No. 13 Dartmouth (2-2, 0-0 Ivy) opened on fire with a six-goal run, but then fell apart as the Fighting Irish stumped the Big Green with 11-straight goals straddling both halves.
The Big Green concluded the first period leading 8-5, and had prevented Notre Dame (4-1, 0-0 Big East) from scoring for almost the first two-thirds of the first period, with only a free position shot at 10:37 to put the Irish on the board.
Dartmouth, meanwhile, provided a glimpse of its true potential, as seven of the eight goal scorers found the back of the net in the first half, and played some of the best lacrosse the team has produced yet, head coach Amy Patton said.
"We have just been practicing all week, with fast breaks, slow breaks, settled attacks, and we really connected in the first 20 minutes," midfielder Greta Meyer '11 said. "It shows how great we can be, but we just need to hold that."
Meyer, who led with three goals for Dartmouth, opened the scoring at 28:10, assisted by midfielder Sarah Plumb '12. Plumb then notched a goal at 25:15, the second of six-straight goals by the Big Green.
The six-goal drilling from Dartmouth in the opening period did not translate into a strong second-half performance, as Notre Dame came out and outscored Dartmouth 11-3 in the period.
The Irish wasted no time in cutting its three-goal deficit early in the second half, as it converted from a Big Green foul to score in the opening 25 seconds.
An immediate follow-up goal from Notre Dame at 28:22 woke Dartmouth up, and the Big Green was able to hold the ball on Notre Dame's half with a few shot attempts, though to no avail.
Notre Dame capitalized off of a turnover and immediately tied it up at 8-8, and despite a few good saves from goalie and co-captain Julie Wadland '10, the Irish jumped on Dartmouth's inability to draw possession for the next 11 minutes to rack up more goals and make it 13-8.
"We came out really hard and really excited," Meyer said. "But we are just a really young team, and we were not used to having to fight back when they were starting to get momentum. That was our biggest problem because once they started getting a lead, we stopped playing our game."
A large factor in Notre Dame's shooting dominance was draw controls. Notre Dame took 12 of 15 in the second half after the two teams each won seven in the first.
"We just didn't have the fire on the circle that we needed, and we just needed to fight them out, and that's where they got the draw controls," Meyer said.
Despite the reduction in draw control wins, Dartmouth's stats differed little from those of Notre Dame. The Big Green had 30 shot attempts, compared to Notre Dame's 32, 17 turnovers to the Irish's 18, and nine saves from Wadland to Notre Dame's 12.
Dartmouth, however, only attempted 11 of the game's 30 shots in the second half. The Big Green who had to wait until 10:18 for midfielder Kat Collins '11 to run the ball in the net.
Meyer followed up immediately with an assisted goal from co-captain attacker Katherine Chiusano '09 at 10:03, to give Dartmouth its best chance of the second period to catch up with a score of 13-10.
A late yellow card handed to defender Hope McIntyre '11 left Dartmouth one player down in the dying minutes of the game, however, and despite the Big Green's strong determination to get back in the game, Notre Dame finished the game with two goals from Kailene Abt, the last of which was scored in the final 10 seconds.
"They have really good players, and we practiced all week marking them, but we went away from our game plan, and we went inwards, which was noticeable," Meyer said.
The Big Green will now have enough time to focus on making improvements, as the team will wait a week before squaring off with the University of Maryland on March 18 at home. The game is slated to start at 1 p.m.
