Dartmouth Women Head to Cornell for Season Finale

The Dartmouth women's soccer team takes on Cornell this Saturday with a chance to finish as high as second in the Ivy League standings.

Winning its third straight, Dartmouth (6-7-2, 3-2-1 Ivy) did what it had to do last Saturday, knocking off Harvard, 3-2. The Big Green needed the win to stay in the Ivy Championship race. Unfortunately, Dartmouth also needed some help from other Ivy squads and though they both needed overtime, Princeton and Penn each won to set up a de facto Ivy title game. Penn stands in first place with 13 points and Princeton is second with 12. Should Penn and Dartmouth (10 points) both win, the Quakers will be Ivy Champs and the Big Green will be at least tied for second place.

Game 16: Dartmouth (6-7-2, 3-2-1 Ivy) at Cornell (6-7-1, 1-4-1 Ivy)
Date: Saturday, Nov. 6 2010 • 4:00 PM
Location: Berman Field • Ithaca, N.Y.
Series Record: Dartmouth leads 20-7-5
Last Meeting: 11/7/09, Dartmouth W, 2-0, Hanover, N.H.
Streak: Dartmouth +5
Dartmouth has won the last five meetings against Cornell, but is unbeaten in the last 14 contests, with a 13-0-1 mark. The lone tie came in 2004, a scoreless double-overtime stalemate. The Big Green had a close call in 2008 but pulled out a 3-2 overtime win with a goal by Becky Poskin '09 to win it.

Livestats

A LOOK AT DARTMOUTH: Dartmouth's offense has truly come alive in the last three games, outscoring its opponents 12-3 and is unbeaten in its last four. The Big Green enjoyed a 3-2 win over rival Harvard, its first in the series since 2006, on senior day last Saturday. Plenty of players got involved in the offense, though it was senior Melisa Krnjaic (Washington, D.C.) again scoring two goals. Rookie Chrissy Lozier (Vernon, Conn.) also scored while classmate Marina Moschitto (Andover, Mass.) tallied two assists. Dartmouth took a 2-0 lead into halftime, and though Harvard cut it to 2-1 in the second half, Krnjaic's second goal in the 60th minute put her team up 3-1 and able to withstand a second Crimson score. Colleen Hogan (Houston, Texas) made three saves including stopping a point-blank rocket in the 76th minute.

Three players are tied for the team scoring lead with 10 points and all have tallied four goals and two assists: Melisa Krnjaic, Marina Moschitto and Peyton Tata (Virginia Beach, Va.).

A LOOK AT CORNELL: With a 6-7-1 record, the Big Red is vastly improved from last season, when it only won one game. Cornell had a legitimate shot at upending Princeton last weekend, falling in overtime after giving up the game-tying score on an own-goal.

Maneesha Chitanvis is the Big Red's leading scorer this fall with 12 points on five goals and two assists while Brook Chang has nine points (four goals, one assists). Megan Barlett is Cornell's starting keeper with a 1.25 goals against average but Kelly Murphy has also seen time with two shutouts and a 0.94 GAA.

ROOKIE OF THE WEEK: Freshman midfielder Chrissy Lozier (Fairfield, Conn.) became the first Dartmouth player to win an Ivy weekly award, taking home Rookie of the Week honors on Oct. 25. Lozier played a big part in helping the Big Green knock off Columbia, who was previously unbeaten and in first place in the Ivy League. She came off the bench to record an assist on Peyton Tata's first-half goal and then, in the 75th minute, scored a critical insurance goal to put her team up 2-0. Columbia scored just over a minute later but the defense held tight for the final 14 minutes and the 2-1 win, making Lozier's goal the game-winner.

ATHLETES OF THE WEEK: Twice during the month of October a women's soccer player was honored as Dartmouth's Cross High Performance Female Athlete of the Week. Senior Melisa Krnjaic (Washington, D.C.), a defender turned midfielder, picked up the award on Oct. 27. Krnjaic scored two goals, including the game-winner in the 7-0 win at Vermont and recorded an assist in the win at Columbia. After the shutout of Penn with five saves and a seven-save effort in the 1-0 loss to BU, Colleen Hogan won the honor on Oct. 20.

OFFENSIVE OUTBURST: The Dartmouth women scored a season-high seven goals in the win at Vermont, the most in a single game since a 7-0 win over Cornell in the 1998 season. Prior to that game, the Big Green had scored only nine goals all season, putting 37 percent of their shots on goal.

SHE'S A VETERAN NOW: In her sixth season, head coach Angie Hind is now tied with Steve Swanson (1990-95) as the longest-tenured Dartmouth coach. With such a rich history of success, many former coaches are still in the collegiate game including Swanson, now at Virginia, Erica Walsh at Penn State and Ben Landis at Bucknell. With 54 wins to her credit, Hind is just one victory away from tying Swanson for the most wins by a head coach in program history. Though he only coached one season, Neil Orr is the Big Green's winningest coach by win percentage at .735, while Walsh ranks second at .703.

Schedules