#7 Dartmouth Heads to Princeton for Ivy League Finale

The #7 Dartmouth women's lacrosse team travels to rival Princeton this Sunday for its last Ivy regular season game, though Ivy competition is far from over, as the inaugural conference tournament starts April 30 at Penn.

Dartmouth at Princeton Complete Game Notes (PDF)

Game 13: #7 Dartmouth (10-2, 5-1 Ivy) at Princeton (5-9, 3-3 Ivy)
Date: Sunday, April 25, 2010 • 1:00 PM
Location: Princeton, N.J. • Princeton Stadium
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Dartmouth - Princeton Series: Princeton Leads, 20-16
Last Meeting: 4/18/09 • Hanover, N.H.
Result: Princeton 14 - Dartmouth 4
Streak: Princeton +1
Dartmouth and Princeton are fierce rivals and recent meetings are no exception. Dartmouth has won four of the last seven meetings, twice going to overtime in that span, including a 2006 NCAA quarterfinal win.

HEADING TO TIGER TOWN
Perhaps the fiercest rivalry in Ivy women's lax is renewed when #7 Dartmouth faces Princeton for a Sunday Matinee. The Big Green continues what will eventually be a stretch of at least four games on the road, returning south for the Ivy Tournament next weekend and then back down I-95 to face Maryland on May 8. While Dartmouth has locked up at least second place in the Ivy League this season, it is close to a must-win situation against the Tigers to help bolster its NCAA Tournament resume. A win also helps the Big Green's cause as it roots for Brown to knock off Penn to give a share of the Ivy Championship to Dartmouth. While Princeton has struggled some this season, this game is traditionally unpredictable — including unranked Dartmouth's 13-12 upset of then #2 Princeton in 2008 and the Tigers' lopsided win last spring.

DARTMOUTH HALTS HARVARD RALLY
#7 Dartmouth used a 7-1 run spanning both halves to help put away an upset-minded Harvard squad this past Wednesday in Cambridge, 11-9. After a back-and-forth start led to a 3-3 tie, the Crimson rallied for two unanswered goals to go up 5-3 with 10:39 to play. The Big Green used one of its typical big runs, scoring four goals in a five minute span when its sophomore trio kicked it into high gear. Kirsten Goldberg struck twice and Sarah Plumb and Sarah Parks each scored once to put Dartmouth ahead 7-5, though Harvard broke up the run with a goal before the half. The Big Green kept the pressure on in the second, however, opening up with three straight goals in the first five minutes, with Hana Bowers, Parks and Greta Meyer all scoring to go ahead 10-6. Harvard made things interesting with a 3-0 run of its own, but Julie Wadland made five second half saves to keep the Crimson from getting any closer and Bowers scored a late insurance goal for the 11-9 final.

SO YOU'RE SAYING THERE'S A CHANCE
Despite dropping to second place (5-1) with the loss to Penn, Dartmouth's hopes for a share of the Ivy title are still alive. Should Dartmouth beat Princeton, it would need Penn to lose to Brown on Sunday afternoon to become co-champions. Penn would still host the Ivy Tournament by virtue of its head-to-head win over the Big Green, but Dartmouth has locked up the number two seed.

SEASON HIGH IN THE POLLS
Dartmouth moved up two spots in the IWLCA Coaches poll to seventh on April 12 and remained there this week despite the loss to Penn. It is the first top-10 ranking for the Big Green since early in the 2007 campaign. Inside Lacrosse dropped Dartmouth from sixth to seventh this week. Five Dartmouth opponents are currently in the IWLCA Top-20 with two in the top 10. Four are ranked by Inside Lacrosse with BU and UNH receiving votes.

TEWAARATON TIME
Dartmouth has had two players named Tewaaraton Award nominees — junior Greta Meyer and senior Julie Wadland, also a 2009 nominee. Recognized as the nation's pre-eminent lacrosse award, the Tewaaraton is presented to the top female and male collegiate lacrosse players in the United States.
Wadland, a senior goalie, is no stranger to these accolades, having been one of 23 national nominees for the 2009 Tewaaraton. One of just three goalies on the list, Wadland currently sports the nation's best goals against average, 6.75, and has a team-high 28 ground balls after earning All-Ivy first team accolades in 2009. Meyer, a junior midfielder, is having her finest season yet in a Dartmouth uniform. She leads the team in scoring with 47 points, goals with 26 and assists with 21.
Meyer and Wadland are among a list of 25 nominees that will be pared down to five finalists. They are joined by just one other Ivy Leaguer, Penn's Ali DeLuca, and Dartmouth is one of just seven schools with multiple nominees.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER
... Don't always flock together. Dartmouth sophomore defender Georgia Bird, who has started 10 of 11 games played this season, is the third Bird sister to play Ivy League lacrosse. There's quite a bit of sibling rivalry, however, as Courtney Bird played at Princeton from 2005-08 and Samantha Bird played at Penn from 2006-09. Fittingly, the three Birds played three different positions for their trio of Ivy teams. A midfielder, Courtney played in 32 games scoring 10 points and won an Ivy Championship. An attacker at Penn, Samantha played 45 career games with 19 starts, including 17 starts in 18 appearances as a senior on the final four team in 2009. She won three Ivy titles and tallied 29 career points.

