt '02 potted seven goals in March 2002 against Colgate. After scoring the 100th point of her collegiate career in last Saturday's 18-8 victory over Brown, Christian continues to move up Dartmouth's career scoring charts. She now has 94 goals and 14 assists for 108 points, and is just four away from Emily Fenwick '00, who is 16th all-time for the Big Green with 112 points.
Dartmouth hopes to earn another win this weekend as they host Ivy League opponent No. 13 Cornell this Saturday at 1:00 pm on Scully-Fahey Field. Dartmouth is currently 3-0 in the Ivy conference making Cornell an important game in the race to the Ivy title.
Co-Captain Sanborn comments, "Cornell has a really strong team this year and will be a great win for us in the Ivies. This weekend is an opportunity to prove the progress we have made since February and also a benchmark as we continue to work towards our full potential as team." Defensive star Erin Osborn '05 said, "It's great to be winning, but we're still showing room for improvement. We're looking to keep making progress as we continue on in Ivy League play."
