Seventh-Ranked Quakers Hold Off Big Green Rally

Saturday, April 12

Hanover, N.H.

1:00 p.m.

Dartmouth College

Penn

Seventh-Ranked Quakers Hold Off Big Green Rally

4/12/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

Hanover, N.H. ? Things got interesting late in the game, but the Dartmouth women's lacrosse team ran out of time in its comeback bid, falling 8-5 to #7 Penn this afternoon at Scully-Fahey Field.

The Big Green (5-6, 1-4 Ivy) welcomed the Quakers (10-1, 5-0 Ivy) for the first game of the season on the newly resurfaced Scully-Fahey Field. The home of Dartmouth lacrosse since 2000, Scully-Fahey is now outfitted with a new Field Turf surface.

Dartmouth struck first when freshman Greta Meyer (Denver, Colo.) corralled the opening draw and raced down the field to set up the offense. She got the ball to sophomore Eliza Bennett (Darien, Conn.) who drew a free-position and scored the first goal of the game at 29:24 to give the Green an early lead.

The teams battled back and forth during the next seven minutes with each having its chances to score before Penn's Kaitlyn Lombardo capitalized on a goalmouth scramble to even the game at 1-1 at 22:44.

Lombardo's tally was the first of five-straight by five different players for Penn, which took a 5-1 lead into halftime. The Quakers held a 20-12 shot advantage in the first half of play.

Penn picked up where it left off in the second when Giulia Giordano scored her first goal of the game at 24:10 to extend the lead to 6-1. The Quakers took advantage by slowing down the pace of the game and maintaining possession in their offensive half while minutes ticked off the clock.

After a series of botched passes and fumbles, Dartmouth senior Liz Spence (Concord, Mass.) came up with a big caused turnover and groundball. After a timeout, the Green cleared the ball and got it up the field to rookie Kat Collins (Darien, Conn.) who converted a free-position shot to make it 6-2, Penn at 19:03. The Quakers quickly silenced the Dartmouth faithful when Rachel Manson found Kaitlyn Lombardo for a tally at 16:43 to make it 7-2.

Senior Kristen Barry (Duxbury, Mass.) showed fight late in the game when she muscled her way through a crowd to hammer home Dartmouth's third goal of the game to make it 7-3 at 6:46. That sparked the Big Green, who would not go quietly in the waning minutes of the contest. A save and a groundball by goalkeeper Julie Wadland (Andover, Mass.) started a solid possession for Dartmouth that ended with Bennett scoring off a feed from Cate Goytisolo (Cockeysville, Md.) at 4:41.

Big Green freshman Kelly Hopley (Denver, Colo.) won the ensuing draw control and after a quick pass from Barry, Meyer fed a beautiful ball to Goytisolo who pulled the Big Green within two, down 7-5 at 4:04.

Dartmouth controlled the next draw and all the momentum in the game before Emma Spiro caused a Big Green miscue to win the ball back for Penn, who scored with 2:56 left in the game to seal it up. Dartmouth idled in its own defensive half for the balance of the game and could not put together another offensive strike after its valiant comeback attempt.

Penn finished the day with a 29-17 shot advantage while pulling in 29 groundballs to Dartmouth's 20. Wadland had a solid day in goal for the Big Green, coming up with nine saves while Sarah Waxman had five stops for the Quakers.

Colleen Olsen (Avon, Conn.) gave Dartmouth a boost in the midfield with five groundballs and three draw controls while Alex Huestis (Swarthmore, Pa.) tallied three caused turnovers and two groundballs.

Meyer finished with a team-high six groundballs to go along with two draw controls and an assist.

The Big Green is back in action mid-week when it heads to Ivy foe Harvard for a 4:00 p.m. matchup on Wednesday, April 16.