Big Green hand W. Lax 10th loss of the season

On Friday night, a band called Clowns for Progress took the stage at the Palestra to kick off the Spring Fling concert. Around the same time, it seemed like the Penn women's lacrosse team was finally about to make some progress of its own, just down 33rd Street. The Quakers' glimmer of hope faded, however, as they fell 20-2 to No. 10 Dartmouth. Penn (1-10, 1-4 Ivy League) started its game against the Big Green (8-1, 5-0) with an intensity that has been lacking all season at Franklin Field. Penn patiently cycled through its attack while Dartmouth's defense was somewhat tentative, as the Quakers held the ball for the first 3:30 -- making it hard to tell which team had just one win and which had one loss. "We were on," Penn junior midfielder Lee Ann Sechovicz said. "I think they probably weren't expecting us to come out like that and they weren't pressuring as hard at the beginning, so we could kind of move around on the attack." Penn's attack retrieved the rebound of junior co-captain Brooke Jenkins' shot off the post just 1:38 into the game and instead of rushing another shot as they have been prone to doing this season, the Quakers looked for a better opportunity. The Red and Blue moved the ball through the attack until Traci Marabella found such a chance. Unfortunately for the Quakers, Dartmouth goalie Ellie Leahy managed to stop the shot and the Big Green snapped into action. A mere 25 seconds later, Dartmouth was celebrating the first of its 20 goals and the Quakers were on their way to tying a team record with their 10th loss of the season. "[That goal] leveled us," Sechovicz said. "That's something we have to get over. When [another team] scores, we're down, and we need to be able to bounce back. It's hard." Jenkins scored Penn's first goal with 21:28 remaining in the first half to make it 3-1, but the Quakers would not get any closer. Things have not been hard lately for the Big Green. Dartmouth's 20-goal output was its second such performance in a row, as it walloped Vermont 21-1 in its most recent game. Friday's game marked the first time that Dartmouth had scored 20 goals in back-to-back games since 1975, when the Big Green pounded Worcester State and Keene State. "This was really the first game we've played for 60 minutes," Dartmouth coach Amy Patton said. "I think we were very, very patient, and that's something we've been looking for." Patience is something that Penn has also been looking for. After the opening sequence, however, the Quakers were not able to find anything of the sort. "I think that we freaked out when they pressured us a little bit," said Penn freshman Jenny Hartman, who scored the Quakers' second goal of the game with 0:34 remaining in the first half. "I think we also knew they were a good attacking team and if we gave them chances they would score. Our plan was to possess the ball." Penn had a lot of trouble sticking to that plan against Dartmouth, which won its eighth straight game. The Quakers' inability to execute their game plan was particularly disappointing to Penn assistant coach Alanna Wren, who has been leading the Quakers for over a month and a half since the team petitioned for the removal of head coach Anne Sage. After most games since then, Wren and the team immediately come together around the Quakers bench to discuss what happened in the game. Friday night, there was no such conference, as Wren had nothing to say. "I'm just tired of telling people the same old thing and never having anything change," Wren said. "Set a game plan and no one implements it -- as a coach, that's one of the most frustrating things because that's the only control you feel you have." Princeton, which currently holds the No. 5 national ranking, will visit Franklin Field on Wednesday night for the Quakers' final home game of the season. It will be the last chance for Penn to avoid going through an entire season without a victory in front of the home crowd.