MAYBE A TIGER CAN CHANGE ITS STRIPES
Sophomore Kirsten Goldberg will test her siblings' allegiance against Princeton, as older sister Ingrid Goldberg and older brother Zack Goldberg both played lacrosse for the Tigers. Both should be in attendance and wearing green to support the family's youngest Ivy laxer, however. Ingrid had a memorable career from 2002-05, winning three Ivy titles and two NCAA championships, tallying 70 career points and earning Al-Ivy honors. Zack played for Princeton from 2005-08, appearing in 55 games and recording 19 points. Kirsten has missed just one game in her two years at Dartmouth, and is the Big Green's fourth leading scorer this year with 24 points including 22 goals.

HIT THE ROAD JACK
Dartmouth is preparing for what could be a grueling three-week stretch of the season, making three-straight trips to the Mid-Atlantic. The road swing started at Harvard and continues at Princeton this Sunday. The Ivy Tournament at Penn on April 30 - May 2 will send Dartmouth right back down to Philadelphia. Following that, the Big Green heads to Maryland to close out the regular season on May 8.

WATCH OUT FOR SNIPERS
As a team, Dartmouth shoots an impressive 50 percent, but Sarah Parks and Greta Meyer stand out from the crowd with some staggering numbers. Parks has been absolutely deadly in front of the goal this spring, scoring 28 goals on just 33 shots for a sizzling 84.8 shooting percentage, which leads the nation. Even more impressively, just two of her goals have come off free position shots, with four attempts total. Meyer is hot in her own right, shooting 61.4 percent, scoring 27 goals on 44 shots and is almost automatic on a free position, converting 6-of-8 eight meters.

YOUTH MOVEMENT
Dartmouth had an exceptionally young lineup in both 2008 and 2009 and returned 11 starters for this season. Yet the Big Green remains a bit green now in 2010, with just two seniors starting on a regular basis. Dartmouth's lineup is generally more than half sophomores and freshmen. At Harvard, Coach Patton had just three juniors and seniors on the field, and three freshmen were in the starting lineup.
Rookie Courtney Bennett made just her second career start at Harvard, coming through with two draw controls, two ground balls and a caused turnover. Kelsey Johnson has started all but one game on defense, with 18 ground balls to date and Hana Bowers has started the last five games on attack and has 13 points on the season.

SHARING THE WEALTH
Dartmouth routinely has seven to eight players recording a point in games, and the team's unselfishness was truly evident against Siena on April 6, with 15 assists on 18 goals. Overall, Dartmouth has scored 143 goals this season, 29 off of free positions. Of the 123 goals scored during the course of game play, Dartmouth has assisted on 72 of those, or 58.5 percent of goals coming assisted.

... AND KEEPING OPPONENTS FROM DOING SO
Conversely, the Big Green defense has allowed opponents to assist on just 31 of their 80 goals, or 39 percent. Two recent opponents, Brown and Siena, scored seven and six goals, respectively, without a single assist and Cornell had only two assists on six goals. Even #18 Boston University had just three assists on its 10 goals. Dartmouth's defenders are forcing opponents to go one-on-one with Julie Wadland, who has a 50 percent average chance of making a save.

THE ELITE BETWEEN THE PIPES
Senior Julie Wadland has positioned herself in a great line of Dartmouth goalies, becoming just the third Big Green keeper to play more than 3,000 minutes for her career and ranking third all-time in career saves with 418. She currently leads the nation with a goals against average of just 6.95 and picked up her second straight Tewaaraton nomination.
Dartmouth has not missed a beat since 1999 when Sarah Hughes '02 began a career that led to a school record 550 saves in 62 outings, playing 3,339 minutes. When she graduated, Devon Wills '06 took over the reins and started all but one of her 70 games played from 2003-06, logging 4,176 minutes and making 538 saves, second all-time. Upon the graduation of Wills, Wadland was right there and has followed in the footsteps of Hughes and Wills as a first team All-Ivy keeper and member of the US Developmental team — Wills led the US Elite to the 2010 World Cup title. Wadland has one more goal still, as she is yet to join the duo in one area — All America status.

RPI ROUNDUP
The first NCAA RPI ratings have Dartmouth seated a comfortable 12th in the nation, good position so far for NCAA Tournament selection. Laxpower.com's power ratings rank the Big Green at 13th in the nation, with an RPI at 12th and a strength of schedule rating of 28th. Those ratings give bonus points for scoring margin as well as game sites, with Dartmouth's two wins over top-10 teams coming the road.

BALANCED ATTACK
Though the defense has been stifling, Dartmouth has also had some breakout offensive performances led by a balanced scoring front. Seven Dartmouth players have scored 18-plus points, each with at least 10 goals, and an eighth has 13 points. Junior Greta Meyer leads the Big Green in scoring with 48 points (27g, 21a) while Sarah Parks has 35 points (28g, 7a) and Sarah Plumb has 30 (19g, 11a).

BRICK WALL WADLAND
Defense has been Dartmouth's calling card thus far as the team has given up just 82 goals all season (6.83 GAA), ranking first in the nation. The goalies have faced just 212 shots total, with 158 of those coming on goal. When they do near the cage, senior Julie Wadland has been there to stonewall 47.7 percent of them (73 saves), owning the nation's best goals against average, 6.95.
Classmate Chelsea Kirk has kept the pace when in goal herself, making two saves on both shots faced.

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