Solid effort not enough for W. Lax

With 25 seconds remaining, the Penn women's lacrosse team had cut its deficit down to 10 in what would end up a devastating 14-4 loss. Dartmouth had dominated the scoring throughout the game. But after that one goal, one fanatical Dartmouth father stood up to shout, "Make 'em pay for that one!" That was exactly the attitude the No. 2 Big Green (5-0, 2-0 Ivy League) brought with them to Franklin Field, as it routed the Red and Blue 14-4. Dartmouth and its plethora of fans were spirited, loud, aggressive and unstoppable. The Quakers side was seemingly silent. The Big Green's Kim Mendelson was the biggest threat on the field, scoring five goals. Attacker Wallis Cook added another three. Lauren Holleran, a Dartmouth senior attacker and sister of Penn women's squash coach Demer Holleran, also tallied three goals. The outcome aside, the Quakers (2-6, 0-4) did play a decent game, but they were unable to finish off their offensive efforts with goals. "We played strong as a team," Penn coach Anne Sage said. "The score is not indicative of our work rate." Penn was held scoreless until 27 minutes into the first half, when attacker Alanna Wren scored on a free position goal. By halftime, however, Dartmouth was running away with the game, 8-1. The Quakers had plenty of opportunities, often catching the Big Green in transition, but they couldn't capitalize. Dartmouth defenders swarmed the goal and the Penn attacker within seconds every time down the field. On offense, Dartmouth was incredibly consistent on all passes, short and long, underhand and overhand, in front and behind-the-back. Penn was unable to defend against these effective passes, as Dartmouth used them to break out of double-teams, work around the net and create breakaways. In the second half, Penn was more sloppy than in the first. The Quakers frequently missed or dropped bad passes, threw a number of interceptions, turned the ball over, didn't get as many ground balls and just appeared exhausted. "You have to give them credit -- they're a great team," midfielder Jess Gilhorn said. "But in the second half we were both mentally and physically tired." Despite their exhaustion, the Quakers were able to score three more goals, but they were all in vain. Dartmouth scored another six to bring the game to a close. "It was unfortunate we didn't have the ball because we weren't able to get in our rhythm," said attacker Lori Frutkin, who scored one goal. Regardless of the final score, the Red and Blue were not unhappy with their performance. "The players feel like they played a good game," Sage said. "We always thought we were in the game." "When you keep losing and losing, and we worked as hard as we did, it shows our perseverance," Gilhorn said. "It shows our hearts are still in playing lacrosse."