Although the faceoff between Dartmouth (7-4, 0-3 Ivy) ranked seventh and Cornell, the sixth-seeded team, was close, the Dartmouth women's team had defeated Cornell earlier this season at the Ivy Scrimmages and improved from last season's 2-7 loss.
Julia Watson '12 achieved the most exciting victory for the Big Green in the number nine position. Watson's match went to four games, with Watson winning the first relatively easily, 11-6, before trading games and finally pulling out the win in the fourth game, 11-7.
Kensy Balch '14 fought hard but ultimately fell in five games to Cornell's number six, sophomore Alexandra Glassman. Balch dropped the first game, 11-8, but came back strong to take the next two, 11-9 and 11-2. Glassman rebounded, however, and took the fourth and fifth games, 11-6 and 11-5.
Three of the four wins that the Big Green secured were straight three-game victories. Corey Schafer '13, Rebecca Lau '13 and Melina Turk '14 all beat their opponents without dropping a game. Shafer played in the number three position, fighting to win 12-10, 11-9 and 12-10.
Lau had an easier match in the number four position, winning 11-9, 11-7 and 11-6 to collect her victory. Turk's success at number seven came even more comfortably, and she took down her opponent 11-4, 11-5 and 11-6.
Captain Hannah Conant '11 said she was satisfied with the team's performance, noting that she believed the Big Green was prepared for the matchup. Conant herself fell in the number two spot, 13-11, 11-6 and 11-9.
"Cornell is always a really tough, close match and today could have gone either way," Conant said. "The matches were tight and we even had a bunch of five-gamers. Everybody played really, really well."
Conant said that knowing the match would be close likely impacted the Big Green performance.
"It is always really tough to play last," she said. "As matches finish and the end gets closer, some people want to know the importance of their match and others hate to know. But, everyone knows their match is important and each of us has an equal share in a win."
On Sunday, the women's team had an unofficial scrimmage with members from the University of Rochester women's team. Dartmouth won, 7-2, in the relatively low-stress matchup, which boosted the women's team morale, according to Conant.
The women have an important weekend coming up, with matches against Princeton University, Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania.
"Stanford is our biggest match of the year," Conant said. "Last year we lost to them 3-6 but there were a bunch of close matches. We are predicting an equally close time this year and look forward to the chance to win."
The Big Green men had two matches this weekend, falling 2-7 to both Cornell and Rochester. Dartmouth (7-4, 0-2 Ivy) was ranked seventh and Cornell (6-3, 3-2 Ivy) was ranked sixth coming into the weekend.
The loss ended a three-match winning streak for the men's team.
Robbie Maycock '13 won the most exciting match of the day at the number five position, taking down Big Red sophomore Rishi Jalan in five games. After dropping the first two games, 2-11 and 5-11, Maycock fought hard to win the next three games and take the match.
Co-captain Mike Lewis '11 said Maycock's efforts were unmatched in the game.
"Robbie was down two and then came back to win the next three," Lewis said. "Pulling out close victories like this is what we need to build off of as a team."
Teammate Brian O'Toole '12 won the other match for the Big Green in number six, beating junior David Hilton in four games. After a close first game win, the two traded games before O'Toole prevailed in the fourth, 11-4.
Chris Jung '14, Fletcher Pease '14 and Alex Kurth '13 all lost their matches in five games.
"The match was much closer than it looks on paper," Hansi Wiens said. "We fought hard and played well but Cornell got lucky in the end. Many of the matches could have gone either way. Many guys lost their early games but fought back to keep the match alive."
Chris Hanson '13 won in the number one position in a five-game battle against Rochester, beating junior Benjamin Fischer in the first two games but losing the following two. He was able to rebound, however, to win the fifth game, 11-6.
"Hanson's win today was phenomenal," Lewis said.
Kurth also went to five games before defeating his number nine opponent, senior Edwin Goncharuk. After a rough start in which he dropped the first two games, 10-12 and 9-11, Kurth took the next three to narrowly win.
"Hanson proved how tough he was and it was amazing how fresh he looked despite a tough four-game match the day before," Wiens said. "The guys are getting stronger and stronger each week and the training is definitely right. They can all play two hard matches in a weekend and not be tired."
Lewis said he was proud of the way the team prepared for the weekend's tough challenges.
"The team played extremely well this weekend and the scores from both days are not indicative of how we played," Lewis said. "We were biting tooth and nail in every match and it kept coming down to a couple of points."
The men's team will be back on the road to face League opponents Princeton and Penn next weekend.
"Everyone is improving and we keep getting better," Lewis said. "We hope to make a statement against both teams next weekend. Princeton is a good team that we match up with well and we must beat Penn to stay in the top eight."
Wiens said capitalizing on improvement is the ultimate goal at this stage in the season.
"It is not about winning or losing at this point," he said. "It is about showing the players how the work from the last couple of months allows them to play close to so many others and to see where they can be."