Big Green Puts 'D' Back in Dartmouth
by Justin Feil | Special to Lacrosse Magazine Online
|
|
Dartmouth goalie Julie Wadland backstops the nation's No. 2-ranked defense, a big reason why the red-hot Big Green has ascended to No. 9 in the latest IWLCA poll. © David Silverman/DSpics.com |
Colleen Olsen and Julie Wadland have been waiting for an
intimidating Dartmouth defensive presence to materialize.
The style is what attracted the Big Green captains to the
program.
“I loved watching the Dartmouth teams play because they were
so aggressive and intense,” Olsen said. “They
didn’t sit back and wait for things to happen.”
After three subpar seasons, Dartmouth is playing like a title
contender. The Big Green has reeled off five straight wins --
including victories over No. 8 Notre Dame, No. 6 Syracuse and a hot
Yale team -- since a 9-8 wake-up call at New Hampshire in the
season opener. Dartmouth has climbed from 20th to 16th to ninth in
the latest IWLCA poll.
“The starting point is our defense,” said Dartmouth
head coach Amy Patton, whose 5-1 team hosts No. 18 Boston
University on Wednesday. “Our defense has really clamped
down.”
The two seniors -- Olsen is a low defender and Wadland is the Big
Green goalkeeper -- have been starting since freshman year, but
endured an uncharacteristic stretch for Dartmouth. The Big Green
followed its NCAA runner-up finish in 2006 by going 9-7 in 2007,
7-9 in 2008 and 8-8 in 2009. Dartmouth never finished higher than
third in the Ivy League.
Said Patton: “The thing that was really tough over the last
two or three years was, we’d be in games and just not pull
them out. That’s a young team. It’s really tough to win
those, but it really gave the kids a lot of experience. I knew we
would get back where we have nationally been in the past with these
young women getting a little older. It’s amazing how a year
can make a difference.”
Last year and this year's stunning season-opening loss to UNH were
important parts of the Big Green’s development. Dartmouth
lost, 7-6, in overtime to national semifinalist Penn, the start of
losing five of their final injury-plagued seven games last
year.
“That closeness, that fueled us,” Wadsworth said.
“It gave us a lot of fuel for the offseason. We knew we were
just a couple steps away.”
Dartmouth's defense ranks second nationally at 5.83 goals allowed
per game and seventh in the country in caused turnovers. When the
Big Green reached the national championship game in 2006, it led
the nation at 6.80 goals allowed per game. In 2005, when Dartmouth
last won the Ivy League and reached the NCAA semifinals, it was
with the No. 2 scoring defense.
By comparison, the Big Green's defensive scoring average was
36th in 2007, 33rd in 2008 and 34th in 2009.
“I definitely think we’re much stronger than
we’ve been the last couple years,” Patton said.
“When we made those NCAA runs, we had a strong defensive
group. I see them along the same lines to how we played in the
early and mid 2000s.”
Freshman Kelsey Johnson and sophomore Georgia Bird, who came on
strong at the end of last season, bring athleticism to a unit that
includes Olsen, who led Princeton in ground balls and caused
turnovers last season, and junior three-year starter Shannie
MacKenzie, the Ivy Defensive Player of the Week after holding the
country’s leading scorer, Syracuse’s Tee Ladouceur, to
one point.
“We try to set the tone back there because the experience is
back there,” Olsen said. “Hopefully the rest of the
midfield and attackers feed off what we can do.”
Wadland, the first-team All-Ivy goalie last year, is fifth in the
country in save percentage at .545. It is a staggering jump from
last season when she was 54th.
“As the defense becomes more experienced,” Wadland
said, “they’re doing better job of creating bad-angle
shots, and shots I should be saving.”
Wadland is on her way to third place all-time in career saves for
the Big Green behind two of the all-time Dartmouth goalie greats,
Devon Willis and Sarah Hughes.
“Wads is a spark back there,” Olsen said. “She
comes up with huge plays at crucial moments. She makes you want to
work harder. She’s really smart and composed back there. She
sees what’s happening. She’s a good communicator. She
gets the defense to come together and make changes. A lot of the
defense does start with her.”
