Since 2007, No. 10 Penn has either won or shared the Ivy League women's lacrosse regular season title in all but one season. In that same time span, Dartmouth has accomplished the feat just once - in 2011 when the two teams shared the title at 6-1.
But under second-year head coach Danielle Spencer, the Big Green have been enjoying a resurgence. Heading into Saturday's showdown against Penn in Hanover, N.H., Dartmouth had won seven straight games, including a 15-12 win two weeks ago over Penn's usual Ivy League nemesis, Princeton.
On Saturday, Dartmouth proved it is capable of challenging for Ivy League supremacy, but a battle-tested Penn team scored the final three goals of the game to post a 13-11 victory.
Penn freshman Zoe Belodeau, a three-time US Lacrosse All-American at national power St. Stephen's & St. Agnes (Va.), scored the go-ahead goal with 6:19 to play and then iced the game on her fourth goal with 2:40 remaining.
Belodeau, Penn's second leading scorer for the season, added two assists to lead all scorers with six points and set Penn's rookie single-season scoring record with 46 (26g, 20a), breaking Erin Brennan's school mark of 45 set in 2009.