The game was evenly matched early on, as the Terriers opened the scoring under a minute into the first half. Rookie Sarah Parks '12 responded with a free position shot to even the score. A storm of offense from BU late in the first half, however, resulted in 16 first-period shots on the Big Green and a halftime score of 9-2.
"We just couldn't adjust to the speed of their game quickly enough," midfielder Greta Meyer '11 said. "They just kept scoring off the same play over and over again, and it took the defense too long to stop that."
The Big Green couldn't pull the game back within reach, as Dartmouth and BU each added six goals to the scoreboard. Four different goal scorers contributed to Dartmouth's final total, while five players helped solidify the Terriers' win, including powerhouse Sarah Dalton, who rattled in seven goals.
"She is a really good player, and she has a great right and left hand," Meyer said. "She is really quick, and if you don't play perfect defense on her, she will find a way to get around."
It was Dalton who delivered the game's first goal, and despite the early start to the scoring, it took almost ten minutes before Parks answered to tie it at one apiece. This marked the closest the Big Green ever was to keeping up with the Terriers. The tie was short-lived, as less than a minute later, BU recaptured the lead.
Kirsten Goldberg '12 was fed by defender Colleen Olsen '10 to end the Big Green's first-half scoring, although it would not be the last goal for the rookie, who added two more in the second half to complete her second collegiate hat trick.
Scoring was heavy in the second half, as a total of nine goals were scored in the first 12 minutes.After the intermission, Goldberg picked up where she had left off, beating BU's defenders to net an unassisted goal and score first for the Big Green. The Terriers barked back, however, nabbing two goals in less than two minutes.
Dartmouth returned the favor, as midfielder Great Meyer '11 converted a free position shot, and team goal-scoring leader Kat Collins '11 drove in a goal, with an assist from co-captain Katherine Chiusano '09.
The pattern later repeated itself, as BU again attacked and scored two more goals in the span of two minutes, while the Big Green replied with Goldberg's final goal of the game, and another free position strike from Meyer.
Meyer has truly demonstrated her skills this season on free position shots. Eight of her 21 goals have been off of these opportunities.
"I struggle with that a little bit, but we work on that so much in practice because it is such a crucial part of the game," Meyer said. "We get so many free position shots in the game, so we've been practicing to really capitalize off of them."
The Big Green managed to take advantage of the Terriers' fouls, converting three of its five free position shots.
Parks concluded the scoring for Dartmouth at 13:21, while Dalton ended her impressive run for BU three minutes later. Despite an early surge of goals in the second half, the game's final ten minutes saw no scoring.
Although the Big Green ended the game with a loss, the team did manage to improve in the second half, outshooting BU 15-10 and only giving up four turnovers, compared to the Terriers' six.
"We played a really good second half, which was unfortunate, because if we played that well in the first half, we think the score would have been different," Meyer said. "Our coach gave us a new game plan, and we really turned the game around and got momentum and started to play our game."
Dartmouth will travel this weekend to play its final Ivy League game against Columbia on Sunday. The team will have only one day of rest after thatbefore playing its final home game against Syracuse University on Tuesday.
Looking ahead, Meyer said she thinks the team needs to improve its possession.
"I think that we want to improve on our draw controls, because it is such a key thing in games, and we just have to have more possession of the ball," Meyer said.
Sunday's game is scheduled to start at 1 p.m.
