Dartmouth women's soccer played 110 hard-fought minutes against No. 25 Harvard on Saturday afternoon but was unable to pull away with the lead as the Big Green earned a 1-1 draw on the team's Senior Day.
Harvard (9-3-4, 4-1-1 Ivy) currently stands tied for first place in the Ivy League along with Princeton and Columbia; each share a 4-1-1 conference record.
The Big Green (7-6-2, 1-4-1 Ivy) is stuck in seventh place, ahead of upcoming opponent Cornell University.
Not coming up with a win, however, did not taint the outcome of the game for the Big Green.
"It was a big improvement from last week," senior co-captain Becky Poskin said. "We took it as a great result."
Dartmouth jumped onto the scoreboard first, with a goal from midfielder Kesley Quick '10 in the 36th minute.
The equalizer came from Harvard in the 72nd minute, when Katherine Sheeleigh beat Dartmouth goalkeeper Laurel Peak '09 on a one-on-one to tie the game.
After two 10-minute overtime periods, the teams ended the game in a deadlock that prevented Harvard from taking sole ownership of first place in the Ivy League.
Despite a slight 16-14 shot advantage in favor of Harvard, both teams had a generally even number of chances but failed to convert their best into goals.
"We really came out strong at the beginning of the game, and that was our goal," Poskin said. "We tried to do the same thing to Harvard that Columbia did to us last week by starting the game with such intensity."
The Crimson saw its first chance nearly 20 minutes into the game, when Harvard's Christina Hagner came in from the left side, off of a cross from Sheeleigh, to face off in the box against Peak. The Big Green goalie managed to collide into Hagner and win the ball before the forward could get off a shot.
Another close call for Dartmouth came just minutes later, when defender Whitney Odden '09 made a slide tackle to steal the ball from the feet of Hagner and prevent a Harvard breakaway.
After the Big Green goal in the 36th minute, the Crimson retaliated with an intense offensive attack, which included three corner kicks and a stinging shot from Harvard's Melanie Baskind. Peak was able to just tip the shot over the crossbar, making yet another impressive save for the Big Green.
The Big Green, however, would not back down, getting off two shots in the final minute of the first half. The first, from Poskin, sailed just over the crossbar while midfielder Myra Sack '10 went one-on-one against Harvard goalkeeper Laura Dale, who was able to make the save and keep her team in the game.
The Big Green went into the half on top, 1-0.
"We were really pumped up at halftime," Poskin said. "We wanted to hold the lead, and especially because it was Senior Day a lot of players were playing with different motivations."
Just 10 minutes into the second half, the Big Green had its best chance to score when Sack drew the Harvard keeper out and dumped the ball to Petyon Tata '11, whose shot hit the far post.
The intense and even play continued until the 72nd minute, when Sheeleigh's uncontested breakaway ended in a shot from the top of the box that Peak was unable to get a hand on, evening up the game, 1-1.
Despite chances for both sides, the score remained even at the end of regulation, forcing overtime.
Aly O'Dea '12 initiated the first overtime chance for Dartmouth with a cross from the right side into a crowded box, which new Crimson keeper Lauren Mann managed to collect.
Peak made another great save off a shot from Harvard's Baskind near the end of the first overtime period to preserve the tie. Peak ended the game with 11 saves, keeping the game close with some clutch stops especially in one-on-one situations.
Harvard's goalkeepers, Dale in the first half and Mann for the remainder of the game, tallied four saves each.
The winner of the Ivy League will be determined next week, when Columbia and Harvard, currently tied in first place, face off in Cambridge, Mass. Princeton, the other Ivy League leader, is set to play fourth-place Penn in the final week of league play. Both games will take place on Saturday, Nov. 8.
The Big Green finishes off its season with a match up against bottom-ranked Cornell next weekend in Ithaca, N.Y. The Big Red's offensive woes continued in its defeat by Princeton, 3-0, on Saturday. Cornell has only scored two goals in five Ivy League contests.
"We want to end the season on a high note," Poskin said. "If we could go in and crush Cornell next week, it'd be great to have the seniors leave with such fond memories of their last games."
