In a game filled with broken streaks, the No. 6 Penn women’s lacrosse team was able to use a trio of 3-0 scoring bursts to extend the most impressive run of them all — 27 consecutive Ivy wins.
In a 9-6 Penn victory Saturday at Hanover, N.H., senior attack Ali DeLuca’s 25-game goal streak and senior goalie Emily Szelest’s 30-game save streak were both snapped, as was No. 7 Dartmouth’s nine-game winning streak.
Along with their first marquee victory of the season, the Quakers (10-3, 5-0 Ivy) also likely secured home-field advantage in the inaugural Ivy League Tournament. Dartmouth could still theoretically host the tournament, but only if Penn loses its final two games — against Princeton and Brown.
In three previous losses to top-10 teams this season, Penn had lost the battle for draw controls by a combined 42-20 margin. DeLuca was able to single-handedly outdraw the Big Green, as she corralled five draws and helped the Quakers finish with a 13-4 margin for the game.
“The draws were kind of a crapshoot, but I thought that our kids fought hard for it, and that enabled us to have the ball a lot,” coach Karin Brower Corbett said.
Seniors Emma Spiro and Courtney Lubbe and junior Giulia Giordano scored two goals apiece for Penn, while DeLuca was held without a goal for the first time since a 9-6 win over Penn State on March 18, 2009.
Despite allowing Penn to accumulate a 27-14 shot advantage, Dartmouth stayed in the game behind the strength of goalie Julie Wadland, who tallied seven saves. Szelest, meanwhile, did not record a save for the first time in her collegiate career.
“I think that we missed the cage a lot in the beginning, and then we were trying to shoot a lot of times through a double team,” Corbett said. “[Wadland’s] a very good goalie, and you’ve got to pick your spots a little better than we were.”
With the Quakers misfiring, Dartmouth was able to hang tough, trailing only 3-1 at halftime. The Big Green started the second half with a 3-0 run in the first eight minutes to take a 4-3 lead — that advantage would stand for 6:30.
But after a Corbett timeout, the Red and Blue were finally able to respond with two 3-0 runs of its own — separated by a Dartmouth goal — to take an 8-5 lead.
“We made a couple of key mistakes, and we talked about just sharing the ball and fixing those mistakes,” Corbett said. “We did some uncharacteristic things defensively that caused the goals.”
Saturday’s game was likely a preview for a rematch at Franklin Field in the Ivy Tournament, so Penn will have to ultimately learn from those mistakes to secure the Ancient Eight’s automatic NCAA Tournament berth.
“We’d love to be able to host now, but it’s just really going to come down to wherever it is, we’re going to have to play our best,” Corbett said.
