Boxscore

Cambridge, Mass. - The Dartmouth women's soccer team saw it's Ivy title hopes dashed in heartbreaking fashion when Harvard broke a 1-1 tie with less than four minutes to play and held on for the 2-1 win in a hotly contested battle.

It was a pivotal match-up for both teams as the Crimson's late flurry - five shots in the last six minutes - gave it a share of the Ivy title, improving 8-6-1, 5-1 Ivy. Dartmouth dropped to 8-7, 3-3 Ivy and cannot catch Harvard, which holds a one-game lead over Yale (4-2 Ivy) with one weekend to play. The Crimson has seized at least a share of the Ivy title and holds the tiebreaker over Yale to receive the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Dartmouth-Harvard is always one of the most anticipated and hard-fought contests of the Ivy season and this year's meeting was no exception as the squads also contended with 30 mph winds. Both teams were on the board within the first 20 minutes and after battling for 66 more, appeared headed to overtime before Katherine Sheeleigh's strike gave the Crimson a 2-1 advantage. The Big Green held an offensive edge for most of the contest, but Harvard caught up quickly with a tremendous rally, firing four good shots in just one minute. Dartmouth ultimately outshot Harvard, 15-12, and each team took seven corner kicks.

The Big Green set the tone early and looked poised for more when sophomore Aly O'Dea (Irvine, Calif.) scored in just the seventh minute off a cross from Ally Dutton (Granite Bay, Calif.) to go up 1-0. Harvard earned a pair of corner kicks that were cleared by goalie Colleen Hogan (Houston, Texas) and the Big Green defense before O'Dea fired another shot wide in the 18th. Harvard's third corner proved the charm in the 20th when Sheeleigh scored her first goal of the game off a Melanie Baskind offering to make it 1-1.

Both teams tried to gain an advantage before halftime including trading shots saved by Hogan and her Harvard counterpart, Lauren Mann. Becky Poskin (Leawood, Kan.) fired one saved by Mann in the 28th and had her rebound shot go just wide. That would be it for offensive attempts in the first as the teams made it to halftime tied 1-1. The Big Green held the shot advantage in the first, 6-3 while withstanding six Crimson corners kicks.

Dartmouth opened the second with a tough break as O'Dea fired and hit the crossbar in the 49th minute. The Big Green kept the pressure on, with Dutton heading a Melisa Krnjaic (Washington, D.C.) corner wide and Ali Hubbard (Marshfield, Mass.) firing in a shot saved by Mann. Harvard's first real threat of the half came in the 61st when Hogan saved an attempt by Baskind. The Big Green countered off a corner just minutes later but Hubbard had her header saved by Mann.

The Big Green held an edge as the half went on, but both squads were clawing to get the go-ahead goal. Dartmouth's defense blocked a shot by Sheeleigh at 79:22 and Poskin took the rebound down field herself, making a great run only to be deflated when her shot hit the post. The Green earned another corner but saw another Hubbard attempt go high minutes later.

Harvard rallied late in the game and caught the Dartmouth defense off guard with a flurry of activity in the 85th minute. Hogan made back-to-back saves four seconds apart against Baskind and the defense blocked an attempt by Gina Wideroff. Sheeleigh fired high off a corner but the Crimson regrouped after a Dartmouth foul seconds later. She made good on her second of the day in a scramble, scoring to the near post off a cross from Kerry Kartsonis to go up 2-1 in the 87th. Dartmouth did all it could in the closing minutes but Kelsey Quick (Bernardsville, N.J.) had her shot blocked and Hubbard's went wide in the final effort.

Hogan and Mann each made four saves in goal for their respective teams.

"Our corner kicks were the biggest threat to Harvard and we pressured in the second but couldn't get enough chances in the box," said head coach Angie Hind. "We have two games to play, so we'll go out to make our record as strong as we can."

The loss is undoubtedly a tough one to swallow for Dartmouth and its six seniors, but the Big Green must regroup quickly before heading to Bryant for a 3 p.m. start on Tuesday. The final home game of the season is next Saturday against Cornell at 6:30 p.m.