The women’s lacrosse team began its season with a dominant 15-7 win over the University of New Hampshire on Saturday and a 14-11 victory over the University of Connecticut at home on Wednesday. The men’s team saw less success, falling to No. 3 University of North Carolina 18-5 and dropping a close game to the University of Vermont, 13-8.
On Saturday, Liz Calby ’14 wrote her way into Dartmouth (2-0, 0-0 Ivy) history. In the game against UNH, with 1:57 left to play, Calby scored her fourth goal of the game and her 100th career point.
“It’s an honor, no doubt about that,” Calby said. “But honestly, I think it’s more a reflection of our team and how far we’ve come in the past few years. Looking back, I would say the team moments, winning Ivies, going to the NCAAs, have been more significant for me.”
The Big Green started strong. Calby scored just 13 seconds after the clock started, the fastest goal in Dartmouth women’s lacrosse history.
The Big Green refused to look back, extending its lead to three before UNH (1-2, 0-0 American East) appeared on the board. In fact, the smallest deficit the Wildcats faced was two goals at 3-1 and 4-2 Dartmouth. A huge 7-1 run by the Big Green that stretched from the 16:07 mark in the first half to the 11:39 in the second half put the game out of reach for UNH.
At halftime, the Wildcats trailed the Big Green 7-3.
“We really attacked them all over the field,” Calby said. “It was a really huge team effort.”
Dartmouth scored the first four goals of the second half with two from Sarah Byrne ’15 and one each from Danielle Lisovicz ’16 and Samantha Schiff ’15.
The Big Green played strong defense as well, as goalkeeper Kristen Giovanniello ’14 only had to make five saves over the course of the game, all of which came in the second half. The Big Green women outshot their Granite State counterparts with 35-13 in the game.
Dartmouth’s victory over UNH marks Giovanniello’s 35th career victory.
The Big Green also dominated draws 19-6. Despite winning the turnover battle 17-19, the Dartmouth women were sloppier in the second half, losing 12-9 in turnovers during the frame. The teams tied the ground ball battle 14-14.
Byrne contributed four goals and Jaclyn Leto ’16 also scored three. Leto also contributed an assist during the game. This was Byrne’s third consecutive game with four goals dating back to last season.
Dartmouth’s eight-goal win is the largest margin of victory in an opener for the women’s lacrosse team since it defeated UNH 13-3 in 2003.
On Wednesday afternoon, the team returned to Hanover for its first home game of the season and continued its fast start, defeating UConn 14-11.
After finding itself in a quick two-goal hole less than four minutes in the game, the Big Green responded with four consecutive goals, including three from Byrne, to take a 4-2 lead.
The game was competitive throughout as the Huskies (1-2, 0-0 Big East) never fell more than four goals behind.
Byrne led the way with a dominant performance for the Big Green, scoring a career-high six goals and eight points. Beyond her scoring touch, the junior also contributed seven draw controls, another career high.
Calby also had a strong night scoring four goals and adding an assist for five points.
The men traveled to the University of Vermont Tuesday and fell 13-8, despite a late-game surge, coming off a tough opening loss to No. 3 UNC.
The Big Green played aggressive offense, outshooting the Catamounts 40-30. However, Vermont’s sophomore goalie Justin Rosenberg made an impressive 13 saves to contribute to Vermont’s victory.
The Big Green also lead significantly in groundballs, 49-29.
“I thought we played very hard yesterday after a quick turnaround following a long trip against an extremely talented North Carolina team,” midfielder Patrick Resch ’14 said. “We competed hard in the areas of the game that we need to dominate in order to be successful like groundballs and faceoffs, but unfortunately the score didn’t dictate that.”
Vermont surged early in the game, taking a 5-3 score to lead early in the second quarter. The Big Green still maintained its aggressive offense in the second quarter, with Billy Heidt ’16 and KC Beard ’16 scoring three minutes apart to tie the score.
However, Vermont scored three consecutive goals at the end of the first half, entering the break with an 8-5 lead. The Big Green and UVM each scored two goals in the third, but Vermont took control at the start of the fourth quarter, bringing the score to 12-7 and putting the game out of reach.
Despite the early setback, the team remains optimistic heading into the season in the competitive Ivy League.
“Some of the biggest challenges that we’re going to face are a product of playing in an extremely competitive league,” Resch said. “We love being in this type of environment, and the talent across the board in our league and in the whole country has increased over the past few years to the point that every team can have success on any given day,” he said, citing the team’s 10-9 win against Princeton last April as an example.
The men will travel to Dallas this weekend to play Sacred Heart University in the Patriot Cup.
Hayden Aldredge contributed reporting.
