When the Dartmouth men's soccer team stepped onto a muddy Chase Field on Sunday, it knew it was out to earn some respect from its Ivy League foe, Columbia, and salvage the remains of what has been an up and down season with a victory.
The Big Green certainly did earn some respect on Sunday grinding out a gritty performance, but they fell short of the win, settling for a 1-1 tie with the Lions.
With the tie Dartmouth now stands at 6-7-2 overall and 2-2-2 in Ivy League play. Columbia has an overall record of 9-5-3 and an Ivy League record of 1-3-3.
The game remained scoreless through regulation. It was not until just after the three minute mark of the first period of overtime that the tie was broken.
Columbia's Dustin Alexander sent a pass across the Dartmouth box where it was promptly headed past keeper Matt Nyman '99 by the Lions' Michael Payne.
While this pivotal goal could have put the Big Green away for good, they bounced back resiliently.
Just eight minutes after the Lions went ahead Dartmouth struck back. Matt Blanton '98 netted his first career goal when he shot from 30 yards out and deposited the ball into the top right corner of the goal.
The two teams were almost even in shots taken with Dartmouth holding a 16-15 edge. Matt Nyman had 10 saves for the Big Green while Lion's Steve Viscovich had seven.
Dartmouth's next game is Wednesday when they travel to Maine to take on the Blackbears at 7:00 p.m.
The Big Green men will end their season Saturday when they travel to Brown to battle the Bears at 7:00 p.m.
