For the second time in a row, the Dartmouth men's lacrosse team was shutout in the first half. This weekend against No. 6 Princeton University, the Big Green lost by a final score of 16-2.
Dartmouth (3-6, 1-3 Ivy) only managed to win six faceoffs, while Princeton (9-2, 4-0 Ivy) won 16.
"You have to be able to possess the ball to win," head coach Andy Towers said. "We weren't able to do that, and it made it very difficult."
Towers also credited Princeton's "very good" and "efficient" offense.
Co-captain Andy Gagel '10 said that faceoffs were definitely a struggle for the Big Green.
"It allowed them to get a lead and build on it," he said. "It turned into a spiral effect."
Six different players scored for Princeton in the first half, and the Tigers outshot Dartmouth 25-10.
Dartmouth starting goalie Fergus Campbell '12 did not make it to halftime, playing 27 minutes and recording seven saves before being relieved by Michael Novosel '10. Ryan Alexander '13 would also play later in the game.
Co-captain Ari Sussman '10 scored the Big Green's first goal approximately two minutes into the third quarter to make the score 11-1.
Josh Etzion '11 scored later in a man-up situation to notch Dartmouth's second and final goal of the game.
Besides faceoffs, Princeton dominated in shots and groud balls outshooting Dartmouth 41-22 and winning 41 ground balls to Dartmouth's 20.
Despite losses in the past two weeks, the Big Green still controls its own destiny for the Ivy League tournament.
"We are still very much alive," Towers said. "The recent games are not indicative of our team"
The tournament consists of the top four teams from regular season Ivy play, and the winner gains an automatic birth to the NCAA tournament. This is the first year the Ivy League has had a postseason tournament. Dartmouth has not made the NCAA tournament since 2003, when it lost to Syracuse University in the first round.
Dartmouth is currently tied with No. 20 Harvard University (5-5, 1-3 Ivy) for fifth in the standings the Crimson own the tiebreaker, as it beat Dartmouth, 13-11, earlier in the season and is one game behind No. 19 Brown University (5-5, 2-2 Ivy) for fourth.
Dartmouth will qualify for the tournament if it wins its two remaining Ivy games against Brown and the University of Pennsylvania (5-7, 1-4 Ivy) and Harvard loses one of its remaining two Ivy games. Harvard will have a tough time, as its final two conference games are against Princeton and No. 16 Yale University (9-2, 3-2 Ivy).
Towers said he is optimistic about Dartmouth's chances of winning the last two games and gaining an entry into the tournament.
"If you told us at the beginning of the season that we would have to beat Brown and Penn to get into the Ivy League tournament, we would have jumped at that chance," he said.
For now, Dartmouth must improve in a mid-week non-conference game against the University of Vermont (3-9, 2-1 America East).
Towers says that the team will not look forward to the Ivy competitions that decide its season or back on its recent losses, but will instead focus on the fundamentals.
"Tuesday is going to be a big day," Gagel said.
Dartmouth will travel to Vermont on Tuesday for a 3 p.m. matchup against the Catamounts.
