Calling Thursday afternoon's lacrosse matchup between the No. 12 Big Green women and in-state rival the University of New Hampshire a close game would be an understatement. Battling back and forth for 60 minutes of play, Dartmouth (2-0, 0-0 Ivy) clenched an 11-10 victory over the Wildcats (0-3, 0-0 America East) with two goals in the last five minutes of play. Co-captain Hana Bowers '13 tied the game at 10-10 and, with five seconds remaining, Jaclyn Leto '16 scored to clinch the victory and maintain the team's undefeated record.
The game began with UNH winning the opening draw, but Dartmouth began to run its offense and found a few decent looks that did not materialize. UNH recovered possession and netted the first goal of the game with a feed from behind the cage to a cutter coming from up top who quick-sticked the ball in.
Responding exactly a minute later, co-captain Courtney Bennett '13 drove down the left and connected with Liz Calby '14 curling up from behind the crease. Calby finished into the far top corner to tie up the game 1-1. Three minutes later, Dartmouth took the lead off of another Calby crease goal, this time assisted by Bowers. Less than a minute later, UNH fought back to tie the game with an eight-meter penalty-shot goal into the lower left corner.
Drawing a foul, Calby fired a pass from the left side of the field across the eight to Bennett, who ripped a long shot that found the bottom of the back of the net.
Calby earned her hat trick when she fired a rocket from the center hash into the top left corner of the goal. UNH never fell far behind, as a Wildcat rolled the crease and finished with a low shot past Big Green goalkeeper Kristen Giovanniello '14.
With 10 minutes remaining in the half, Bennett gained possession of the draw and charged down the field, dodging defenders before tallying her second goal of the day. On the next play, Bennett completed her hat trick with an eight-meter shot that snuck past the Wildcat goalie.
UNH rallied back to score a goal with five minutes to play in the half when a feeder from behind connected with a cutter coming in from out top. Calby tallied her fourth goal of the half, and final of the game, with a crafty inside roll that allowed her the position to finish over the goalie's shoulder. A final eight-meter goal bounced in for UNH and the teams headed to the locker room with Dartmouth leading 7-5.
UNH scored the first goal of the second half on another eight-meter penalty shot, and evened up the game at seven goals apiece three minutes later.
The Big Green drew the next call and earned the eight-meter, which Danielle Lisovicz '16 finished with a low shot.
UNH tied up the game and gained momentum for the first time in the second half. The Wildcats cushioned its lead with a quick-stick finish from a feeder behind the net.
The Big Green, who had been playing a high pressure defense all game, picked it up another notch. Leto forced a turnover that allowed Dartmouth to transition up the field. Bowers drew a shooting space call and drove hard from her hash before scoring into the top left corner to bring the game to within one goal.
Less than a minute later, Bowers found the ball back in her stick on the right side of the arc and darted across the top of the arc toward the left, tying the game at 10-10.
Dartmouth regained possession due to tight defense in transition and called timeout. Back out on the field, the Big Green maintained possession for over a minute by working the ball around the perimeter. Then, with only 15 seconds left on the clock, Calby drove in and found Leto, who was able to get a bounce shot off with 5.8 seconds remaining to clinch the win.
Co-captain Kelsey Johnson '13 said the team focused on playing to win during the timeout.
"Coach told us that we needed to attack, start going to goal and going after the game to win instead of playing not to lose," Johnson said. "We had to take the game into our own hands."
Head Coach Amy Patton said she was very pleased with the game but that there was a lesson to be learned.
"I'm really proud of the girls to show their character and belief to pull that game out in the last five minutes," Patton said in an email. "We need to learn from the past two games and find a way to start to play much more aggressively for 60 minutes versus for parts of the game."
The team played with composure but needs to "pick it up a notch" moving forward, Johnson said. Back and forth games are challenging, but the team did a good job taking the game one goal at a time.
"We cannot settle and play down to anyone else's level," Johnson said. "It was bittersweet to win today and it shouldn't have been a one-goal game. We worked hard but we were almost lucky to win."
Bowers said that she was never nervous and knew that the team had to "find a way to make it happen."
"We showed a lot of character in our team today and were able to gut out the win in the end," Bowers said. "Staying mentally in it says a lot about us and how much we believe in each other."
