Dartmouth women’s hockey (0-2) fell 4-2 to the University of Vermont (4-1-4) in an away game on Tuesday night. Last week, the Big Green lost 7-4 in its season opening match-up against Harvard University.
Last year, the Big Green beat the Catamounts 3-1.
“We for sure knew that UVM was going to be better than last year. We knew they were going to be a fast, gritty team,” said forward Gabby Billing ’22.
Billing thought the team had an good mindset overall going into the game but still might have slightly overlooked the Catamounts, since the Big Green had beaten them last year.
Head coach Laura Schuler spoke about the team’s efforts to tighten up its defense since the game against Harvard and feels that real progress has been made, especially on defense that showed against Vermont.
“I thought we significantly showed improvement there, although the score didn’t reflect that,” Schuler said. “Going from seven goals against to three was an improvement. We need to continue making that a focus for us going forward.”
Vermont came out of the gate hot with three goals in the first period. After Vermont’s first goal, forward Catherine Trevors ’23 responded with a goal to tie up the game. However, the tie was short-lived, as Vermont quickly scored again and scored one final time before the period ended.
After a challenging start, Trevors said the team was able to improve in the second and third periods. The second period was quiet between the two teams as the Big Green remained two back. Billing scored her first goal of the season within the first five minutes of the third period to bring the Big Green within one.
During a Dartmouth penalty halfway through the final period, goalie Hannah Humphreys ’23 was able to keep the Catamounts from extending the lead. Overall, she had 11 saves in the third period. Dartmouth had five penalties to Vermont’s three.
Ultimately, the Big Green was unable to score on its own power- play opportunity, and the game ended at 4-2. Billing and Trevors each had a goal and an assist for the second game in a row. Jennifer Costa ’21 also provided an assist for the Big Green. Dartmouth took 19 shots on the goal while Vermont took 31. Tuesday marked the Catamounts’ ninth game of the season and only the Big Green’s second game.
Despite two losses to start the season, Schuler said she was proud of her players’ ability to translate feedback from Harvard’s game into their performance against Vermont.
“Throughout the game against UVM we just kept getting better and better defensively,” Schuler said. “That’s where we have to pick up right where we left off going into these two games this weekend so that we can see some success.”
The offense has had two strong performances so far and has been able to consistently produce shots on the net. In addition, Trevors spoke of the importance of maintaining offensive pressure and keeping the puck in the opponent’s end.
“If we have the puck, we do good things,” Trevors said.
Getting off to a stronger start is a priority for the team moving forward.
“Against Harvard and UVM, we’ve had to dig ourselves out of a hole and that’s something that you don’t want to be doing,” Billing said.
Billing added that the team needs to focus especially on playing the first 10 minutes to capitalize on potential momentum and be proactive instead of reactive. In order to accomplish this goal, the team is planning on tweaking some of its pre-game rituals to start on the same page.
Billing also said that a special thing about their team is that the focus is on the whole team working together instead of one individual’s performance.
Dartmouth looks to carry this positive energy into success this weekend as they return to the ice at home. On Friday, the Big Green will take on Yale University (2-0) at 6 p.m. On Saturday, the team faces off against Brown University (0-2) at 3 p.m. The Big Green took both teams to overtime last season.
