The game marked the team's last Ivy League game at home, and the Big Green now has four games remaining in the season. Saturday also saw the University of Pennsylvania defeat Brown University to capture the Ivy League title, although the Big Green's loss to Princeton had already taken Dartmouth out of the race.
No. 14 Dartmouth (7-5, 4-2 Ivy) started the game with a strong effort, and even managed to hold on to a lead for 17 minutes. While the Big Green stayed close at halftime, trailing 5-3, it was in the second half that Princeton (8-4, 5-1 Ivy) did its damage, outscoring Dartmouth 9-1. Ending with a deficit of 10 goals, the loss was the worst defeat for Dartmouth this season.
"I think that we let [Princeton] set the tone, and I think they have a great defense," midfielder Greta Meyer '11 said. "They were running us on attack and controlled the ball at their end. They used a lot of time and we were playing catch-up the whole game."
Co-captain and goalie Julie Wadland '10 had 10 saves in the game, but that wasn't enough to stop seven different Princeton players from adding to the final score.
It took almost eight minutes before the Tigers could claim the game's first goal. Three successive Big Green goals from Kirsten Goldberg '12, Katherine Chiusano '09 and Kat Collins '11 put Dartmouth back on top.
Princeton tied the game up again with 3:31 remaining in the first half, and the dying minutes of the period saw a surge from the Tigers, who nabbed two more goals within the next minute to end the half up by two.
Dartmouth was able to capitalize on most of its shots in the first half, scoring off of more than half of its seven attempts, while Princeton benefited from its possession advantage to keep the Big Green on its toes.
The Tigers were able to take 18 shots, and produced a game total of 13 caused turnovers.
"I felt that Princeton did a good job making us rush our shots a little bit," head coach Amy Patton said. "They're really aggressive, and we knew that and we didn't stick to our game plan and that hurt us."
The second half began similarly to the game's start, as the Tigers waited a little over 10 minutes to begin the scoring and increase their lead to three. Meyer then fired off a free-position shot to conclude Dartmouth's scoring for the game at 16:43. The Tigers continued their strong attack, and did not stop scoring until the final whistle.
With 21 turnovers, the Big Green had trouble maintaining ball possession throughout the game, and could only produce 18 shots on goal -- almost half of Princeton's final total of 35.
"I know that the draws and stats say that we were close to even, but it really felt completely lopsided," Patton said. "I just felt that they had possession for three-fourths of the game, and they put a lot of extra pressure on our attack."
Dartmouth will now face No. 11 Boston University away on Wednesday, before traveling to New York to square off against Columbia on Sunday, April 26.
"We've got to play lacrosse at our highest level in these next couple games, and I think we're at a pretty tough stretch right now," Patton said. "All of these teams play different styles, and we just have to focus on adjusting a bit quicker."
