Neither captain Ashley Hines'09's goal in the final second of the game nor Virginia Peisch '11's record-breaking pair of assists was enough to give the Dartmouth women's field hockey team a win over Ivy rival Cornell.
The Big Green (6-11, 4-3 Ivy) fell to the Big Red (11-5, 6-1 Ivy), 3-2, in Ithaca, N.Y. in Dartmouth's final game of the season.
Peisch's two helpers gave her 16 assists for the season, topping the Dartmouth all-time single-season record, posted by Lauren Scopaz '99 during her season, by two.
Captain Kristen McCormick '09 was disappointed by the loss, but she still said that the game showed the team's progress this year.
"It was still a good end to the season," McCormick said. "Obviously we would've loved to have won, but one thing that's great is that, regardless of how we played, we played for 70 minutes. We scored when the time on the clock had run out, which shows that we never stopped working. Even if the outcome wasn't in our favor, and even if it wasn't one of our best games, we still had some beautiful passing combinations, some great individual defense and offense, and some just really good stuff overall that we should be proud of."
Cornell opened the game with two goals, putting one on the board seven and a half minutes into the contest, followed by another tally three minutes later, when the Big Red's Catie Del Stio pushed the ball into the net after a save by Dartmouth's Meagan Vakiener '12.
The Big Red goals did not remain unanswered for long as Dartmouth retaliated just under a minute and a half later when Hines put in her fifth goal of the season on a penalty corner, assisted by Peisch and McCormick.
Cornell's 2-1 advantage was widened after the half, when De Stio put in her second tally, the eventual game-winner, nine minutes into the second half.
Dartmouth's final goal pulled the team closer, but the game was already decided. The goal was scored with no time remaining on the clock, as Hines scored again from a penalty corner, again assisted by Peisch and McCormick.
"We'd have spurts here and there of really great passing and movement," McCormick said. "But we couldn't seem to stay connected."
McCormick summed up the team's offensive and defensive difficulties, saying that they still struggled with breakaways.
"Offensively, there were a lot of balls going through sticks," McCormick said. "Normally we get touches on those and score off them. Defensively, we had a hard time with Cornell's transition from defense to offense. It's one of their strengths because they're a very fast team. Once again, we had some issues with breakaways. Meagan Vakiener made some key saves."
Vakiener made a good effort in the loss, saving eight Cornell shots. The ratio was typical of Vakiener's games, as the Big Green totalled 134 saves during the season, as opposed to its opponents' 87. Vakiener made 127 of these saves, ending the season with a .747 save average, higher than her opponents' .719 average.
Cornell's 21-8 shot advantage was a larger margin than usual for the Big Red, which ended its season with a total of 216 shots to its opponents' 305.
Kelly Hood '12 ended the season leading Dartmouth in points, with nine goals, worth two points each, and two assists, giving her a total of 20 points on the year. She was followed by Peisch, who had a goal and 16 assists; Hines, who had six goals and five assists; McCormick's who had one goal and 10 assists; and Rebecca Sobel '11, who had five goals and one assist.
Dartmouth finished the season in third place in the Ivy League, tied with the University of Pennsylvania.
The win gave Cornell second place in the Ivy League, just behind Princeton, who took its fourth consecutive Ivy League title, sweeping through its Ivy League schedule unbeaten, scoring 34 goals and allowing only four scores in seven league games.
Cornell also set a new school record for wins and conference wins in a season.
Columbia, Yale and Harvard finish the season tied for fifth place, with Brown at the bottom of the league in eighth.
