The women's soccer team lost its first conference game of the year 2-0 to Yale on Friday in New Haven, Conn. The only goals of the contest were scored within two minutes of each other early in the game, forcing the Big Green to play from behind for the rest of the night.
The Dartmouth women (5-5-0, 2-1-0 Ivy) began the game strong, airmailing multiple shots in the direction of the Yale goal and keeping the Bulldogs (7-3-0, 2-0-0 Ivy) on the defensive. The best early chance for the Big Green came in the 10th minute, when a shot by Aly O'Dea '12 was blocked by Yale netminder Ayana Sumiyasu.
Even though the Bulldogs were only on the offensive for 15 minutes of the game, however, Yale took advantage of the few opportunities it had, scoring goals in the 18th and 19th minutes to take and hold the lead.
It was a breakaway that led to the Bulldogs' first goal, which came when junior Becky Brown received a pass from senior Leslie Perez and launched the ball into the top right corner of the net from the top of the box.
The next Yale score came only one minute and 10 seconds later, when sophomore Miyuki Hino received a pass from freshman Kristen Forster after a give-and-go and took a shot that found its way past Big Green goalkeeper Colleen Hogan '12, extending the Bulldogs' lead to two.
"We were all shocked," co-captain Kelsey Quick '10 said. "Nothing went our way."
These two scores by Yale served to rev up the intensity of the Dartmouth women, who applied near constant pressure for the remainder of the half in an attempt to lessen the deficit.
"Our only thought was to get one goal back and work from there," head coach Angie Hind said.
O'Dea and Becky Poskin '09 both had good chances to do so before halftime, but their attempts at igniting a comeback were thwarted by the Bulldog defense.
The Big Green continued to dominate at the start of the second half, but Yale managed to bend without breaking. Spearheading the Dartmouth attack was O'Dea, who had three shots within the first 11 minutes, including one on goal.
The onslaught continued for the rest of the game, with the Big Green notching multiple chances to get on the board. The leaders, however, remained steadfast, successfully defending against four Dartmouth corner kicks and negating consecutive shots by Quick and Myra Sack '10 in the 67th minute that both had the potential to be goals for the Big Green.
"We all decided we had nothing to lose." Quick said. "We made a pact to go out and do what we could. The fact we couldn't get a single goal was frustrating."
Dartmouth outshot the Bulldogs 9-2 in the second half, forcing Sumiyasu to make four saves and keeping Hogan from having to make a single one.
"We give credit to them," Hind said. "They hung on to the lead."
The loss gives Dartmouth a record of 2-1 in Ivy League competition, keeping it at six points and in a tie for first place with Yale, which is 2-0 in conference play.
"There have been very few teams in recent years who've won the Ivy League with seven [conference] wins," Hind said.
The Big Green is also looking ahead to its next Ivy League matchup, an away game against the University of Pennsylvania (6-3-2, 1-2-0 Ivy) this Saturday at 5 p.m. Last year, Dartmouth defeated the Quakers by a score of 2-0.
