Dartmouth Scoring Run Dooms Cornell

The women’s lacrosse team fell to Dartmouth on Saturday while on the road in New Hampshire. After the Red played a dominant first half, Dartmouth took control after the break to score six straight goals and bring the final score to 12-8.
While the No. 15 Big Green remain undefeated against the other Ivies so far (6-3, 3-0 Ivy), the Red (5-4, 1-3 Ivy) added another loss to its growing skid.
“I think we just played so well the first half, but we just lost a couple draw controls and I think we just let Dartmouth take the momentum away from us a little bit,” said junior attacker Kate Dewey.
Each team scored six points in the back-and-forth of the first half. Dartmouth’s Kat Collins and Cornell’s Kate Dewey each scored a pair of goals in the first 10 minutes. After another goal from Dartmouth, freshman Jessi Steinberg scored two goals in a row for the Red, opening up a Cornell lead, 4-3. [img_assist|nid=36586|title=White knight|desc=Senior Jessica Wiegand (left) attacks against Colgate.|link=node|align=left|width=|height=0]
Dartmouth found the back of the net soon after, but Cornell answered with goals from sophomore Libby Johnson and Steinberg. The Big Green tallied two more goals in the last three minutes to tie up the score, 6-6, before the break.
“We started off really strong. The first 45 minutes we pretty much controlled the game and we did really well,” said junior goalkeeper Kristen Reese.
Steinberg and Johnson’s hat tricks were key to the first half. Johnson started off the second half with two goals for the Red in the first 10 minutes.
But after a solid start to the second half, Dartmouth hit six goals in a row. The Green broke open the match and prevented the Red from answering the rest of the half.
“Attack was really putting things together and was really dynamic today. So that was very positive to see that for the first 45 minutes. But we’re still working to put a full 60 minutes together,” Reese said.
The Big Green’s Katherine Chiusano was central to her team’s attack, scoring four goals in less than four minutes. The run gave Dartmouth a comfortable two-goal lead with ten minutes remaining in the game, before the Big Green sealed off its victory with two more goals.
“They’re a really physical team, and they definitely used their strength to their advantage,” Reese said.
The Red was able to win many of the draw controls in the first half, but lost momentum in the second, allowing Dartmouth to pick up most of the draw controls.
“Towards the end, we weren’t getting as many draw controls, and Dartmouth just took advantage of getting a lot of good looks off the crease. And in the end, it didn’t really go our way, but I think it was a really good step in the right direction,” Reese said.
Goalkeeper Kristen Reese made six saves in the match.
The Red will remain on the road to take on the University of New Hampshire (8-4, 2-2 American East) today, for a match in which Cornell hopes to expand upon the energy it displayed during the first part of the Dartmouth game.
“We played a great first half [with Dartmouth] so we’re looking forward to putting it all together, because we have a long season ahead of us,” Dewey said.
New Hampshire holds an overall 5-2 record against Cornell, and when the Red came up against New Hampshire last year, the Wildcats captured a close 10-9 win. This time, the Red will be looking to break their losing streak and get back into .
“They have one hot-shot who they look to score most of their goals. So we’re working on shutting her down, and then just playing Cornell lacrosse — getting a full 60 minutes together and playing tough for the entire game,” Reese said.