Dartmouth, Penn in Inaugural Ivy Final
from press releases and staff reports
Host Penn downed Princeton 13-9 and Dartmouth took care of Cornell 10-8 to advance to the championship game of the inaugural Ivy League women's lacrosse tournament. The final takes place at 12:30 on Sunday, May 2 at Penn's Franklin Field and will be televised live on CBS College Sports.
Penn 13, Princeton 9
For the first 22 minutes of Penn's Ivy League Tournament semifinal,
the Quakers had trouble solving Princeton's defense, watching as
nine shot attempts failed to convert. However, the Red and Blue
eventually found their way at Franklin Field, unloading for 13
goals over the final 37:53 to defeat the Tigers, 13-9.
While Penn was busy peppering nine shots towards Princeton goalkeeper Erin Tochihara (she made five saves before Penn found the back of the cage), the Tigers pounced early to take a 1-0 lead 3:47 in off a free position goal from Kristin Morrison. The Tigers controlled most of the early play before scoring the opening goal, causing a turnover and drawing four Penn fouls.
However, despite Penn's inability to solve Tochihara, the Quakers were able to keep themselves in the game by taking care of the ball. Princeton had just one shot over the next 20 minutes, while Penn had 10. It was on the 10th that the Quakers got on the board via an Erin Brennan goal with 7:53 to play in the half. After a caused turnover and groundball from Barb Seaman, Penn took three shots in a minute, finally converting after Brennan deposited a Courtney Lubbe feed.
The game was not tied for long as Emma Spiro won the ensuing draw control and marched Penn down the field. She worked the ball around and it eventually found Ali DeLuca's stick. The senior then dished a pass to a freshman, Maddie Poplawski, who scored 37 seconds after Brennan's goal. Brennan struck again with 1:54 left in the half to send Penn to halftime ahead, 3-1.
In the second half, Penn appeared to be pulling away with an early burst of two goals in the first 1:18 to take a 5-1 lead. However, the Tigers rallied with three-straight from three different players in 3:49 to get within one.
Facing a critical juncture of the game, DeLuca came through once again. She took the ball at the top left side and worked her way around the field, circling behind Tochihara to the keeper's left. Instead of waiting for a play to develop, DeLuca took the play to Princeton, scampering out to her right and circling right to goal where she fired a shot past Tochihara high right side to give Penn a 6-4 lead. Just under a minute later, DeLuca drew not one, but two free positions in succession (earning the second one after wisely stepping back on the first from a bad angle). On the second free position, instead of shooting she sent a pass to Brennan who beat Tochihara for her third goal of the game and third hat trick in as many games against the Tigers.
Brennan's goal was part of an 8-1 run for Penn over a span of 10:45 in the second half. During that dominating run, DeLuca had three goals, Brennan had two and freshman Meredith Cain added two goals. That run put the game away and made Princeton's four goals to close the game nothing more than added stats.
DeLuca was the high scorer in the game, with four goals and four assists. Brennan finished with four goals. Cain had the two goals while Giordano added two assists. Megan Smith and Emma Spiro each had one goal and Lubbe had one assist. Cain was a monster on draw controls, finishing with five draws - all of which she took. Spiro had two draw controls and three ground balls. Defenders Barb Seaman and Kaileigh Wright each had a caused turnover that they turned into a ground ball. Emily Szelest had six saves in the win.
Dartmouth 10, Cornell 8
Cornell gave #11 Dartmouth a battle today, but the Big Green's
defense locked down for the last 18 minutes to take an 10-8 victory
in the Ivy League Tournament semifinal.
Kirsten Goldberg (Cockeysville, Md.) led Dartmouth (11-3, 5-2 Ivy) with three goals while Sarah Plumb (Wellesley, Mass.) and Greta Meyer (Denver, Colo.) each had two goals and an assist.
After Dartmouth jumped out to a 7-5 second half lead, Penn made it an 8-8 game with 18;14 to play, and that's when the Big Green's trademark defense took over. Anchored by senior goalie Julie Wadland (Andover, Mass.), Dartmouth made some huge defensive stands including periods of five minutes, three minutes and two minutes to hold Penn from getting another goal. Offensively, the Big Green broke the Big Red with goals just nine seconds apart at 12:48 and 12:39 from Goldberg and Plumb and was able to hold that 10-8 lead.
Wadland made six saves in the win while Shannie MacKenzie (Greenwich, Conn.) had three ground balls and three caused turnovers. One of those came with just under two minutes to play and Cornell trying to call timeout. MacKenzie swiped the ball to end the Cornell possession before they could call time. Dartmouth's entire defensive unit played tough all afternoon, led by the play of MacKenzie and senior Colleen Olsen (Avon, Conn.) as well as a big effort from junior Hope McIntyre (Cockeysville, Md.) off the bench.
Cornell's (5-9, 4-3 Ivy) Kyla Dambach also made six saves in goal and the teams were dead even with 19 shots each. Dartmouth won the battle for ground balls, 18-10 but Cornell had 11 draws to Dartmouth's eight.
Both goalies did nice work in the first half with five saves each, though the defenses were stingy as well, with Dartmouth holding a slight 12-10 shot advantage in a 4-4 tied half. It was as even as they come, with neither team leading by more than one in the period.
The Big Green looked sharp early and got the first goal of the game when Meyer fed Goldberg for a big score at 25:18. Cornell answered back quickly, however when Olivia Knotts scored from point blank range at 23:39. Several defensive stands later, Cornell's Knotts gave her team a 2-1 lead at 16:48, also knocking Goldberg out of the game for three minutes with a yellow card.
Dartmouth tied it right back up with a huge goal from Kat Collins (Darien, Conn.), who made her return to the lineup after missing eight games with an injury. Plumb found her in front of the goal and Collins buried one past Dambach for the 2-2 tie at15:30.
The Big Red took it right back when Libby Johnson scored off a feed from Jess Steinberg at 14:35, but Goldberg answered with an unassisted rocket on Dartmouth's next possession to make it 3-3 at 13:15.
The teams traded more stellar defensive stands before Meyer put Dartmouth ahead, 4-3, with a nice spin move off a great look from Plumb at 5:42. Cornell was able to match it for the 4-4 tie when McHugh scored off a feed from Steinberg a 1:59.
Cornell won the draw and battled to hold for the last shot, but Dartmouth made a great defensive stand on the ensuring possession. It all came down to a Big Red free position with 11 seconds to play and Wadland stonewalled it to give the Green a shot in the arm headed into the half.
Sophomore Sarah Parks (Ellicott City, Md.) put Dartmouth up 5-4 just two minutes into the second half, but Cornell's Morgan Axenfeld tied it up two minutes later. The Big Green scored two unanswered goals just 36 seconds apart to go up 7-5 at 24:39. Meyer made a nice hustle play for a ground ball and took it to goal herself for the first one. Parks scored the second after rookie defender Kelsey Johnson (Hingham, Mass.) made a big defensive play and cleared it up to Parks for the score at 24:39.
Cornell tied it right back up off goals by Axenfeld and Katie Kirk, 7-7 at 20:49. Each team got one more quick goal in the scoring flurry, with Plumb scoring off a feed from Collins for a brief 8-7 lead at 19:04. Kirk tied it at 8-8 at 18:14 of another free position.
The Big Red won the ensuing draw and Dartmouth made a tremendous defensive stand, holding for nearly five minutes before turning Cornell over. Dartmouth got those two quick goals to go ahead 10-8 with 12:39 and the rest was history.
