Team scoring leader Kat Collins '11 netted four goals, as did co-captain Katherine Chiusano '09. Greta Meyer '11 and Eliza Bennett '10 also scored two goals apiece.
The game saw constant changes in ball possession and a messy midfield, which resulted in a total of 42 combined turnovers for the two teams. The squads' intensity on the field led to a very physical matchup, with Dartmouth (6-3, 3-0 Ivy) committing 17 fouls while Cornell (5-4, 1-3 Ivy) accumulated 22. A total of seven yellow cards were handed out.
Due to the physicality and shifts in ball control, the Big Green found it difficult to maintain any lead it could produce in the first period. Scoring first only 43 seconds into the game, Collins ran in the ball unassisted, only to have the lead erased by Cornell just two minutes later. This trend continued until Cornell's Jessi Steinberg secured the Big Red's first lead at 15:29, making the score 4-3.
Capitalizing off of a yellow card issued to Cornell's Deirdre Lafferty, and the subsequent three-minute one-player advantage, Greta Meyer '11 scored at 11:33 to tie the score again.
Cornell then went on to score two consecutive goals, making it 6-4, although the Big Red failed to capitalize on Hope McIntyre '11's yellow card. Co-captain and goalie Julie Wadland '10 produced two of her eight first-half saves to neutralize Cornell's one-player advantage.
Collins captured her hat trick with 2:39 to play in the first half, again on an unassisted goal, before Dartmouth regained possession from a Cornell foul and Meyer scored to end the period in a 6-6 tie.
"I think that our defense wasn't being as aggressive as they needed to be, and they put us on our heels," head coach Amy Patton said. "Honestly, Cornell came out and played a really good first half, and we felt that, defensively, we need to get them out of rhythm."
The Big Red scored first in the second period, and nabbed another goal at 20:16. It would be Cornell's last goal of the game.
Despite Cornell's goal drought in the remaining 20 minutes, however, it was not until 14:55, when Collins assisted a Chiusano goal to narrow the lead to 8-7, that Dartmouth scored.
It was the first of a slew of goals from Chiusano, who scored the next three to make the score 10-8 in Dartmouth's favor.
"Everyone on our attack is a threat, but in the first half, we were more or less watching the ball carrier and people weren't moving," Patton said. "In the second half, all seven people were involved and were really moving the ball, and [Chiusano] was back there, and we just got it to her."
After Collins converted her second assist of the game to Bennett, she finished off the second period with an unassisted score, marking her 27th goal of the season.
"[In the first half,] we went for the long ball rather than going for the easy pass, and that was what we talked about at halftime," Patton said. "We just had to keep it simple -- and they did -- and they played a great second half against a very good team."
Despite the Big Green's 10 turnovers in the second period, the team managed to capture more draw controls than in the first half, with seven compared to Cornell's two. Dartmouth also outshot Cornell 10-6, and only producing eight fouls compared to the Big Red's 16.
"I think the defense really stepped it up, with Julie Wadland in goal, and it really set the tone in the second half and gave us confidence," Chiusano said. "I think our throwing and catching wasn't going our way, but we changed that in the second half."
Patton said the win was especially important to the team, which participated in the Power in Pink initiative to spread awareness of the fight against breast cancer. The Big Green donned pink jerseys and raffled off one of the jerseys, signed by the whole team, to support the Susan G. Komen Research Foundation.
Dartmouth will now have a week to gear up for its away game against the University of Pennsylvania on April 11, at 12 p.m. in Philadelphia, Penn.
"This was a great tune-up for next week's game," Patton said. "Everyone in the Ivies is getting better and better right now, so we have a week to get ready for them, and give it our best shot."
