Penn women's lacrosse defeats Dartmouth in Ivy League Tournament final, 10-7

Since the introduction of the Ivy League Tournament in 2010, only one team can be at the top of Ancient Eight women’s lacrosse each year.

And in 2013, the best team came out on top.

After dominating the regular season on the way to a seventh straight Ivy title, Penn confirmed its authority over the conference as it defeated Dartmouth, 10-7, in the final of the Tournament.

The victory was a sweet revenge for the Quakers, who in last year’s championship game were upset, 6-4, by the same Big Green.

“[Last year’s loss] was a tough one for us and I think especially the seniors had in the back of their mind that this wasn’t going to happen, that we were going to come away with the win on our field,” Penn coach Karin Brower Corbett said.

This time around, the Red and Blue took advantage of sloppy play by Dartmouth’s defense to quickly build a 6-1 lead, and then never looked back.

“They came out on fire in that first half and we got that lead early which was really helpful,” Corbett said. “We were producing a lot of looks on the attack, I don’t think we were shooting that well but we caused some problems for their defense.”

Senior captain Caroline Bunting led the Quakers’ charge with four goals, including an unassisted score off a free position eight minutes into the game that put Penn up for good, 2-1.

The Quakers took advantage of the Big Green’s 29 fouls, scoring five times on free position shots.

“It’s always a physical game when the two of us play and our kids expect that,” Corbett said. “When they fouled us, we made it count and … [Dartmouth] had an equal opportunity to score on these 8-meters and we put it away”

Meanwhile, Dartmouth’s offense was kept in check by Penn goalie Lucy Ferguson, who set the record for saves in the Tournament’s two games and was named Most Outstanding Player of this year’s edition.

“Everyone played well and when everyone’s playing well you raise your game to kind of meet that,” Ferguson said. “The defense in front of me was awesome so that definitely helped me — it was the product of a team effort.”

At the beginning of the second half, two goals by Liz Calby and Hana Bowers — who scored all of the Big Green’s seven points — reduced Dartmouth’s deficit to three.

But the Red and Blue stormed back in the next five minutes with three scores of their own — including two by Bunting — before quietly controlling the last quarter of the game.

“The best part of [the Big Green]’s attack is their crease game and I think were able to stop a lot of their challenges up top,” Corbett said. “We did a better job on the crease the first time we played them [this year] … but I think the team really played as a team unit and helped on all of the high challenges so there really weren’t a lot of one-on-one’s without somebody helping.”

The victory guaranteed the Quakers a spot in the NCAA tournament, where they will square off with Virginia, Friday at 3 p.m., in Washington, D.C.

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