The Quakers (11-1, 5-0 Ivy), traditionally not one of the stronger programs in the Ivy League, have put together their best start in school history. With a win next Wednesday, April 18, against Princeton, they would wrap up at least a share of the conference title and earn an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Dartmouth (7-4, 3-2 Ivy) is currently sitting in third place in the Ivy League behind Penn and Yale and will need the Bulldogs and Quakers to stumble down the home stretch to win the conference.
The Big Green struck three times in the first seven minutes with goals coming from Katherine Chiusano '09, Sarah Szefi '07 and Jen Pittman '07. Penn was reeling and called a time out to reassess the situation.
After the time out, the Quakers came out looking like a different team and got five goals from five different players to reverse the deficit and take the lead. Szefi struck for the Big Green a minute later to stop the bleeding and cut the deficit to one, but Dartmouth would never regain the lead. Penn tacked on several more goals, including one with six seconds to go in the first half, to carry an 8-5 lead and the momentum into halftime.
In the second half, it was all Quakers, as they scored two goals in 13 seconds to jump to a 10-5 lead. To make matters worse, Pittman picked up her second yellow card of the game just three minutes into the half, taking much-needed firepower away from the Big Green. Co-captain Whitney Douthett '07 led the Dartmouth effort in the second half by scoring all of the team's goals in the second half, but it was not enough.
Despite the loss, Douthett, a candidate for the Tewaaraton trophy awarded to the nation's top player, had another outstanding game by coming up with three goals, two assists and two ground balls.
In goal, Julie Wadland '10 made eight saves but was tagged with the loss. Chelsea Kirk '10, who relieved Wadland in the second half, made four stops on the day. Wadland and Kirk were peppered with 40 shots, the biggest offensive output on the year for the Quakers.
"In the first couple of minutes we were playing our game, but then we let them control the game and that's where they really got going," co-captain Margo Duke '07 said. "Our attack played well in the game when we could get the ball to them, but they didn't get the ball enough."
Turnovers proved to be the undoing of the Big Green in this contest. Nine of Dartmouth's 21 clears were disrupted, and the team committed 21 turnovers.
"We had an issue with turnovers today and we made the same mistakes over and over so we couldn't learn from them, so that played a big part in the loss," Douthett said. "We needed to be more disciplined."
Another issue in the loss was the footing. Dartmouth plays its home games on the Astroturf surface of Scully-Fahey field, but Penn's Franklin Field has Fieldturf, which is a softer and slower surface.
"All week we were practicing on Memorial Field to get used to the field. Penn's stuff was a little longer and a couple of us switched over to cleats. We were ready for it, but the difference was noticeable," Duke said.
The Big Green women have a pair of Ivy League home games in the coming week. Dartmouth will play host to Harvard on Wednesday, April 18, and will match up against Princeton on Saturday, April 21, to wrap up league play. The Big Green will need to win both contests to keep their hopes for a league championship alive.
"In the next couple of weeks, we're really going to work on being mentally and physically tough and not be scared," Douthett said.
