Women's Lacrosse Unable To Fend Off Dartmouth

Heading into the final weekend of play, the Harvard women’s lacrosse team faced off against the Big Green in Hanover, N.H. on Friday. Although the Crimson (3-11, 2-5, Ivy) held a one-point lead entering halftime, No. 20 Dartmouth (9-6, 5-2, Ivy) outscored Harvard, 10-2, in the second frame to win, 15-8.

Dartmouth took an early lead, scoring in the first 45 seconds of the contest. The Big Green’s offense proceeded to net two more goals in the following five minutes to gain a 3-0 advantage.

Freshman attack Audrey Todd sparked Harvard’s offense, opening the scoring for the Crimson with two unassisted goals in less than a minute’s time.

“We have a good core to build from,” Harvard coach Lisa Miller said. “We played a lot of freshmen this year, and that’s a good thing for the program.… I think we started to play a little bit differently this year. We’re moving the ball around a lot more, and I think that’s a good thing for future teams.”

Heading into the final 20 minutes, Cyr netted a goal to tie the score, 3-3. The Big Green responded with a goal to regain the lead when Dartmouth’s freshman midfielder Jaclyn Leto fired a shot past Crimson senior goalie Mel Cook on a free-position attempt.

“We started [the] game great, and I thought they attacked something we were trying to work out defensively,” Miller said. “We’re getting better and better at it. We’re really young on the crease, and I thought Dartmouth did a really good job of taking advantage.”

The Harvard offense executed another three-goal surge, bumping itself ahead, 6-4. The first look came from senior midfielder Danielle Tetreault, who found the back of the net unassisted. Junior midfielder Kyleigh Keating netted a goal after junior attack Chelsey Newman fed her the ball heading into the final five minutes of the period. Tetreault buried another shot to extend the lead with three minutes remaining.

“We’re a threat all over the field,” Tetreault said. “There’s no one attacker that scores our goals. We are very balanced, and that makes it hard for other teams to defend us.”

Capitalizing on a man-up opportunity, Dartmouth tallied the final goal of the first frame, bringing the score to 6-5.

The Crimson lead did not last long, with the Big Green notching a goal in a man-down situation to level the score. The goal came from Dartmouth junior attack Liz Calby, who registered another goal in the fourth minute to snag a lead for the Big Green.

“I thought when we had the ball, we scored,” Miller said. “We did have long defensive stands, but when you don’t have the ball, it’s tough to win. And that’s the story of the game.”

The Harvard offense answered the two Dartmouth goals with two of its own to regain the lead, 8-7. Senior midfielder Nina Kucharczyk tallied the tying point with an unassisted goal. Todd registered a hat-trick and helped keep pace with the Big Green, but the goal was the last of the contest for the Crimson. Todd’s hat-trick was her fourth for the season.

In the next 23 minutes, Dartmouth dominated possession, tallying the next and final eight points of the match. The Big Green’s senior attack Hana Bowers pocketed three goals in three minutes to extend Dartmouth’s lead to two points. Leto and Calby each netted a goal, along with senior midfielder Courtney Bennett and freshman attack Gabby Starkey.

“We came out in the first half…it was a goal-for-a-goal game,” Tetreault said. “Second half, the draw controls didn’t go our way, and draw controls are possessions, and those are goals, so we went 10-2 for draw controls in the second half, and they went 10-2 against us in goals.”

“We just could not get to a draw control, and I think that is what determined the game,” Miller added. “We were in and around it, we just weren’t coming up with it.”

Todd led the team in goals for the match. Newman and Kucharczyk each registered an assist, and Cook tallied five saves for the Crimson.

The Big Green outshot Harvard, 27-17, and controlled 17 of the 24 draw controls in the match.

—Staff writer Kelley Guinn McArtor can be reached at kelleyguinnmcartor@college.harvard.edu. Follow her on Twitter @CrimsonKGM.