In her last game in Big Green uniform, co-captain Kelsey Quick '10's strong play propelled the Dartmouth women's soccer team to a 2-0 victory over Cornell in the season finale on Saturday. The victory gave Dartmouth a winning record in the Ivy League for the season.
"It was an emotional game," Quick said. "We came out and played for each other."
Dartmouth (10-7, 4-3 Ivy) took a 1-0 lead in the 23rd minute when Cornell defender Sidra Bonner unintentionally scored on her own goal while attempting to clear a cross by Quick that sailed across the front of the Big Red net.
Nine minutes after the first goal, in the 32nd minute, Quick made another cross from the right wing and connected with Becky Poskin '10, who put the ball into an open net for her third goal of the season.
"Both goals came off great passes to me," Quick said. "I just put the ball in front of the net and good things happened."
The Big Green got off to a strong start when, just 37 seconds into the game, Aly O'Dea '12 fired a shot from outside of the box that sailed just high of the net.
The Big Green later missed a golden opportunity halfway through the first period when the team had three shots on goal within a span of 10 seconds. The first two shots were blocked by a Cornell (1-13-1, 0-7 Ivy) defender who was standing on the goal line.
Cornell goalkeeper Megan Bartlett made a miraculous save on the third shot, which came from point-blank range.
With momentum on its side, the Big Green continued its relentless attack and dominated the first half, as Cornell barely moved the ball into its own offensive zone.
The Big Green outshot the Big Red 11-0 in the first half.
The second half saw more offensive success by Cornell, but Dartmouth was able to hold out for the shutout.
In the 75th minute, Cornell forward Brook Chang got a shot off from inside the box, but Dartmouth goalie Colleen Hogan '12 was ready for the test, and made a diving stop to keep the score at 2-0.
Dartmouth nearly scored again in the 83rd minute, but the goal was called back, as one of the Dartmouth players was ruled offsides.
In the final minutes of the game, the Big Red tried to mount a last-minute comeback. With three minutes left to play, Hogan made another save on a shot from Chang, this time from right outside of the box.
Dartmouth outshot Cornell 15-4 in the contest.
Before the game, all six seniors Quick, Poskin, Myra Sack '10, Ali Hubbard '10, Jenny Stone '10 and Thea Sutton '10 were honored as part of the Senior Night celebration. The seniors started and finished the game together.
"This senior class is simply phenomenal," head coach Angie Hind said. "It will be a challenge to replace them next year."
After the win, most Big Green seniors had tears in their eyes as they celebrated the bittersweet win. Most likely, this game was the last competitive soccer game they will play.
"It has been a blast playing with five of my best friends in the past four years," Quick said. "Today's game was a good finish to our Dartmouth careers."
The current senior class led Dartmouth to 35 wins, including 17 Ivy victories in the past four seasons. The team was ranked as high as No. 13 while the members of the Class of 2010 were freshmen.
Sack has been named one of 10 national finalists for the Lowe's Senior Class Award, which recognizes excellence on the field, in the classroom and in the community.
As a team, the Big Green looked promising after the team got off to a 2-0 start in the Ivy League with wins over Brown and Princeton. Devastating losses to Yale and the University of Pennsylvania, however, quickly dashed the team's hopes.
In a final attempt to resurrect its season, the Big Green battled Harvard a week ago in hopes of going to 4-2 in the Ivy League. A crushing goal with less than four minutes to play by Harvard, however, effectively ended all hopes of postseason play for the Big Green.
After a non-conference win at Bryant College, the team made a strong showing against Cornell at home to finish off a winning season.
