The Harvard field hockey team dominated Dartmouth this weekend to gain sole possession of second place in the Ivy League and keep its NCAA tournament hopes alive.

Sophomore Shelley Maasdorp provided all the offense that the Crimson would need, scoring two goals in the middle of the first period, en route to the 2-0 victory.

Her second goal was more impressive. Maasdorp intercepted the ball, cut her way around three defenders and, as she fell to the ground, lifted a reverse chip into the back of the net to extend the Crimson lead.

In addition to her acrobatic goal which extended the lead to two, Maasdorp scored her first goal on a free hit from just inside the top of the circle.

Freshman Jen McDavitt perfectly placed the pass to Maasdorp, who rocketed the shot into the right corner of the goal.

The Crimson (11-5, 5-1 Ivy) controlled the momentum throughout, taking 14 more shots and winning seven more penalty corners than the Big Green (10-6, 4-2).

Harvard struggled on its corners, failing to convert on all nine opportunities during the course of the game.

“I think we need to do a bit better on our corners,” Maasdorp said. “A lot of our corners were executed well, but Dartmouth just played well defensively.”

The Crimson victory was defined by near-misses.

“There were some really close shots,” said captain Katie Scott. “In the second half, all that was missing was the goal.”

Harvard limited Dartmouth to only four shots, all of which were brushed aside by junior goaltender Katie Zacarian.

The Crimson turned up the heat in the second half in an attempt to clamp down on an anticipated rally by the Big Green.

“I think we were expecting Dartmouth to come back very, very hard [in the second half],” Maasdorp said. “So we really all decided we were going to make sure they couldn’t come back.”

Harvard earned seven of its nine penalty corners and attempted 13 of its 18 shots in the period.

Despite the additional pressure, the Crimson was unable to extend its lead over the Big Green.