The Quakers (11-5, 7-0 Ivy) defeated Cornell University 10-5 in their semifinal matchup to earn a spot in the finals, where they ousted Dartmouth 10-7 to secure the Ivy League Championship and a berth to the NCAA tournament.
After the game finished, the Big Green found that they had received an at-large bid to play Boston College in the NCAA tournament next week.
As the clock struck noon on Sunday, the Big Green took the field against the Quakers to vie for the championship. Penn managed to convert three eight-meter penalty shots and net another pair of goals off of offensive sets in the first half. Hana Bowers '13 scored the lone goal in the first half for the Big Green off of a feed from Liz Calby '14, and Dartmouth entered halftime down 5-1.
Penn tallied another eight-meter at the opening of the second half. The duo of Co-captain Bowers and Calby worked together to each net a goal to narrow the margin to three. Bennett drove in and passed the ball out to Bowers, who ran the ball behind the cage to the other side and fed Calby over the top of the goal so she could quick stick the ball in. After working the ball around on attack, Bowers did a roll dodge past her defender to get inside of her and get off a bounce shot in the midst of a pack of crashing defenders.
"Penn is the most disciplined team that we play all year," Bowers said in an email. "They carried out their game plan to a T. They aim to possess the ball in their attack for long attacking sets to not give the other team too many opportunities to score."
The Quakers ran off three unanswered goals, including another penalty shot to extend the lead back out to 9-3. With 15 minutes left to play, Bowers and Calby once again worked together around the crease to each find the back of the net. Penn rounded out its total at 10 with a final completion on attack. Down by five with five minutes to play, Calby rolled the crease and finished an eight-meter to add the final two goals for the Big Green.
Penn collected 11 draw controls to Dartmouth's eight and Kristen Giovanniello '14 turned away nine shots in the final game.
"Penn was getting the draw," Bennett said in an email. "Once we were getting the draw we turned it around, but it's hard to climb out of such a big hole."
Despite the 10-7 loss, the Big Green heard soon after the game that they would head to the NCAA tournament and will have another chance to prove themselves on the field.
"We are on cloud nine right now," Bowers said. "The second they announced Dartmouth' we were screaming, crying and hugging each other. All we needed was one more shot, and we got it. We haven't played nearly as well as we can, and we refuse to end this season without reaching that potential."
In the semis, Dartmouth came out sharp with three straight goals in the first eight minutes of the game. Calby tallied the first two and Jaclyn Leto '16 tacked on the third. Just like the last time the two teams faced each other, long runs were quickly equalized with streaks by the opponent. The Tigers netted three goals to tie up the game.
Bowers made her first goal to retake the lead, but Princeton responded eight seconds later to knot the score at four apiece. Co-captain Kelsey Johnson '13 converted an eight-meter and co-captain Courtney Bennett '13 finished to increase the lead to two. As before, the Tigers rallied back and added three goals before halftime to gain control of the score at the break.
Back out on the turf, Leto and Bowers each tallied early goals to go up by one goal. A pair of Tiger goals again changed the lead with 13 minutes left in regulation. Bowers rocked back and forth with her back to the cage before turning and firing the ball into the top right corner to tie up the game 9-9. Princeton responded with a feed from up top to a cutter inside the eight, who turned and shot the ball past goalie Giovanniello, leaving six minutes left on the clock.
Bowers would not relent and drew an eight-meter penalty shot to secure the tie, which would ultimately send the game into overtime. A few fast steps in from the left hash put her in a position to direct the ball into the net with her right hand.
The Big Green pulled down the ensuing draw and Bowers earned another eight-meter, but this time the Princeton goalkeeper made the save. Unable to clear the ball up field, Dartmouth regained possession and held the ball behind the cage until there were 20 seconds left on the clock. The Big Green was unable to get a good look on goal before time expired.
The Tigers pulled in the draw control at the start of overtime, but were unable to generate any threatening chances in the first three-minute period. The black and orange again secured the draw control in the second overtime, and as the last seconds ran off the clock, they generated a shot that Giovanniello turned away to keep the Big Green alive. Giovanniello finished with six saves in the game.
The final 90 seconds of the game were filled with action up and down the field. The Tigers won the draw but then turned the ball over. Bowers tried to come around the crease but was called for an offensive charge. wThe Tigers again turned the ball over out of bounds as they tried to clear it, giving the ball back to the Big Green once more. With the ball in her stick, Bowers drove in and was fouled. From the center hash she took two steps in with her left hand, switched her stick to her right hand and finished with a shot back across the crease into the upper left hand corner for the win.
"We wanted to get the draw and, if not, to play good, disciplined defense," Bennett said in an email. "Once we got possession we had a two-play sequence to run. We ended up having to play two strong sets of defense, which really ended up winning the game for us."
The team's captains said the draw control would be the key to beating Princeton and, while they were unable to snag any of the final three in overtime, the Big Green still managed to top the Tigers 15-10 on draw controls. Dartmouth also maintained possession once they won it on defense and had a perfect 7-7 clearing record. The Tigers struggled at times to transition up field, losing possession four times on clears.
