Despite a goal in the first half from play-maker Kelly Hood '12, the Dartmouth women's field hockey team lost a grueling contest to the No. 11 Boston University Terriers, by a score of 1-4. The loss marks the second time this season that the Big Green (8-3, 2-1 Ivy) fell to a nationally ranked opponent.
"We had some scoring opportunities that we failed to capitalize on," Kelly McHenry '11 said. "In big games, you're not going to get many shots, and you need to make every chance count."
The Terriers (9-4, 2-0 America East) used its versatile offense to overwhelm the Dartmouth defense. BU outshot Dartmouth 21 to 6 and tallied two goals off of penalty corners.
"BU has a pretty good goalie, and she blocked one of Kelly [Hood's] penalty corner shots that she usually scores on," Kerry Bracco '11 said. "I think they were anticipating some of our shots because she was definitely prepared for them."
The Terriers did an excellent job of preventing Dartmouth from obtaining penalty corners. The Big Green typically attempts more than eight penalty corners per game, but BU limited the Dartmouth squad to only five attempts.
BU also capitalized on its home-field advantage and scored the first goal less than three minutes into the contest. Dartmouth, however, evened the game at 1-1 less than four minutes later. The dominant offensive trio of Hood, McHenry and co-captain Virginia Peisch '11 combined for the goal off of a penalty corner.
Peisch put the ball into play to McHenry who fed the ball to a waiting Hood. Hood finished the play with an excellent shot that sailed high and right of the Terrier goalkeeper. Unfortunately, the three could not use their chemistry to produce another score.
Despite the early action, the game remained a stalemate for the rest of the first half.
"I think we played a really strong first half," Peisch said. "I felt like the first 35 minutes were balanced between BU and us. In the second half, we lost a little bit of confidence. They scored twice, and we lost our momentum."
After the intermission, BU dominated the second half and scored three unanswered goals from three different players. Although barraged with 22 shots, goalkeeper Megan Vakiener performed admirably in net and tallied eight saves on the day.
"I'm proud of my team we really challenged them," Peisch said. "They're ranked number 11 in the country, and it's cool to see that we're really not that far away from the top."
All three of Dartmouth's losses have come at the hands of teams who have received top 20 votes.
The Big Green, however, still remains on pace to finish its best regular season in recent history. With six games remaining, the Big Green needs only two more victories to record its first 10-win season in eight years.
Dartmouth continues its tough midseason schedule with a home contest against a very strong University of Massachusetts squad. The game against the Minutemen will be the Big Green's fourth out of five straight games against teams who have currently received top 20 votes. It is also Dartmouth's fifth game in 10 days.
"We take the regional teams like BU and UMass very seriously," McHenry said. "Although they're not in the Ivies, they are usually ranked. If we can go out and win these games it makes a big statement.
Dartmouth still remains optimistic about its chances to advance and succeed in the postseason. With the season over half finished, the Big Green will increase its chances at an eventual playoff berth with a win against UMass. Fueled by the defeat to BU, Dartmouth immediately started to correct factors that contributed to the loss, Bracco said.
"We worked a lot on our individual defense today during practice," she said. "We noticed from the video that it was something we could improve on and that it was something BU did very well. They were all very disciplined and proactive in their defense, and that was part of the reason it was hard to get by them."
UMass travels to Hanover on Tuesday to take on the Big Green at Chase Field at 3:00 p.m. Dartmouth will follow up with another home game against the nationally ranked Yale Bulldogs on Saturday at noon.
