"I was really happy with the way we played on Saturday," head coach Amy Fowler said. "We came out with a big Ivy win, which we needed I was pleased."
The Dartmouth team was aggressive from the start with Kelly Hood '12 putting the Big Green ahead 2-0 early in the game.
Dartmouth's offensive push continued when Maya Herm '13 teamed up with Olivia Quaglia '14 for the third Big Green score with only 10:51 on the clock.
Unfortunately, the Quakers were able to put one on the scoreboard when junior Kirsten Snyder capitalized on one of the few errors Dartmouth had in the game. Snyder scooped up a turnover and became locked in a foot race with Lisa Masini '13. Snyder finally got the better of the Big Green and put the ball past a hard-charging Meagan Vakiener '12.
Going into the second half, Dartmouth had the lead and control of the game leading both in shots, 8-4, and in penalty corners, 4-1.
The Big Green continued to control the flow of the game when Kelly McHenry '11 put in the fourth goal of the game for Dartmouth her fifth of the season. Less than four minutes later, Samantha McPherson '13 scored another goal for the Big Green bringing the score to 5-1.
Sinking the final two goals of the game, Hood and Quaglia were able to find the back of the net off of a rebound and a turnover, respectively.
Dartmouth finished with a total of 23 shots to Penn's seven while amassing seven corners to the Quakers' three.
The team saw disappointing results on Sunday when it fell to the Black Bears, 6-1. Despite the score, the Big Green finished with just one less shot than Maine at 19-20 and had five corner attempts to the Black Bear's 10.
Maine put pressure on Dartmouth right off the bat and struck first, when junior forward Kelly Newton scored her first goal off their third corner attempt. Just a few minutes later, Newton scored again.
Newton went on to score another goal, after getting the ball at midfield, coming in alone on the goal and shooting past Vakiener. Newton had an especially impressive performance for Maine, ending the game with four goals and one assist.
The Big Green's lone goal in the game came when co-captain Claire Byrne '11 and McHenry teamed up to bring the ball down most of the length of the field. McHenry was able to catch the Maine goalie off guard to put the ball into the back of the net.
Overall, the team sees a lack of consistency as the basis for its disappointing performance, according to Fowler.
"We played disconnected," she said. "We did not support one another, and we tried to do too much individually."
Co-captain Virginia Peisch '11 added that a lack of communication really hurt the team against Maine.
"We definitely didn't have our strongest game," she said. "We were inconsistent, and we did not play as a team for the full 70 minutes."
The team is looking to finish as one of the top three teams in the region, and its next two games are particularly crucial in its pursuit of that goal, according to Peisch.
"We're focusing on the games ahead of us," Peisch said. "These next two games are really important regional games, and our ultimate goal is to finish really high in our region."
The Big Green field hockey team will travel to Durham, N.H., to take on the University of New Hampshire on Oct. 6, before making another trip to Boston, Mass., to face the Boston Terriers on Oct. 10.
