F. Hockey tied with late goal

HANOVER, N.H. -- The sound of the final whistle slicing through the Saturday afternoon drizzle left Penn field hockey fans shaking hands and resurrecting cliches with their Dartmouth counterparts. In a matchup punctuated by explosive offensive bursts, but dominated by stalwart defense, it was a game you wished nobody had to lose. Fortunately -- or infuriatingly -- enough, nobody did. The Quakers and Big Green played through two sudden-death overtime periods to a 1-1 tie in the Ivy League opener for both teams. Penn (3-1-1) took an early lead only to see pesky Dartmouth (2-2-1) even the score in the closing moments of regulation. Though Penn hasn't lost to Dartmouth since 1987, the Big Green has been a thorn in the Quakers' side in recent years. Last year, Penn's undefeated Ivy League championship team needed double overtime, while two years ago, the Quakers had to rally from a 3-0 deficit. "Dartmouth has a good team," senior goalkeeper Suzy Pures said. "They're fast, they're in great shape and they're just a solid, well-rounded team." The Penn defensive backfield delivered perhaps its finest effort of the season to stymie an aggressive Big Green offense that averaged two goals per game entering the contest. Dartmouth gambled offensively, taking advantage of its speed and conditioning by pulling its defenders upfield. But while the Big Green forced 15 corners, including seven in the second overtime, the Quaker defense yielded only a single goal on a deflected rebound. "We were aggressive to the ball," senior defender Mandy Kauffman said. "We stepped up and were pinching their girls. We took some risks, which is what you have to do in order to succeed." Kauffman, a two-time participant in the U.S. Olympic Hockey Festival, demonstrated why she is perennially one of the Ivy League's top defensive players. Kauffman was not alone as the heady play of senior defenders Melissa Sage and Rani Bajwa on either side of her further bolstered the Quaker backfield. Behind Kauffman, Pures stonewalled Dartmouth, amassing 20 saves and stopping as many as four shots in a single sequence. Pures had only been called on to stop 15 shots in the previous four games. With the Big Green's defenders pressing forward offensively, Dartmouth left themselves susceptible to a breakaway on the big ball. "They were playing so offensively that sometimes we could catch them off-guard," junior forward Kara Philbin said. And that's exactly what Penn did at the 19-minute mark of the first half. Senior midfielder Amy Pine found some breathing room on the right side and launched a blast downfield toward the right corner of the circle. Philbin, streaking downfield, reached the ball first and one-timed it back toward the sweet spot where junior forward Abby Herbine found herself all alone with Big Green goalkeeper Lauren Demski. Herbine hammered it home from point-blank range for her first goal of the season, giving the Quakers a 1-0 advantage. The Quakers spent much of the second half in their own end, fighting off the frantic Big Green onslaught and clinging to their precarious lead. Penn nearly held on. "They had a couple of rebound shots and the last one came right out on top," Pures said. "Everybody had meshed right in front of me. I never saw a thing." Penn came alive to dominate both extra periods, earning five of its corners in the first overtime alone. The Quakers have enjoyed remarkable success this season on OT corners -- two of Penn's three victories this year have come on overtime goals by Pine. But Saturday, there would be no Pine heroics. "I definitely thought we played very well in both overtimes," Kauffman said. Maybe not well enough to win, but not poorly enough to lose either.