While the Big Green never trailed in the game, it was far from one-sided as the Lions (10-4, 1-4 Ivy) stayed strong throughout regulation and the 12 minutes of overtime before Meghan Everett '12 sealed the Dartmouth victory.
The goal came when captain Kristen McCormick '09 guided a pass across the field and through the Columbia defense to Everett, who did not think twice, putting away the goal in the lower corner and making the Lions pay for their mishap. The goal came on Everett's third shot of the game and was the first game-winner of her career.
Besides Everett, also coming up big for Dartmouth (5-9, 3-2 Ivy) was goalkeeper Meagan Vakiener '12, who had 14 saves on the day to anchor the Big Green defense; it was her highest tally since the 4-0 loss to Princeton (12-2, 5-0 Ivy) on September 20, when she had 18 saves.
Five of Vakiener's 14 saves came in the overtime period, as the Big Green was out-shot 5-3 in extra time and 25-15 overall.
The Big Green scored the first goal of the game 26 minutes into the first half, when Virginia Peisch '11 flipped the ball into the circle to Rebecca Sobel '11, who netted the goal to give Dartmouth a 1-0 lead. It was Sobel's fifth goal of the season.
The advantage lasted through halftime, even though the Lions enjoyed a 9-1 first-half advantage in penalty corners over the Big Green as well as a 10-7 shot advantage.
The Lions' pressure was not entirely unrewarded as, just seven minutes after the break, Columbia's Megan Davidson ran past defenders and beat Vakiener to put in an unassisted tally and draw the score even at 1-1.
The play was back and forth for the rest of the second half, with both teams having scoring opportunities but neither capitalizing until, with less than two minutes left in regulation, the Big Green took advantage of a penalty corner.
Kelly Hood '12 put the ball in off the corner, assisted by Peisch and McCormick, to give Dartmouth the late lead. Peisch has now tied the Dartmouth single-season record with 14 assists this year and will likely take the top spot exclusively with another assist in the next three games.
The advantage did not last long, however, when just 38 seconds later, Columbia's Maggie O'Connor put in an unassisted goal to tie the score up at 2-2 and send the game to overtime.
Columbia reamined a threat throughout the overtime period, with four penalty corners to Dartmouth's zero, but Vakiener held strong in goal to keep the game alive. With only three minutes left in overtime, McCormick combined with Everett for the game-winner.
Captain Ashley Hines '09 was happy with the result, but saw many things to improve on in the game.
"I think it went okay," Hines said. "It wasn't the prettiest game, but we found a way to win in overtime. They were a good team, and they did a lot of things that we weren't really expecting, so it was good to win. The best was that, even though it wasn't the most perfect game, we found a way to win."
The victory puts Dartmouth at third place in the Ivy League, tied with the University of Pennsylvania (5-10, 3-2 Ivy). Columbia now stands in sixth place, tied with Yale University (5-9, 1-4 Ivy). The Ivy League champion, however, will likely be decided on Saturday when Princeton takes on Cornell University (10-4, 5-0 Ivy) as the winner of that contest will be only one win away from a perfect Ivy record.
This game is the team's fourth overtime contest of the year and third in Ivy League play. The Big Green is now 2-2 in those contests, defeating Columbia and Brown while falling to the University of Vermont and Yale.
Dartmouth looks to finish strong with a non-conference game against Wake Forest University (14-2, 2-2 ACC), currently ranked No. 1 in the country, between Ivy League contests against Harvard (6-8, 2-3 Ivy) and Cornell.
Hines describes the team's strategy going into the next game as a mixture of hard work in practice and more thoughtful play.
"I think we need to have a good week of practice and just be smarter with our decisions," Hines said. "It's something we've struggled with all season. I think we just maybe need to be more flexible on the field during the game to approach the problems that we have."
Harvard comes to Hanover on Saturday to face off against Dartmouth on Chase Field at 12 p.m.
