Although the odds were ever in their favor, Penn field hockey (1-6, 0-2 Ivy) couldn’t convert, falling to Dartmouth (2-5, 1-1) 4-0 on the road.
Penn led the series 29-16 entering the 49th meeting of the two teams. Although both teams had similar records prior to the game, the Big Green dominated the field, forcing the Quakers to sacrifice a 10-game and 12-year winning streak against the Big Green.
The first quarter opened swiftly, with Dartmouth forward Lilly Venezia scoring a goal 43 seconds into the game. The Big Green and the Quakers each got a penalty corner, though neither converted their opportunity into a goal.
Junior forward Riley Thomson and senior midfielder Sydney Mandato each took a shot on goal between the tenth and eleventh minutes of the first quarter, but both attempts were foiled by Dartmouth’s goalkeeper Kylie McKinley.
At 12:51, senior goalkeeper Ruby de Frees made her first save of the game. De Frees recorded her second save less than two minutes later.
The first quarter closed with a remarkably even showing from both teams – after the Big Green’s near-immediate goal, each team got one penalty corner and made two shots on goal, with both goalkeepers making two saves each in response.
Though the Quakers dominated shots-on-goal during the second quarter, their efforts were ultimately not reflected in the overall score.
“A big point for us today was going into the game focusing on very specifically one thing at a time, like receiving the ball, then passing the ball, and using each other to our strengths,” junior forward/midfielder Reese Czajakowski said after the game. “While the result wasn’t exactly what we wanted, our momentum was able to stay the same, if not grow, because we kept our basics going and everything simple and just tried our best.”
At 20:43, Mandato’s second shot of the game went wide. Her third came around a minute later, though it was blocked by McKinley. Still, the Quakers kept up their momentum, with freshman midfielder/defender Victoria Manzur making her first-ever shot on goal in a college game at 23:22, less than three minutes after the Quakers’ first shot of the quarter.
At the bottom of the quarter, de Frees made her third save of the game, while sophomore midfielder Lucy Mangat made a shot-on-goal to close it out.
The third quarter started fairly slowly, until Dartmouth midfielder Georgia Thorton took a shot, which de Frees cleanly blocked for her fourth save of the game and 42nd save of the season.
Unafraid and determined to score, the Dartmouth offense attacked the Quakers with a vengeance. Dartmouth forward Amelie Luessmann took two shots, including a penalty corner that was blocked. However, the Quakers weren’t in the clear, when Dartmouth midfielder Lucia Campaño scored her second goal of the season, extending the Big Green’s lead by two.
Just a minute after celebrating Campaño’s goal, Dartmouth defender Ruby Walsh struck another goal into the net, granting the Big Green a comfortable 3-0 lead going into the fourth quarter despite Penn’s attempts to rally defensively.
The Quakers failed to convert on offense as the game came down to the wire. Two missed penalty goals early in the fourth quarter stripped away the Quakers’ chances to steal the lead.
“We’ve struggled a little bit to score in big moments in games so far this season. It’s a big reason we’ve struggled,” Coach Scott Tupper said. “So, I mean being able to convert in the attacking end is going to be really important for us, and hopefully we can find some learnings and start to put the ball in the net a bit more effectively.”
Saturday’s game ended with a heartbreaking final goal by Walsh for Dartmouth in the final three minutes of the game, securing their win over the Quakers. This marks the Big Green’s first Ivy League win since 2023 and their first win over Penn since 2014.
“Ultimately, we just want to keep trying to get better, and digging in at training and putting pressure on each other and make each other better, and I think that'll be our kind of path out of it. So hopefully, we just find little wins in every game and things that we can focus in on and key in on, and then that'll hopefully help us find more results in the games,” Coach Tupper said, a statement that was echoed by Czajakowski.
“I think going forward that we need to stay mentally strong, and stick to our plan, and just find wins within the losses, and just keep pushing forward as a unit and together. Because relying on each other is probably the most important thing we can do right now,” Czajakowski said.
In addition to Friday’s game, the Quakers closed out this weekend’s series with a 3-0 loss to Drexel. They’ll face last year’s regular season champion No. 10 Harvard at home on Friday, Oct. 2 before facing Villanova on Sunday, Oct. 4.
