"The Dartmouth-Princeton rivalry is something that has become a tradition for women's lacrosse," Jen Pittman '07 said. "Aside from beating the current league leader, [beating] Princeton means so much more to us. Beating Princeton represents why we play for Dartmouth."
The dynamic win against the current Ivy League leader ended the Big Green's Ivy campaign and gave Princeton (8-5, 5-1 Ivy) its first conference loss of the season, ending the Tigers' six-game winning streak.
Behind four points each from Kristen Barry '08, Whitney Douthett '07 and Pittman in the game, the defending Ivy League champions scored nine unanswered goals in the first period before Princeton's Ashley Amo scored a free-position goal with nine seconds remaining in the first half.
Dartmouth (9-4, 5-2 Ivy) scored seven of its nine first-period goals in the first 15 minutes of the contest. The Amo goal cut the Big Green's lead to eight but proved to be the closest that Princeton came to threatening Dartmouth's win.
In the second period, Dartmouth went on a four-goal scoring rampage in the middle of the second half to give the women in green a commanding 14-2 advantage. Although Princeton was able to score three more points in the last eight minutes of contest, the deficit that the Big Green built earlier in the contest proved insuperable.
"We played with a ton of confidence today," head coach Amy Patton said. "Our throwing and catching was excellent. We just went up and down the field, and that got us in the flow."
Dartmouth held a 14-8 draw controls advantage over the Tigers and out-shot the Tigers 15-5 in the first period.
"We had an overwhelming amount of excitement and confidence going into this game, so there was no way we were going to let them win it," Barry said. "It's always great to beat Princeton, and even if they do win the title, there is no way they are going to feel that great about it."
In addition to Douthett, Pittman and Barry's goals, Casey Hazel '06 scored two goals in the contest while Sarah Szefi '07 added another goal to round out Dartmouth's scoring. On the defensive side, Margo Duke '07's efforts were noted by many of her teammates.
"Margo Duke had an unbelievable game," Douthett said. "She was face-guarding Princeton's best player, Kathleen Miller, and completely shut her down. Margo has been doing an amazing job on defense."
"I was thrilled with our team's performance," Douthett added. "The best part of our team is that there is no single player that wins the game. Every girl is a threat and an integral part to the team, from our starting attack to the girls on the bench. We would not be able to do it without everybody."
Douthett, who grew up and went to school only 20 minutes away from Princeton, tallied nine points in the contest. The junior scored four points and added five assists to the win. In addition, Douthett also collected six ground balls and five draw controls in the contest.
"Whitney Douthett had a great game as usual," Barry said. "She had four goals and five assists which shows just how crucial she is to our attack. She saw the field so well and seemed to have a sixth sense of what was going to happen next."
The nine points that Douthett recorded in the contest were the most that a Big Green player has recorded since Lana Smith '04's nine points against Columbia in 2003.
"Obviously I am not happy with the way we played, but you have to give Dartmouth a lot of credit," Princeton head coach Chris Sailer said. "They played like they had something to prove today and they had it going from the beginning."
The Big Green women take on Boston University at home on Wednesday and hope to find revenge against the Terriers, who spoiled Dartmouth's 13-game winning streak last year -- the longest in school history.
"Our next game is going to be huge especially since they broke our streak last year," Barry said. "We have a battle on our hands but nothing we can't handle. We are taking one practice and game at a time."
After the match-up against BU, Dartmouth faces Boston College, whom the Big Green defeated 17-2 last season, and Duke, who is ranked as the top team in the nation.
"I look forward to playing like we did against Princeton in our next three games," Hazel said. "We have some tough games coming up and if we play as well as we did yesterday we will have a lot of success.
"It is important for us to have some big wins coming up as it will help us be selected for the NCAA tournament."
The Big Green hopes that wins in the upcoming matches will help secure the team an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, which Dartmouth has competed in for the last seven seasons.
