The Big Green women were tenacious during the match, firing off 21 shots, with eight on target, to the Wildcats' nine. UNH freshman goalkeeper Mimi Borkan stood tall in net, recording eight saves in 110 minutes of play. Tatiana Saunders '15 held her own for the Big Green, stopping four shots in the game for her fourth shutout of the season and her second in a row. Dartmouth has six shutouts this season.
"I thought we played pretty well," Corey Delaney '16 said. "It was a good game, but we didn't get the result we wanted. We need to come out harder from the start of the game, but overall we played pretty well."
Emma Brush '13 led the Big Green in shot attempts, putting two on goal. Delaney had the first shot on goal in the 12th minute of the game. Two minutes later, Lucielle Kozlov '16 had an impressive header on target, but the attempt was blocked.
The Wildcats' had one of the best scoring chances of the game in the 78th minute when they hit the crossbar and sent the rebound just wide of the cage for a goal kick.
Brush had an opportunity to score in the last two minutes of play, but Borkan stopped her first shot and her second sailed over the goal with 37 seconds left of the game.
In the overtime periods, both teams managed to direct shots at the opponent's net. The Big Green ended the game with a flurry of activity near the Wildcats' goal, but could make nothing of a shot and corner kick.
The Big Green also dominated in set pieces, earning six corner kicks to UNH's zero. The team's back line was solid all game, forcing the Wildcats into long shots that Saunders handled.
"One thing we've really made great strides in is our defense and focus," Brush said. "We started the season getting quite a few goals scored on us, but now we're really strong in the back. We've also become more possession-oriented as a team and we're really starting to take care of the ball."
The team is looking to capitalize on every opportunity on the field, and hopes these moments will be the key to improving on its second-place finish in the Ivy League last season.
"We want to improve on having possession all the way up the field and then taking advantage of every goal-scoring opportunity," Kelly Bach '16 said. "We should continue to take a lot of shots and test every goalkeeper, capitalizing on every half-chance we get."
The women's team has an uphill battle ahead as it enters the meat of its Ivy League schedule, but they have made great improvements between Ivy games, rebounding from a loss to Brown University to defeat Princeton University last Saturday.
"Our biggest success of the season was beating Princeton after dropping our first game to Brown," Bach said. "We showed a lot of heart and character to be able to come back from losing to Brown and we didn't let that dictate our entire Ivy League season."
The team only has five league games left and faces some of the stiffest competition in the Ancient Eight in its upcoming games, playing the top three teams in the league in three of their last four games.
"It will be tough," Brush said. "But I'm very confident in us and our abilities and the key is staying focused on one game at a time. Penn is a good team, same as Harvard and we have those matches coming up after Yale. But if we focus and play well, we will be successful."
Dartmouth will be on the road this weekend, playing Yale University on Saturday in New Haven, Conn.
"Last year we beat Yale, but they do have a lot of good players and it will be good competition," Delaney said. "They are coming off of a loss from Harvard, so I'm sure they'll be hungry."
