HANOVER, N.H.--When it snows, it pours.
And when the first flakes of the season fell from the sky during Saturday's Harvard-Dartmouth field hockey game, the Crimson knew that it was playing on the Big Green's terms. Dartmouth had an avalanche of support behind it, and a Harvard victory would not be easy.
So amidst the frozen tundra of Chase Field, the Big Green snow-balled the Crimson by a 2-0 count to deny Harvard (5-12, 1-5 Ivy) a chance at winning its last game of the season.
"Dartmouth played strong for 70 minutes," Harvard coach Sue Caples said. "They played hard and created a lot of opportunities."
Good luck was the Big Green's (11-5, 4-2) reward for its hard work, as is often the case. With 11:39 to go in the first half, Harvard freshman Tara La Sovage turned her ankle, allowing Dartmouth's Allison Pell to take the ball towards the goal from the right side unmarked.
Pell then meant to strike a hard slapshot, but the ball shanked off her stick and blooped over the right shoulder of Harvard co-captain goaltender Jessica Milhollin. Chalk one up for Lady Luck.
The Big Green tallied the game's final goal less than four minutes later, when Pell broke free from her defender again around the midfield stripe. Rumbling down the right side-line, she found teammate Amy Coughlin open at the top of the circle and directed a long pass her way.
Before Milhollin could cover the left side of the cage, Coughlin skipped the ball past her into the corner for a 2-0 lead.
These goals changed what had been a back-and-forth game into a one-sided affair. The Crimson, which had some chances to score early, never got its frozen offense rolling again.
"[The two goals] definitely were demoralizing," said senior Maureen O'Brien, who played her final game along with Milhollin and co-captain Carrie Shumway. "We got into a hole."
In the second half, the Harvard defense did a better job of containing Dartmouth, holding the Big Green to only three shots. But at the same time, the Crimson also only shot thrice, making it difficult to come back from a two-goal deficit.
That inability to do more than one thing at a time killed Harvard on Saturday. Never did the Crimson put it all together.
"Dartmouth outplayed us," Shumway said. "We maintained a level of play and never really brought it up."
Harvard's only offense on the day came early in the first half. With 20 minutes to go in the period, freshman Judy Collins sped towards the Big Green cage and rolled a shot past Dartmouth goaltender Lauren Demski, but a defender smacked the ball away from danger.
Two minutes later, O'Brien had a similar breakaway, but she lost control of the ball when trying to get by Demski.
However, that was the only type of offensive attack Harvard could muster. The Crimson had a modest six corners on the day but could not hit a shot on goal on any of them, knocking two balls wide and illegally stopping the ball on the other four.
Granted, the conditions were not suited to corners--the grass field was choppy and hard, and the referees were especially picky on Shumway when she stopped the ball, saying that she used her hands instead of her stick. But Dartmouth did not have the same problems on its 10 corners.
The Big Green offense clicked in its other facets as well. Before Collins had her run, the Dartmouth attack produced one shot that hit the post and a breakaway that Milhollin had to dive to stop. Soon after, the Green scored its goals.
"When it gets tough, you got to individually take care of your play," Caples said. "We should have made better adjustments."
Bits and Pieces
With her 16 saves on the day, Milhollin has ended her rewriting of the Harvard record books. The holder of the career saves mark since the Providence game on September 23, Milhollin finished the year with 188 saves on the season and 711 on her career, 134 more than the previous record of 577. Milhollin, who has started every game in each of her four years on the varsity team, will probably hold that mark for a very long time.
Sophomores Eileen Horwath and Beck Stringer suited up for the first time since the beginning of the season, though neither played. Horwath has had back trouble since the spring, and Stringer contracted mononucleosis immediately after recovering from a broken wrist.
Shumway ends her career with 11 goals and 15 assists. O'Brien closed out with seven goals and no assists.
In the junior varsity game following the varsity contest, the snow stopped but Dartmouth didn't. The Big Green beat the Crimson, 4-0, preserving the shutout when Harvard freshman Shannyn Smith broke free of the defense late in the game but couldn't get the close shot into the cage. First Half Dar --Pel (Unassisted), 11:30 Dar-Coughlin (Pel), 7:43 Second Half No scoring Snvess Har--Milhollin 16; Dar--Damaid 10
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