The Big Green enjoyed a balanced attack over the weekend, seeing goals from five different players, including a four-goal weekend for Janine Leger '15. Dartmouth secured at least a second-place finish in the Ivy League with one more game remaining. The Big Green is one game behind Princeton University, which remains undefeated in Ivy League play.
"Our team has consistency we have never had in previous seasons, and going into each game, we wanted to build on our strengths and really play our own game, concentrating on keeping possession and releasing the ball early," Ali Savage '15 said.
On Saturday, Dartmouth outshot the Crimson, 16-3, in the first 35 minutes of the game. Despite dominating the half, the Crimson got on the board first with a score by Caroline Code just 1:33 into the game. The early one-goal deficit was short-lived, though Leger scored the first of two goals off an assist from Liz Blanken '13 about three minutes later to tie the game.
"Our ability to bounce back and take the game into our hands was an extremely positive thing coming out of the game," Samantha McPherson '13 said.
Savage also continued her recent success, scoring her seventh goal in the last four games at the beginning of the second half. Co-captain took advantage of her last Ivy contest late in the second half, tallying her ninth goal on the season and the last of the game.
"When we keep possession and move the ball around the back, we are able to create a lot of attacking opportunities," Savage said.
Maya Herm '13 and McPherson also provided a spark with a combined three shots against Harvard's defense. Goalie Jenna Stearns '13 only had to make one save in the game in 70 minutes of play. The victory over Harvard extended the Big Green's winning streak to four games.
"Being able to say I've never lost to Harvard is awesome," McPherson said. "My fellow teammates are all inspirational, funny, smart and bad*ss women. I have enjoyed playing alongside them so much. Coach [Amy] Fowler has been head coach here for 13 seasons now and never has a class made it freshman year to senior year intact. My classmates and I told each other freshman fall that we were going to change it, that all five of us would start, and all five of us would finish. It's a great feeling to accomplish that goal."
Due to a scheduling change, the Big Green had one more home game on Sunday against the Wildcats (10-7, 5-0 America East), but Dartmouth could not continue its winning streak after forcing overtime.
With the game tied at three late in the second half, UNH's Megan Bozek found the goal on the penalty shot. Herm quickly provided the equalizer just over a minute later with a goal on a corner play off an assist from Eliza Becker '16, sending the game into overtime.
"I'm so proud of the way our team fought back to take the game to overtime," Blanken said. "Even though it ended as a loss, we played well and stayed in it the whole game."
A little under six minutes into overtime, Kellie Joyce put away the Big Green for good on an unassisted goal to give UNH the 5-4 victory. The game was an emotional affair as both teams received one yellow card and one green card during the match.
"We knew UNH was going to be a tough game it's always a battle," McPherson said. "We wanted to make a mark in the region, and even though the game didn't go our way in the end, we battled hard, took the game to overtime and had some really great goals."
Dartmouth jumped out to an early lead thanks to the play of Leger, who tallied a goal and an assist to Maggie Scanlon '14 to give Dartmouth a 2-0 lead.
"Our passing and connection between players and lines is better than it's ever been," McPherson said. "Our defenders have great confidence and composure on the ball, and their ability to carry the ball forward and get our offensive attack started was a huge strength of ours against Harvard and UNH."
The Big Green will travel to Ithaca, N.Y. next week to face Cornell University (8-8, 3-3 Ivy) in its last Ivy game of the year at noon on Saturday. League-leader Princeton University (15-1, 6-0 Ivy) will take on the University of Pennsylvania at home in its final game of the season on Saturday.
"We have one last Ivy game left, and heading into Cornell, we want to end the season on a high note more then ever after this weekend," Savage said. "We hope to capitalize on every opportunity we create and really make a statement."
