W. Soccer Falls to Dartmouth

The Harvard's women's soccer team felt the sting of a Dartmouth defense which may well be the best the league has ever seen Saturday in a 1-0 loss in Hanover, N.H.

The Big Green (11-2-1 overall, 6-0 Ivy)--a team which has not given up a goal all six of its Ivy League games--held the Crimson (5-6-2 overall, 3-3-0 Ivy) to only one shot throughout the entire game.

The Crimson, however, while playing well, gave up 11 shots to Dartmouth, 10 of which were stopped by senior goalie Brooke Donahoe.

"I think everyone was pretty pleased with how we played," freshman forward Rachel Chernikoff said. "It was like a lot of games we've played this year in that we had moments when were very strong, but a few moments when we lapsed. Those lapses have killed us."

The deadly lapse for the Crimson occurred at the 58:50 mark. Dartmouth freshman Melissa McBean, a Big Green stand-out all season, dribbled down the left side of the field all by herself and nailed a goal from the post.

"She was just so fast," Harvard freshman Dana Tenser, an injured mid-fielder who is currently serving as the team statistician, said. "She ran past everyone and scored all by herself. She's been doing that all year for them."

The goal came after a number of persistent Big Green offensive efforts.

"It's not at all like they didn't have an offense or anything," Chernikoff said. "They had a very strong offense and they were on top of us all game, but our defense just did a great job of stopping them. They gave us the opportunity to win--but we just couldn't score off of them."

The loss puts the Crimson in the middle of the Ivy pack with a 3-3 record, and fortifies Dartmouth's perch over the league by extending its record to 6-0.

"The thing about the game is that we really could've won," Tenser said. "One of these days, we're going to put everything together and have a great game.'

The Crimson better hurry. It has only two games left this season--one with Holy Cross on Wednesday at Ohiri Field, and another next Saturday at Brown.