The field hockey team struggled against Dartmouth at home on Saturday, dropping its Ivy League opener by a score of 3-0. The Bears had difficulty generating offensive opportunities and made some fundamental mistakes that allowed the Big Green to come away with the victory. The loss drops Brown to 1-1 (0-1 Ivy) in the season.
"We gave them a lot of opportunities," said Head Coach Carolan Norris. "I think we beat ourselves. We are a much better team than we were today."
"I really wish we had a better effort for our first Ivy League showing," said forward/midfielder Samantha Lloyd '07. "We've worked hard all summer and preseason and this is where we were supposed to put it together, but we are already moving forward."
Neither team was making progress in the early part of the game, as the defenses controlled their opponents. But Dartmouth maintained possession for longer, keeping the play mostly on Brown's defensive half of the field.
The Big Green finally put one in the net at the 21:11 mark, coming away with a clear shot during a scramble in front of the goal. The ball came into contact with a player's foot during the chaos - an occurrence that usually stops the action - but play continued.
"As a defense, when you see it hit someone's foot, you pull up," said co-captain Kristen Vincent '06. "This year, though, they are letting us get away with more."
Over the next couple of minutes, the Big Green threatened to add to its lead, but goalie Kristen Hodavance '08 wouldn't let anything through, making a couple of very nice saves.
Finally, with about 13 minutes left, the Bears started to generate some offensive activity. Brown got its first penalty corner at the 9:43 mark, but the Dartmouth goalie made the save. The Bears had their best look of the half off of a penalty corner with just over two minutes left. The Big Green keeper dove the wrong way on the shot, but she was able to knock the ball away with her legs.
"We should score on our corners," Vincent said. "We missed our post balls. Our corner unit is usually one of our strongest units."
Brown did not get another good offensive look, as they went into the half trailing 1-0. Except for the score, the first 35 minutes were fairly even. Both teams had taken two penalty corners, while Dartmouth had out-shot the Bears by a slim 7-5 margin.
In the second half, the Big Green again controlled the early going, but the Bears kept them from adding to their lead. Brown also appeared to be more aggressive than earlier, getting a couple of nice tries on the left side in front of the goal. Unfortunately, Dartmouth again found the net, increasing its lead to 2-0 at the 16:11 mark off of a penalty corner.
A few minutes later it seemed as if the Bears had finally broken the shutout when a shot rolled through the Dartmouth defense and into the net, but the tally was waved off because the shot was launched from too far away.
Over the final 10 minutes Brown had some good looks at the goal, including a shot off of a corner penalty that went just wide to the left and a nice fast break drive from Sara Eaton '09. But it was Dartmouth again that capitalized, adding a final goal with just 21 seconds remaining to secure the 3-0 win.
"We fell apart," Vincent said. "We really didn't execute any fundamentals of field hockey. We would get one possession pass off and then we would bobble it or pass it right to (Dartmouth)."
Dartmouth's middle unit made things difficult for the Brown offense, making it difficult to move the ball up and down the field.
"We occasionally found ourselves stuck on the left side of the field, which is usually more defensive, and we had trouble moving the ball in the center of the field," Lloyd said.
In the second half, the Bears were out-shot 9-2. But Hodavance responded to the challenge, stopping four shots for a total of nine saves that day.
With this game over, the team has already started looking ahead to Wednesday, when they take on Sacred Heart University, the first of three consecutive out-of-conference home games. The squad hopes that the break from league play will give them a chance to hone skills and regain confidence and poise.
"We need to have more confidence when we receive the ball," Vincent said. "We have the overall team concept down, but our own skills are not putting us there."
Still, the team remains optimistic that it will recover and will soon be chasing the Ivy title.
"The league is not what it used to be," Vincent said. "The talent is more evenly distributed. Hopefully we will get past this hurdle, take advantage of Ivy opportunities and get in the hunt."
Lloyd agreed. "This is not a reflection of our entire season," she said. "We have a very strong team. This is only going to go up from here."
