Coming off a thrilling win against Vermont on Wednesday, the Dartmouth field hockey team hoped to carry its momentum into a busy weekend of games. Unfortunately for the Big Green, momentum wasn't enough and the team fell 1-0 to Penn in a low-scoring defensive battle in Philadelphia on Saturday and then lost at home against the New Hampshire Wildcats, 4-1 on Sunday.
In the weekend's first contest, Penn senior Cara Calahan netted the game's only goal, passing Dartmouth's keeper Lauren Balukjian '06 about 20 minutes into the first half.
Tracy Statter collected an assist on the play, luring Balukjian out from the cage and passing to an open Calahan.
Dartmouth managed just three shots for the afternoon, two of which were on goal.
Balukjian had three saves in a game in which both teams produced only eight shots combined.
The tight loss drops Dartmouth's record to 4-4 with a 1-2 Ivy tally, having beaten Brown and lost to Princeton and Penn.
Abby Brown '07 and sophomore Lizzie Bildner '08 had Dartmouth's shots on goal, while Stef Miller '09 took the lone shot of the second half.
Penn improved to 5-4 overall and 1-2 in Ivy-league competition.
Keeper Elizabeth Schlossberg recorded the shutout for the Quakers stopping both shots she faced.
Both teams had six penalty corners in the 70-minute contest.
The officials warned two Dartmouth players (Bildner and Laura Kistler) with green cards. Lea Salese had Penn's only green card.
The slide continued against UNH with a 4-1 loss at Scully-Fahey Field Sunday.
Whitney Waugh '08 scored the Big Green's only goal in the first half off a penalty corner. It was her first collegiate goal. Jessica Saraceno '06 and Lindsay Gossage '06 had assists on the play.
Katie White scored the last two UNH goals, and MacKenzie Stuart had three assists. Emily Colton and Shauna Sellenger scored the other two goals.
The Wildcats ended a five-game losing streak with the win, their fourth of the year.
In spite of the lopsided score, Dartmouth outshot New Hampshire 17-9. Wildcat goalkeeper Margaux Shute had seven saves.
UNH scored on all three of their penalty corners. Dartmouth had nine penalty corners but only managed to score once.
The loss gives Dartmouth (4-5, Ivy 1-2) an overall losing record for the first time all season.
Dartmouth travels to New Haven on Saturday to play Yale (3-6, Ivy 0-2) at noon, and they will meet Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
