Miller Six Pack Keeps Dartmouth in Ivy Hunt
from press release
HANOVER, N.H. -- Junior Rhett Miller (Dallas,
Texas) had an incredible day for the Dartmouth men’s lacrosse
team with a career-high six goals and an assist for seven points to
help propel the Big Green to a huge 15-11 Ivy win over Penn on
Senior Day.
Dartmouth (5-6, 2-3 Ivy) kept its Ivy Tournament hopes alive with
the win and it will all come down to next week’s matchup with
Brown. With Harvard’s upset win over Princeton this afternoon
and Brown’s victory over Cornell, the three of the four slots
for the four-team tournament are still up for grabs going into the
final weekend of the season.
Princeton has already clinched a spot in the tournament, but with
the loss the Tigers could possibly lose the top seed. Cornell, Yale
and Brown sit tied in the second spot with a 3-2 record apiece,
while Dartmouth and Harvard are currently on the outside looking in
at 2-3.
Miller led the Big Green with a career-high six goals and one
assist for seven points. He became the first player since senior
Josh Gillam (Peterborough, Ont.) had six against Cornell back in
2008. Miller peppered the Quaker goaltender with nine shots on the
day to lead the team. Senior captain Ari Sussman New Haven, Conn.)
continued his hot streak from Tuesday’s win with a six-point
day, this time coming in the assist variety with five helpers and a
goal. Junior Joshua Etzion (Boca Raton, Fla.) tallied four points
with three goals and an assist, while rookie Nikki Dysenchuk
(Darien, Conn.) found the net two times, which ties a
season-high.
In net, sophomore Fergus Campbell (New Canaan, Conn.) gave up 11
goals, but looked sharp throughout the game with 16 saves to earn
his third win of the season. Dartmouth held a 3-2 lead early on in
the game and failed to give up its lead from that point on.
Penn (5-8, 1-5 Ivy) saw its season and Ivy Tournament hopes come to
end with the loss today. Corey Winkoff was the top performer for
the Quakers with six points on two goals and four assists, while
Rob McMullen tallied a team-high four goals on the day. John
Conneely came off the bench to net two goals and add a pair of
helpers for four points. In goal, Joe Hegener let up 15 goals and
made eight saves in the loss.
In a first quarter that featured a combined four man-up
opportunities, each team was able to score with the man advantage.
Etzion got the game started with his 16th of the year, 2:11 into
the game with the assist going to Gillam, who had a great day with
a goal and two assists off the bench. Conneely answered back with a
man-up goal as well with 10:03 left in the frame to tie the score
at 1-1. Dysenchuk added an even strength score to give the lead
back to Dartmouth, but Winkoff scored with a man-up to make it 2-2
with 7:36 left.
Then it was the Miller show with three consecutive unanswered goals
and one coming man-up. His first of the day came with an assist to
Sussman, however his second was a highlight-reel score. He came
from the right side of the cage, beating his defender and flew
through the air to score just under the right arm of Hegener to
give Dartmouth a 4-2 lead. The advantage crept up to 5-2 on
Miller’s third goal coming with 38 seconds remaining.
McMullen cut the score to 5-3 with a goal 16 seconds later to close
out the quarter.
The pace of the game slowed in the second quarter as the Quakers
sliced the Big Green lead to 5-4 on McMullen’s second of the
day. Dartmouth then jumped ahead by three goals again with
back-to-back scores from Miller and Etzion, with Etzion’s
coming during a man-up situation. Rob Fitzpatrick came back to get
Penn to within two goals again, however freshman Chris Costabile
(Sykesville, Md.) was a sniper from the outside and beat Hegener to
give Dartmouth an 8-5 lead into the half.
In the second half, the Quakers inched back to within one goal
after Sussman gave the Big Green its largest lead at 9-5. Penn
netted three straight goals from three different scorers to make it
9-8 with 8:51 left in the third quarter. Miller and sophomore Kip
Dooley (Minneapolis, Minn.) combined on a pair of goals coming 1:14
apart to push the Dartmouth advantage back up to three goals at
11-8.
Penn continued to get closer and closer, but the Big Green held its
own and refused to give up the lead. Going into the fourth quarter
with a 11-10 advantage, Gillam scored his first of the season,
followed by Millers’ sixth of the day to make it 13-10 within
the first three minutes of the final frame.
The teams then traded goals in the last 12 minutes and the Big
Green came away with a huge Ivy League victory on Senior Day with a
15-11 win over the Quakers.
The teams combined for 14 penalties and each scored four times on
the man advantage. Penn outshot Dartmouth 44-34 and won the ground
ball battle at 46-26. The Quakers, however, turned the ball over 24
times to 20 for the Big Green.
Dartmouth will be back in action on the road at Bryant on Tuesday
evening at 4 p.m., but the big game comes Saturday afternoon at 1
p.m. at Brown for a chance to sneak into the first postseason
tournament in Ivy League history.
