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.
Penn sophomore Erin Barry also played a key role in the victory. After Dartmouth scored four straight goals late in the first half, including two after the clock had ticked inside two minutes left, Barry scored with just one second left in the half to cut some of the Big Green's momentum and pull the Quakers to within 8-6.
Erin Barry rips one in to end the half! pic.twitter.com/y18bQzHR42
— Penn Women's Lax (@PennWomensLax) April 7, 2018
Barry, who had a hat trick in the victory, also added a free position goal with 7:36 remaining in the game to tie the score 11-11 after Katie Bourque had given Dartmouth its final lead of the day. Penn's Caroline Cummings also scored three times, helping the Quakers improve to 9-2 overall and 3-0 in the Ivy League.
Dartmouth controlled two key aspects of the game, winning 16-of-25 draws, and got a season-high 13 saves from Kiera Vrindten as compared to six for Penn's Mikaila Cheeseman, but the Big Green were undone by a season-high 27 turnovers. Dartmouth came into the game averaging just 13.1 per game.
Campbell Brewer had a hat trick for Dartmouth (7-2, 3-1 Ivy League) and Kathryn Giroux had eight draw controls.