Rookies Shine But Big Green Drop Season Opener at No. 9 Albany

Saturday, September 3

Albany, N.Y.

1:00 PM

Dartmouth College

(0-1)

Albany

(3-0)

Team	1	2	Final F
Dartmouth	0	1	1
UAlbany	2	1	3

Rookies Shine But Big Green Drop Season Opener at No. 9 Albany

9/3/2016 2:38:00 PM | Field Hockey

Box Score Hailey Valerio Katie Spanos Emma Plumb Carmen Braceras Katie Persin Maddie Donahue Box Score - Albany 3, Dartmouth 1 Box Score - Albany 3, Dartmouth 1 PDF Box Score PDF Box Score

By: Dartmouth

ALBANY, N.Y. – The Dartmouth field hockey team opened the 2016 season Saturday, falling on the road to ninth-ranked Albany, 3-1.

A pair of freshmen made an immediate impact in their collegiate debuts for the Big Green as Carmen Braceras scored her first goal with the assist coming from classmate Katie Spanos in the 45th minute.

However, that goal cut the deficit to two after the home team scored twice in the first half before adding its third just over five minutes into the second stanza.

The Great Danes got tallies from 2014 National Player of the Year and three-time All-American Paula Heuser as well as Anna Bottino and Jaclyn Hibbs before Braceras finished off her team's beautiful scoring play with a hard shot across the goal for Dartmouth's first of the fall season.

"Overall, our staff is quite happy with today's performance," head coach Amy Fowler said. "We played extremely well defensively as a team against a prolific Albany attack. It was great to see all of our freshmen step up in their debut."

In goal, sophomore Hailey Valerio made her first career start, stopping eight shots in 54:30 before giving way to rookie goalkeeper Emma Plumb. In her debut, Plumb finished the final 15:30 of action by making five saves and not allowing Albany to find the back of the cage again.

Another pair of rookies made major contributions in the contest as well with Maddie Donahue and Katie Persin each recording a defensive save, pulling the ball off the line to save goals.

In all, the Great Danes out attempted the visitors, 26-10, and held an 18-9 edge in shots on goal in the contest. Albany also edged out Dartmouth in corner plays, 8-3.

The Big Green are back in action on Monday afternoon with a 1 p.m. game at regional rival Maine.

"This is a strong start for us! As we regroup for the Maine game, we'll focus on all that went well, in addition to cleaning up a few things in both our attacking and defensive circles," Fowler added.