Harvard Stuns #10 Dartmouth, 11-10, in Ivy Semifinal

Friday, May 6

Philadelphia, Pa. (Franklin Field, Penn)

4:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Harvard

Harvard Stuns #10 Dartmouth, 11-10, in Ivy Semifinal

5/6/2011 6:17:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse

By: Dartmouth

Postgame Press Conference Video

BOXSCORE

PHILADELPHIA - The #10 Dartmouth women's lacrosse team took a stunning 11-10 loss at the hands of Harvard this afternoon in the Ivy Tournament Semifinal at Franklin Field.

It was no easy task for Dartmouth (11-4, 6-1 Ivy) to face Harvard (10-5, 5-2 Ivy) just seven days after beating the Crimson, 14-7, for a share of the Ivy Title. Harvard came out inspired, and used a big second half in which it outscored Dartmouth, 7-5, to derail the Big Green. Harvard also vanquished some demons, snapping a 15-game losing streak to Dartmouth. Penn's Franklin Field continues to be a house of horrors for the Big Green, with three-straight one-goal losses now, twice to Penn and today to Harvard.

For the second-straight year, Dartmouth is denied the Ivy League's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and must wait to see if the committee awards it an at-large bid.

"Harvard's kids executed really well and their goalie made saves and they deserved to win," said head coach Amy Patton. "They played really inspired out there today and we were very flat. I think they played with a ton of composure and there wasn't anything we weren't prepared for so it was more a matter of us not executing."

Dartmouth held a 22-13 shot advantage but Harvard goalie Kerry Clark rebounded from a touch performance the first time out against the Green to make eight saves to stifle Dartmouth's attack.

Senior Greta Meyer (Denver, Colo.) had a game-high six points with four goals and two assists. Sarah Plumb (Wellesley, Mass.) had two goals and an assist. Kelsey Johnson (Hingham, Mass.) paced the defense with four ground balls and two caused turnovers while senior Shannie MacKenzie (Riverside, Conn) had three caused turnovers.

Harvard struck first before Dartmouth responded with three unanswered goals, first from Hana Bowers (Old Greenwich, Conn.) off a feed from Meyer at 26:15. Senior Abigail Holden (Alexandria, Va.) added to the lead with her first goal of the season before Kat Collins (Darien, Conn.) made it a 3-1 lead with 20:02 on the first-half clock.

Dartmouth turnovers on the attacking end led to back-to-back goals for the Crimson including a free position goal by Danielle Tetreault to make it a 3-3 tie with 15:21 on the clock.

After having to sit three minutes for an uncharacteristic yellow card (dangerous follow through), Meyer came back out with a vengeance and scored two unanswered goals in the span of 28 seconds to put the Big Green ahead 5-3 with 3:09 on the clock. The Crimson got one more back when Jenn VanderMeulen scored her 46th goal of the year leading to a 5-4 Dartmouth advantage at halftime.

Junior Dana Brisbane (Locust Valley, N.Y.) scored just her second goal of the season to open the second half with a free position goal two minutes in and a 6-4 lead. The Big Green made it a 7-4 advantage by the 26:20 mark when Sarah Plumb (Wellesley, Mass.) took a check to the head and made the Crimson pay with a free position goal.

Harvard got its first goal of the half at 22:30 when Petropolus scored unassisted to make it a 7-5 game. The teams traded goals first with Plumb scoring on another free position and then with Harvard's Melanie Baskind answering to make it 8-6 with 17:08 to play.

That started a 3-0 run for the Crimson, which won the next two draw controls and capitalized with goals from Chelsey Newman and VanderMeulen off a free position to tie the game, 8-8, with 11:56 on the clock.

The back and forth continued when Meyer put the Green up, 9-8, off a free position with 8:04 to play but Harvard won yet another draw and Baskind took it to cage, tying it 9-9 with 6:24 on the clock. The Crimson got a huge goal from Danielle Tetreault to go up 10-9 with 4:54 on the clock.

Dartmoutb won the ensuing draw but the Harvard defense made a big stop and got the ball quickly down the field where VanderMeulen gained some insurance, putting the Crimson up 11-9 with 2:41 to play. The Big Green got the next draw and Meyer converted her fourth goal of the day with 2:10 on the clock to pull Dartmouth within one, down 11-10.

The Crimson had the ball following that goal and though Dartmouth got the ball back with under 10 seconds to play, the Big Green was unable to push it upfield in a flurry of activity and Harvard held on for the win.

Dartmouth will await NCAA selections this Sunday night, May 8 at 7:30 p.m.

"Right now we have a great RPI, great strength of schedule and some great wins and I hope they look at the strength of our league," said Patton on her team's chances for an NCAA bid. "We wanted to control our destiny but now we are not. I think if we get in we can play with anybody and I think we'll play a lot more inspired if we get in."