Big Green Zips by W. Booters

F. Scott Fitzgerald once defined intelligence as a person's ability to keep two contradictory notions in his head at the same time.

If that's the case, the players and fans of Harvard's women's soccer team were veritable geniuses after the team's season-ending 1-0 loss to Dartmouth Saturday at Ohiri Field.

On the one hand, it was an outstanding game for Harvard (5-8-2 overall, 2-4-1 Ivy), one of its best of the season. With the exception of an early goal by the Big Green, the Crimson played evenly with one of the best teams in the Ivy League.

Realistically, though, it was a loss, and for a team that had previously lost four games on the season by one goal, the closeness of the contest was just like rubbing salt in the wounds.

"It's tough to say how I feel after this game," Harvard sophomore forward Libby Eynon said after the game. "It's disappointing in that we lost, but it was positive in the sense that we played good."

"I don't know [what I think of the game]," junior goalie Brooke Donahoe said. "We played well, but we came up on the short end of it. I guess I have mixed emotions about it all."

While the players' reviews of the game are up and down, the game itself was not. Dartmouth got up early and maintained its lead throughout.

Attacking from the first blow of the whistle, Dartmouth scored 4:52 into the game when mid-fielder Brittanny Boulanger, a native of Winchester, Mass., scored off of a pass from backer Jessica Andre.

With the goal, the Dartmouth faithful at Ohiri erupted, sensing a blowout on the scale of the Dartmouth football team's romp over Harvard across the street at Memorial Stadium.

But no such romp was to occur. Harvard's defense regrouped and shut out the Big Green for the rest of the game, with Donahoe tallying seven saves.

Harvard's offense also perked up a bit. The Crimson outshot Dartmouth 10-8 in the contest and, throughout the game, seemed to have its share of runs at the goal.

But, unfortunately for Harvard, each run seemed to end in either a solid play by a Dartmouth defender, a missed shot or a fumbled opportunity. "It was a good, even game for the most part," Donahoe said. "We had our opportunities, for sure, but we just couldn't tie it up."

DARTMOUTH, 1-0 at Ohiri Field Dartmouth  0  1  --  1 Harvard  0  0  --  0

G: Dartmouth--Brittany Bolinyin; Harvard--None. A: Dartmouth--Jessica Andre; Harvard--None. S: Dartmouth--Michelle Conroy 5; Harvard--Brooke Donahoe 7.