Added Patton: “With Wads, with Devon, with Sarah Hughes, I
saw them playing with a real presence. When your goalie has that
presence, it’s very catching.”
The Big Green also features great balance on offense. Dartmouth
has nine players with at least eight goals, and beat Yale, 12-5,
without leading scorer Kat Collins, whose injury is being diagnosed
this week, and its third captain, Eliza Bennett, who has been out
all year due to injury but is expected to return. Greta Meyer has
emerged as the leading scorer with 29 points.
“Our defense has been doing a lot of great things,”
Wadland said, “but you can’t overlook our attack. Our
attack is doing some unbelievable things. It’s not just one
side that will win games for us.”
An improved defense, though, figures to keep the Big Green in any
game. A throwback to its dominant days, Dartmouth has been playing
the way that Olsen and Wadland envisioned when they joined the
program.
“We’re still hungry to get better,” Olsen said.
“We’re trying to make our own identity.”
Ivy League Notes
With most teams having gotten three conference games in, a clear
break has opened in the Ivy League standings. Penn
(3-0), Dartmouth (2-0) and
Princeton (2-0) are the lone unbeatens among the
Ivies. Trailing them are four teams currently tied for the fourth
and final Ivy Tournament qualifying spot, and two of them go
head-to-head when Harvard plays at Yale on Saturday. Only Columbia
has three losses… Chris Sailer became only
the second head coach to win 300 career games when Princeton upset
then-No. 9 Georgetown, 15-14, in sudden-victory overtime Sunday on
Lizzy Drumm’s fifth goal of the game. Drumm, a Tewaaraton
Trophy candidate, returned from missing a win over Columbia due to
a hamstring injury. “Above all else, Chris is a teacher of
the game of lacrosse,” said senior co-captain Kristin
Morrison. “Her love for the sport inspires us all
each and every day...”
Eight different players scored for Harvard in a 19-4 win over Bryant on Sunday. The season-high output was led by freshman Jen VanderMeulen, who had a career-high eight points on six goals and two assists. Every player who scored also had at least one assist. “I think the last three games, we’ve started to balance out a little bit because Jen’s getting a lot more attention,” said Harvard head coach Lisa Miller after the win. “She’s started to work a lot harder off the ball because she’s going to have to..." Isabel Harvey preserved Brown’s 11-10 win over Harvard on Saturday when she didn’t allow the Crimson to score on two free positions or another shot in the final minute to finish with seven saves. It was the second straight win in the series for Brown. Harvey had eight saves in last year’s 12-8 win…
Senior midfielder Ali DeLuca scored five goals in Penn’s 15-6 win over Cornell to bring her within three of Sherry Marcantonio’s program record 129 career goals. The Quakers weren’t happy to be tied, 6-6, with less than 15 minutes left, but closed with a 9-0 run. They should be improving as senior co-captain Emma Spiro returned to form with a career-high four goals after missing five games due to an ankle injury… In the midst of a four-game losing streak, Cornell is trying to figure out its goalkeeping situation. Kyla Dambach made four saves in the 15-6 loss to Penn, her fourth straight start since replacing Kristen Reese 20 minutes into a win over Columbia on March 10. Dambach, a sophomore, had appeared in four games in relief last year. Reese, a senior, had started the previous 24 games dating back to her sophomore season. Dambach has a .431 save percentage; Reese’s is .308… Brittany Shannon scored seven goals in Columbia’s 16-8 win over Bryant to garner the Ivy Co-Offensive Player of the Week award, the first time she has been so honored. The senior co-captain became the third player in Lions history to score 100 career goals in a 15-5 loss to Princeton last Wednesday…
Yale spent its days following a 12-5 loss to Dartmouth working on its clears, draw control and limiting turnovers. The Bulldogs turned it over 21 times, including a dozen times in the first half while winning just 3-of-12 draw controls as they fell behind, 10-1. “It was a tale of two halves,” said Yale head coach Anne Phillips. “We finally got the draw in the second half, possessed the ball and scored.” The Bulldogs won four of seven draws in the second half, but still turned it over nine times to thwart any comeback.
