Down 5-4 midway through the second half, the No. 16 Penn women's lacrosse team had a chance to tie its hard-fought game against No. 15 Dartmouth.
"We set-up a play to get a one-on-one challenge," Penn coach Karin Brower said. "We didn't take a good [shot], though, and after that we just struggled to bring the ball up the field."
And the Quakers wouldn't score again, losing 8-4.
The Big Green (7-4, 3-2 Ivy), the defending Ivy League Champions, led throughout the game.
"We struggle with coming back from being down," Brower said.
Dartmouth scored the first three goals of the game, and it took Penn almost 20 minutes to put one past Big Green goalie Devon Wills.
Both defenses played tight in the first half, and only five goals were scored.
In the second, the Quakers (8-5, 3-2) stepped it up, scoring the first goal of the half and playing a high-pressure defense, but they just ran out of time.
"We definitely had momentum, though," midfielder Caroline Finger said, "They called a timeout after we got it within one; they were getting nervous."
The score became 8-4 when Dartmouth's Whitney Douthett scored her third goal with just under ten minutes left. It would remain that way for the rest of the game.
A key area that hurt the team was transition in the midfield, according to Brower.
Dartmouth "scored a lot on breakaways; we were dropping balls with no pressure, throwing it directly to their sticks," Brower said.
Finger agreed, but thinks their mistakes will be easy to correct.
"It was a breakdown of skills we know we have," Finger said. "It's not that they were a better team; we just didn't play at the level" necessary to win.
Turnovers were another factor that plagued the Red and Blue, who committed 19 for the day.
"Pressure is something our team has to overcome," said Karen Jann, last week's Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week.
But Penn wasn't completely out-shot by Dartmouth, with the Big Green taking just one more shot.
The Quakers slipped back in their scoring percentage, though, finding net on only 23.5 percent of their shots.
Penn's goalies switched off, as is common for them, but Karrie Moore spent almost double the amount of time Sarah Waxman was in goal and made six total saves.
With the defeat, the Quakers lost their chance at a share of the Ivy League crown. Penn now ties Dartmouth for third place behind Cornell and Princeton, whom the Red and Blue will visit on Wednesday.
"It makes us more determined to overcome Princeton," Jann said.
