The Dartmouth women's soccer team scored right out of the gates on the University of Pennsylvania, but the Big Green could not hang on to its lead as the team fell 2-1 in Philadelphia. After getting an early goal from Ali Hubbard '10, the Big Green could not keep the offensive pressure up as they were outshot 14-4 in the contest.
The Quakers improve to 9-2-1 on the season and a perfect 3-0 in Ivy League play, while the Big Green falls to 3-8-1 and a 1-2 record in its conference. Penn is currently in a first-place tie with Princeton, while Dartmouth sits in a four-way tie for fourth in the league along with Harvard, Columbia, and Brown.
At the start of the game, it looked as if the upset would be on. The Big Green women showed the Quakers that they were ready to play right from the opening whistle. Less than five minutes into the contest, Dartmouth had an opportunity to get on the board, as the Big Green applied heavy pressure on the Penn back line. Newcomer Peyton Tata '11 was able to feed the resulting ball to Hubbard, who capitalized on the scoring opportunity, giving her side the early advantage.
"I think Peyton Tata was the best player out there tonight," women's soccer head coach Angie Hind said.
However, the Quakers were quick to awaken and go to work cutting the deficit. The Big Green backline managed to hold off the Quaker attacks for a while, but the Penn team's persistence paid off in the 37th minute. Penn's ace striker Jessica Fuccello connected on a header off of a Jess Rothenheber corner kick to level the score at one a piece. The goal was Funello's eighth of the season, as she is currently the leading scorer in the Ivies with those eight scores and two assists.
Heading into halftime, the Quakers, despite the tie score, were firing on all cylinders. Penn outshot the Big Green 8-3 in the first half.
An explanation for Dartmouth's struggles on this particular night can be seen in the team's current health.
"Our squad was a little depleted today," Hind said. "We had a couple of our players who were sick with the long travel; we just didn't get up ready to play. We also were not able to win the one-versus-one battles, so we weren't able to dominate at any point."
Penn's high-octane offense was at it again in the second half, as the Quakers picked up right where they left off in the first half. Penn broke through the Big Green defense at 64:37 into the game when Rothenheber netted a goal of her own off of an assist by Sarah Friedman to put Penn ahead for good.
Desperately looking for the equalizer, Dartmouth threw in its offensive players late in the game, but Penn's defense remained resilient. The Big Green could only get off one shot for the entire half. The Quakers were able to milk away the remaining time effectively after they had taken the lead, as Dartmouth struggled do anything offensively.
Hind was disappointed with her team's overall showing.
"It was a disappointing effort," Hind said. "We scored early but we were never really able to control the game at any point. To be honest Penn was the better side today."
Co-captain Monica Martin de Bustamante '08 echoed her coach's sentiments.
"We are all very disappointed with ourselves and the way that we played," Martin de Bustamante said.
Penn's Sara Rose made two stops to earn the victory, while Laurel Peak '09 came up with four saves in the loss.
Next Saturday, Oct. 20, the Big Green will host the defending conference champions Columbia at Burnham Field for homecoming. The Lions have failed to replicate their conference champion form this season, and are currently 6-4-3 overall and 1-2 in the Ivy League. They are coming off of a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Princeton.
Martin de Bustamante believes her squad will be ready to go on Saturday.
"It wasn't a good feeling to go all the way down to Penn and not play well, a feeling none of us want to feel again," Martin de Bustamante said. "We have to move on and again we will work hard at practice this week and get ready to play Columbia on Saturday."
