With under 30 seconds left to play in a game tied at 9-9, captain Liz Calby ’14 cradled the ball behind the net. She glanced at the clock and dished the ball to Jaclyn Leto ’16, who drove toward the middle and spun back, drawing the double team. Calby snuck around the crease and called for the ball. Leto found her. The senior faked the over-the-shoulder shot and pivoted, stashing the ball in the top corner with just 14 seconds left to win the game for the Big Green at Brown University on Saturday.
The women’s lacrosse team often runs through last minute situations in practice, and players translated those skills into their game, Calby said.
The team (5-4, 2-1 Ivy) stormed back from a 5-0 deficit against the Bears (7-2, 2-1 Ivy), which had previously led the Ancient Eight.
Coming off of a tough 12-10 loss to the University of Vermont three days earlier, the Big Green started slow.
“At the beginning of the season, we’re used to having these games not be so tight,” co-captain defenseman Kara Lehman ’14 said. “While it’s not good to be getting ourselves in these situations, knowing that we can get it done in tight games gives us the confidence to be able to play close games down the road.”
Calby put the Big Green on the board with 1:31 left in the first half. She scored again with just one second left on the clock, cutting the deficit to three at halftime. These two goals gave Dartmouth crucial momentum heading into halftime.
“We saw areas we needed to improve in,” Calby said. “Everyone looked at each other and said that we’re not losing this game.”
Lehman said that head coach Amy Patton told the team that the game could have large implications on its season.
“We weren’t reaching our potential in any way in the first half and it showed,” Lehman said. “Our coach told us that our Ivy Tournament eligibility was on the line, so if we wanted to make it there, we had to find a way to get it done.”
Calby has shined so far in her senior season, leading the team in points with 31. She is tied for fifth in the Ivy Leage in points, tied for sixth with 20 goals and has the fifth most assists on the season with 11. Coming off a season in which she was named to the Ivy League Honorable Mention team, Calby already has more than half of last season’s 56 points.
The teams went back and forth over the first 10 minutes of the second half, but the Big Green could not cut into the Bears’ lead. After a Brown goal with 20:44 on the clock put the Bears up 8-4, Leto stepped up for the draw and won it.
Just over a minute later Leto scored, starting a 4-0 Big Green run. Danielle Lisovicz ’16 would score next to cut the deficit to two. Leto followed up with two more to tie the game with 12:12 to play.
Brown retook the lead with 9:55 to play, but Courtney Weisse ’17 scored her third goal of the season to tie the game at nine with 6:46 left.
“It shows our grittiness as a team,” Lehman said. “We did not play a good first half, but at the times when we’re all playing together as a team, we can pull out anything, but we haven’t been doing that from the start.”
Dartmouth goalkeeper Kristen Giovanniello ’14 made seven saves in the game, keeping the Dartmouth women in the game when they were down. Brown keeper Kellie Roddy also secured seven saves.
Giovanniello has logged every minute in net for the Big Green this season and currently leads the Ancient Eight in saves with 80. Her performance so far this season is par for the course for the Big Green netminder, who has been named to the Ivy League First Team, Second Team, Honorable Mention team and Ivy Rookie of the Year. Roddy ranks fourth in the league with 56 this season.
The team will play Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. on Saturday.
“One of the biggest things we’re focusing on is putting together a full game,” Lehman said. “We’ve shown our potential in pockets, but we haven’t put it together for a full 60 minutes. If we do, we feel that we can play with anyone in the nation.”
