USC Outlasts Dartmouth Comeback Bid to Take 9-7 Victory

Saturday, March 28

Hanover, N.H.

1:00 PM

Dartmouth College

USC

USC Outlasts Dartmouth Comeback Bid to Take 9-7 Victory

3/28/2015 3:46:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. – Saturday started with unseasonably cold temperatures for late March and a scattering of snow flurries in the Upper Valley.

But what followed in the early afternoon was a heated match between the Dartmouth women's lacrosse team and visiting Southern California at Scully-Fahey Field.

Despite a valiant effort by the Big Green (0-8), the Trojans (7-2) left Hanover with a hard-fought 9-7 win in the first-ever meeting between the two programs. USC needed all 60 minutes of game play to put away the resilient home team as the outcome seemed in doubt until the final minute.

“It was one of the best games of the year for us in terms of the level of heart and desire with which we played,” head coach Amy Patton said. “We played together and with a lot of energy and those have been some of the intangibles that have been missing this year.

“I felt like instead of having to motivate, I was able to coach today. I came into halftime and we talked about what we were doing right and some of the technical things to make the rest of the game better, rather than things that we needed to fix” Patton added.

A career day from Taryn Deck saw the sophomore midfielder score three times. Deck entered the contest having scored just one goal in her career, a figure she tripled on Saturday afternoon.

Two of Deck's goals came in the second half as the home team mounted a comeback, trying to tie the game. Trailing, 5-3, at halftime and 8-5 with roughly 19 minutes left in the game, Deck and fellow sophomore Courtney Weisse began to chip away at the deficit, scoring three of the next four goals to pull Dartmouth to within one.

But a Caroline Cordrey tally with 4:08 remaining in the second half would be the insurance marker USC needed to hang on for the 9-7 victory.

Junior Jaclyn Leto scored twice and assisted on another to bring her career point total to 98, just two away from becoming the 32nd player in program history to reach the century mark. Danielle Lisovicz had the other Big Green marker in the game, while Sarah Byrne matched her career high with a pair of assists.

In goal, Jessica Frieder put together one of her best games in a Dartmouth uniform, stopping 11 shots and picking up a career-high eight ground balls, three more than her previous best and the most by a member of the Big Green this season.

At the other end of the field, USC goalkeeper Gussie Johns had four saves and allowed seven in the winning effort as the Women of Troy held a 25-13 advantage in shots.

USC also picked up 22 ground balls to Dartmouth's 17, while both clubs had nine draws in the contest with Leto collecting a game-high four. Michaela Michael led the way with three goals for the Trojans, while Cordrey had two off the bench and Caroline de Lyra had a marker and two assists in the game.

“I'm calling this the start of our second season today,” Patton remarked. “I know we haven't won, but we're in it. We were right in this game until the very end against a good team. The biggest thing we have to change is continuing to be better on getting possessions so we can attack the goal more.”

The Big Green continue their three-game homestand against Ivy League rival Harvard on Wednesday afternoon. Game time against the Crimson is set for 4 p.m.