#9 Women's Lacrosse Hosts Siena on Tuesday Afternoon

The ninth-ranked Dartmouth women's lacrosse team hosts its final non-conference opponent today at 3 p.m. when the Saints of Siena roll into town. Dartmouth's next contest is this Saturday at Ivy foe Cornell.

Dartmouth vs. Siena Complete Game Notes (PDF)

Game 9: Siena (4-5, 0-1 MAAC) at #9 Dartmouth (7-1, 3-0 Ivy)
Date: Tuesday, April 6, 2010 • 3:00 PM
Location: Hanover, N.H. • Scully Fahey Field
Multimedia: Livestats • Live Video ($)

Dartmouth - Siena Series: First meeting

STARTING A SERIES WITH THE SAINTS
#9 Dartmouth is back at Scully Fahey Field for its second to last home game of the season and its fourth weekday home game. The Big Green is ending a grueling stretch of five games in 14 days, playing a midweek contest for the third straight week. Dartmouth has never faced Siena, which competes in the MAAC, in women's lacrosse.

DARTMOUTH STAYS PERFECT IN IVIES
The ninth ranked Big Green took a 9-7 victory over Brown this past Saturday to move to 3-0 in Ivy League play, its seventh straight win overall. It was not Dartmouth's sharpest outing of the season, held below 10-goals for just the second time this season. The first half was a back-and-forth, starting with a 1-0 Dartmouth lead before Brown took a 2-1 advantage. The Big Green answered right back with two go to up 3-2, but Brown got two in a row to take a 4-3 lead before Dartmouth's Greta Meyer tied it going into the half. Dartmouth's second-half effort was sound, going on a 5-0 run to lead 9-4 with 8:39 to play, with two goals each from Sarah Parks and Sarah Plumb. The Bears did close with three goals in the last six minutes but it would not be enough to overcome the Big Green.

BOSTON BROKEN
#9 Dartmouth picked up its first comeback win of the season, knocking out #18 Boston University, 15-10 after trailing by one, 7-6 at halftime. Everything and everyone was sharper in the second half for the Big Green, as goalie Julie Wadland made five of her eight saves in the second half and Dartmouth dominated time of possession to score nine goals to the Terriers' three. BU had come out swinging in the first half, taking an early 3-1 lead but things settled down for Dartmouth, which actually outscored Boston, 5-4, before going down 7-6 at the half. Dartmouth stormed back to take the lead early in the second half, and though the game was tied twice by the Terriers, the Big Green never trailed again and scored six of the last seven goals in the game en route to the 15-10 win. Greta Meyer paced the offense with six points (5g, 1a) while Sarah Parks scored four goals and Hilary Smith tallied four points (2g, 2a). Colleen Olsen grabbed a game-high six draw controls.

TOP-10 DEBUT
Dartmouth jumped seven spots in the IWLCA Coaches poll to sit at number nine this week - it's first top-10 ranking since early in the 2007 campaign. Inside Lacrosse looks even more favorably on the Big Green, putting it at seventh after sitting anywhere from 11th to 14th in the past three weeks. Six Dartmouth opponents are currently in the IWLCA Top-20 with three in the top 10. Five are ranked by Inside Lacrosse and a sixth, BU, is receiving votes.

A LOOK AT SIENA
Siena (4-5, 0-1 MAAC) comes into its first meeting with Dartmouth on a three-game skid, recently falling to St. Bonaventure, Le Moyne and Marist. The Saints have played just one ranked team, a loss at Boston College, though the Eagles were not in the top-20 at the time of that contest. A trio of Saints does the bulk of the scoring, led by junior Caitlin Mikel's 41 points on 24 goals and 17 assists. Allie Kain ranks second on the team with 27 points, also scoring 24 goals and adding three assists while Erin Hepper has 14 goals and two assists. Kristin Concordia has played every minute in goal for Siena, with a 13.67 goals against average, making 82 saves with a .400 save percentage.

THE ELITE BETWEEN THE PIPES
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 408. 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 became the Green's everyday starter midway through her freshman year. Wadland 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. Currently among the nation's leaders for goals against average, Wadland looks to join them in the ranks of Dartmouth's All-America goalies this season.

MIDSEASON MUSINGS
Inside Lacrosse gave some love to the Big Green on April 1, tabbing three players to its Midseason All-America teams. Junior defender Shannie MacKenzie was placed on the first team while senior goalie Julie Wadland and junior middie Greta Meyer earned second team accolades.

IN LIKE A LION, OUT LIKE A LION
After roaring through the first five games of the month, Dartmouth made sure not to end the month of March like a lamb, coming from behind to spoil Boston University's upset bid, 15-10 on March 31. The Big Green went a perfect 6-0 during the month of March.

SOPHOMORE SNIPER
Sophomore attack Sarah Parks has been absolutely deadly in front of the goal this spring, scoring 19 goals on just 22 shots for a sizzling .864 shooting percentage. Parks has also put all but one of her shots this season on goal. Even more impressively, just two of her goals have come off free position shots, with three attempts total. She has honed her skills that were already solid as a rookie, when she scored 25 goals on 36 shots, shooting .694 percent.

GOING STREAKING
Dartmouth's current win streak stands at seven games, its longest such streak since the 2005 season. That year, the Big Green went 16-3 en route to a final four appearance, winning its first 16 games of the season. Dartmouth's three losses that year came by a total of just nine goals.

RPI ROUNDUP
Laxpower.com's power ratings rank the Big Green at seventh in the nation, with an RPI at ninth and a strength of schedule rating of 25th. Those ratings give bonus points for scoring margin as well as location of the game, with Dartmouth's two wins over top-10 teams coming the road.

Schedules