The Dartmouth women's lacrosse team reached impressive individual milestones and achieved two important team wins over spring break. Dartmouth lost to third-ranked Duke University but bounced back to beat the University of Oregon and Columbia University.
Tri-captains Kat Collins '11 scored her 100th career goal and Shannie MacKenzie '11 reached her 100th grounball for Dartmouth (5-2, 2-0 Ivy) over the break, following head coach Amy Patton's 200th career victory in early March.
Dartmouth played its last game of Winter term on March 9, losing to Boston University, 9-7. The team then experienced a 10-day stretch without any games, pausing for reading period and final exams.
Tri-captain Greta Meyer '11 said she believed the extra practice and game time that spring break allowed significantly helped the team.
"We came off a bad loss to [Boston University] before break," Meyer said. "We seemed to just hit that wall and couldn't get through it. We had intense practices at school and then went down to North Carolina to play [Duke]."
The Terriers (5-4, 1-0 America East) proved tough competition, delivering Dartmouth's first defeat of the season. The game was extremely physical, and included three yellow cards for each team and a combined 49 fouls.
The teams played a close offensive game Dartmouth took 22 shots, compared to Boston University's 21. Rookie goalie Kristen Giovanniello '14 recorded six stops for the Big Green and Meyer and Kristen Goldberg '12 each scored two goals for Dartmouth.
Boston University took an early 2-0 lead before Goldberg scored off a pass from Sarah Parks '12. The Terriers scored four more past Giovanniello in the first half. Goldberg, Meyer and Erin Massimi '12 each netted goals before the end of the half, however, narrowing Boston University's lead to two.
The Big Green came out strong in the second half, utilizing two early goals from Sarah Plumb '12 and a free-position goal from Meyer. Boston University did not let up, however, following Dartmouth's run with three unanswered goals.
Courtney Bennett '13 snagged the last draw control of the game, leading to the Big Green's final goal.
The team then traveled to Durham, N.C., to face Duke, its toughest competition of the season so far. The Blue Devils (8-1) are ranked third in the nation and beat the Big Green, 15-7.
The Blue Devils dominated possession in the game, winning 17 draw controls to the Big Green's six. Dartmouth and Duke played a very even second half, scoring six goals each, but the Big Green could not rebound from a 9-1 first-half hole.
Despite the high score, Giovanniello had a spectacular day and made 13 saves in goal. The Blue Devils scored four goals in the opening eight minutes of play and another five before the half ran out.
Collins put the Big Green on the board with seconds remaining in the half.
Meyer opened the second half by scoring on a free position shot. Liz Calby '14 finished a feed from Plumb, before Plumb scored on a free position with 15 minutes to play, narrowing the score to 12-4.
Calby then scored again, this time off a pass from Collins, before Goldberg wrapped up Dartmouth's scoring with two goals in the final minutes of play.
Dartmouth won a close game against the University of Oregon, 12-10. Collins who became the 15th Dartmouth player to score 100 goals had an outstanding game, scoring six goals and tallying two assists. Four of her six goals came in the game's first six minutes.
Giovanniello had another impressive game in goal, earning 13 saves in her third game of the season with double-digit saves. MacKenzie played well on defense, picking up four ground balls and causing three turnovers.
Possession was fairly even during the game, with each team securing 12 draw controls.
Goals came in bunches in the first half Dartmouth scored three goals in 40 seconds, before Oregon (4-6) immediately followed with a three-goal run. The half ended with a 9-4 score.
Oregon came out strong in the second half, scoring three unanswered goals to narrow the score to 10-8 with under 10 minutes to play. Collins netted her final goal of the contest and Parks scored her only goal of the game to complete the Big Green's total. Oregon finished the game with two goals in the last two minutes.
Dartmouth overpowered League foe Columbia (1-5, 0-3 Ivy), 15-7, in its most recent game. Giovaniello, who currently is saving over 50 percent of shots against her, had eight saves against the Lions to bring her season total to 59.
The Big Green opened with an early lead, utilizing goals from Collins and Meyer in the game's opening minute. A strike from Parks and a pair of goals from Calby followed in the next five minutes, before Meyer, Plumb, Calby and MacKenzie each scored a goal to give the team nine goals at the end of the first half. The Big Green held Columbia to only one goal all half.
Columbia refused to back down and scored five unanswered goals after the break. The Big Green was able to maintain its momentum from the first half, however. Collins had a second-half hat trick, Calby and Plumb scored their final goals of the game and Hana Bowers '13 finished with a free position shot.
MacKenzie reached the 100-goal milestone in the game.
"We are on the upswing and everyone is starting to play consistently, which is really important," Meyer said. "I think we have found our groove. We need to focus on the game plan so we know how to beat teams. If we bring our A-game and play how we know, we can give every team a run for their money."
The team will face difficult competition in the second half of season, playing top-ranked teams like the University of Maryland, Syracuse University and the University of Pennsylvania last year's League champions. Dartmouth will also play League rivals Cornell University, Princeton University and Harvard University.
"Any Ivy game is a huge rivalry that we get really excited about," Meyer said. "You never know what can happen in any Ivy game so we have to be really focused and play our game."
The team will play six of its final seven games on its own home turf at Scully-Fahey Field, begining with Brown University on Saturday at 4 p.m.
