Penn Edges Dartmouth in Ivy Showdown
from press release
PHILADELPHIA - In a battle between a pair of
teams which entered the weekend tied atop the Ivy League women's
lacrosse standings at 4-0, No. 8 Penn relied on its backbone in
goal to make sure the Quakers came out on the winning side.
Emily Leitner tied her career high with nine saves and added six
ground balls and a caused turnover to hold off Dartmouth and give
her offense a chance to turn a one-goal halftime deficit into a
10-9 final score in favor of the Quakers.
With the win, Penn improves to 9-3 overall and 5-0 inside the Ivy
League while the Big Green slip to 8-3 in 2011 and 4-1 in Ancient
Eight play.
In addition, the win is Penn's 34th in a row in Ivy League play,
extending the Red and Blue's conference winning streak, which is
now the longest active streak in the country and third-longest in
NCAA history (Northwestern's 38-game ALC winning streak which was
snapped on Thursday).
The Red and Blue scored three times in the first 4:58 of the second
half to erase the halftime deficit, but the game was not ultimately
decided until Caroline Bunting's second goal of the game with 3:01
to play broke a 9-9 tie. And really, the game wasn't finally sealed
up for Penn until Emily Leitner's hustle play to get to the ball
first after a Kat Collins shot with 44 seconds left had gone wide.
The final three minutes saw five turnovers between the two teams as
Penn fought to hold the ball and Dartmouth was forced to move
quickly in an attempt to tie the game. In fact, a late Penn
turnover in the final 10 seconds gave Dartmouth one final grasp at
scoring, but a long pass from the goalkeeper was picked off by
Bunting to the delight of the Penn faithful.
In the opening moments of Saturday's game, chances of extending the
streak seemed dim as Dartmouth scored four of the first five goals
to take a 4-01 lead midway through the opening half. However, after
head coach Karin Brower Corbett called timeout following the fourth
goal, the Quakers scored twice to climb back in the game.
Giulia Giordano scored just 28 seconds after the Big Green took the
three-goal lead, netting her second of the game with 14:27 left in
the first half on a nice pass from Meredith Cain. The play took no
time to develop, with Maddie Poplawski winning the draw, finding
Cain on the run for the entry which led to Giordano's score. Just
under a minute after Giordano's second goal, Lindsey Smith struck
for the Quakers, who turned one of Leitner's free position saves
into a positive on the scoreboard.
After the Big Green retook a two-goal lead with 12:16 left in the
first half, Cain scored her first of three in the game off a Tory
Bensen feed with 10:43 left in the opening stanza. A little under
six minutes later, Caroline Bunting connected on a free position to
tie the game for Penn. It looked as if the game would head to
halftime knotted at 5-5, but Sarah Parks scored on a low shot with
four seconds left to give the Big Green a 6-5 edge at the
break.
The opening five minutes of the second half was all Penn as the
Quakers scored three times to take an 8-6 lead. First up was Erin
Brennan who converted a possession started by a turnover off the
stick of Dartmouth keeper Kristen Giovanello 21 seconds into the
period. Carolyn Pollard scooped up the ground ball, cycled it to
Brennan and Penn's leading scorer netted her 25th of the year to
tie the game once again only 37 seconds into the period.
Cain took care of the next two goals, scoring 1:45 into the second
half off a feed from Bunting and recording her first collegiate hat
trick 4:58 into the period on an unassisted goal off a restart
following a Dartmouth foul.
Brennan's second of the game on a free position with 20:30 to play
evened out a goal from Sarah Plumb two minutes prior,
re-establishing a two-goal lead for the Quakers. The Big
Green did not fade away, though, with Plumb scoring a free position
with 17:21 to play and Kristen Goldberg finally scoring the
equalizer with 4:12 remaining. Giovanello did all she could to give
Dartmouth the opportunity to tie, making three saves in between
goals for the Big Green, all from close range. At the same time,
Leitner was denying the Big Green with two saves of her own before
Goldberg's fast break score.
After Dartmouth tied the game, Penn chose not to call timeout and
let play continue. Lily Posner came from the back line to win the
draw and take the ball in on the fly, allowing the Quakers to set
up their offense. Eventually, the ball found Bunting on the left
side and she broke to goal, depositing a shot low left corner for
her 14th goal of the season.
Bunting was one of four players with multi-point games for Penn as
she had two goals and an assist. In addition to Cain's four-point
day, Brennan and Giordano each had two goals. Leitner's six ground
balls led the way for Penn, with Pollard, Brennan and Giordano each
adding three. Lydia Miller had three caused turnovers in the game,
including a monster theft with 1:17 to play just steps from Penn's
cage. As a team, Penn caused 13 of Dartmouth's 16 turnovers - with
10 different players recording at least one.
Giovanello made nine saves in goal for the Big Green, while Plumb
led the offense with three goals. Kat Collins had two goals and a
pair of assists as well.
Penn is home again on Wednesday, April 20 at 7 p.m. against No. 12
Princeton for Senior Day. The Quakers will look to clinch at least
a share of the Ivy League's regular season championship against the
Tigers as Penn is the lone remaining unbeaten inside the League.
The Tigers were downed by Harvard on Saturday, 9-8, leaving
Princeton at 3-1 in the Ancient Eight, alone in fourth place behind
4-1 Dartmouth and Harvard.
