Dartmouth's men's lacrosse team suffered a tough defeat on the road Saturday, losing to No. 4 University of Virginia 11-7.
Co-captain Doug Rendall '09 said he was not satisfied with the team's performance, citing inconsistency as Dartmouth's primary problem. He added, however, that the team has improved its dynamic over the course of the season.
"We played pretty well," Rendall said. "It's one of those things where we've been playing well but haven't put a full 60 minutes of good lacrosse together. [Against Virginia] we played better as a team and everything kind of fit together, which you would expect to happen as the season goes on."
Ari Sussman '10 led Dartmouth (5-7, 1-3 Ivy) with an impressive performance, scoring three goals and an assist on the day.
"Sussman played really well, and it is even more impressive considering the kid who was guarding him [UVA's junior defenseman Matt Kelly] is an honorable mention All-American and regarded as one of the best defensive players in the country," Rendall said.
Jon Livadas '09 opened the game with an unassisted run to net in the third minute of play.
Five minutes later Josh Gillam '10 chipped in his own unassisted goal, giving the Big Green a quick 2-0 advantage.
Virginia (10-2, 1-2 ACC) responded with powerful offense four minutes later when attackman Danny Glading scored the Cavaliers' first goal of the contest.
Glading and attack Ben Rubeor were both named All-Americans last season, with Glading as a third-team selection and Rubeor as a first-team choice. Two-thirds of Virginia's starting offensive players are All-Americans.
Glading's goal shifted the momentum of the game and set off a six-goal run for UVA.
Virginia's Brian Carroll scored the first of his two goals on a man-up opportunity after Glading. Glading then followed it with another goal less than a minute later.
Rubeor kept the Cavaliers rolling, with a goal in the final seconds of the first period, giving Virginia a 4-2 advantage heading into the second quarter.
UVA's Will Barrow started off the second quarter and kept Virginia's run going with a score off of a Rubeor assist.
After a seven-minute offensive dry spell for both sides, Rubeor came up with an unassisted goal, giving the Cavaliers a four goal advantage with just over four minutes to play in the first half.
Jimmy Mullen '09 finally broke Virginia's run thirty seconds later, scoring on a Sussman pass during a man-up possession to get the Big Green back within three.
Just 30 seconds after Mullen's strike, Sussman scored unassisted to swing the momentum back in Dartmouth's favor and put the Big Green within striking distance, now down only 6-4.
Unfortunately, Dartmouth's comeback chances were short-lived as Rubeor scored two goals immediately within 58 seconds of Sussman's tally.
Sussman stepped up, however, and controlled the fourth quarter. After 11 scoreless minutes, Sussman drained his second goal of the game.
Two minutes later, Sussman finished the hat trick with a goal on a pass from Livadas, bringing the game back within two.
Virginia's powerful offense responded, however, with two scores off goals from Carroll and Glading.
Dartmouth answered with its final goal of the day, from Tim Daniels '08.
Virginia finished the game with another goal with just over a minute left in play.
Despite its loss, Dartmouth held advantages over Virginia in face-offs and ground balls, and UVA barely outshot the Big Green, 34-31.
One of Dartmouth's key problems was its relatively low clearing performance -- the number of times a team brings the ball from its defensive zone to the offensive zone in transition. The Big Green converted only 12 of 17 clears, while Virginia converted 14 of 17 clears.
The Big Green has two conference games remaining this season. Dartmouth plays against No. 17 Princeton (7-4, 4-0 Ivy) and Harvard (5-7, 0-4 Ivy).
Princeton knocked off No. 3 Cornell (9-3, 4-1 Ivy) this week and is poised for a league championship.
A Princeton loss to the Big Green, however, would give the title to Brown (10-2, 4-0 Ivy), who joins Princeton atop the league standings. Dartmouth is currently in fifth place in the Ivy League.
The Big Green is confident they have the ability to beat Princeton and pull off an upset that would complement Dartmouth's women's lacrosse team's victory over the Tigers on Saturday.
"It definitely would be a huge win for us against Princeton and I definitely think we can win especially given our recent play," Rendall said.
Dartmouth will take on Princeton at home this Saturday.
