Box Score

ITHACA, N.Y. – A furious comeback attempt came too late, and a 7-1 Dartmouth run to start the second half held up as the visiting Big Green took down the Big Red women's lacrosse team 12-10 at Schoellkopf Field on Saturday evening.
 
No. 10/6 Dartmouth (8-1, 4-0 Ivy League) and No. 16/17 Cornell (7-3, 3-2) went into halftime tied at 5-5 after playing a very even first 30 minutes. But after the break, the visitors took control of draws and put away shot after shot.
 
The Big Green opened the second half with three consecutive goals in the first 6:11 before the Big Red's Jessi Steinberg scored to bring Cornell within 8-6. That only managed to stem the bleeding briefly, though, as Dartmouth rallied for the next four goals to take a 12-6 lead with 13:12 to go.
 
That brought on a great comeback effort by the Big Red, which scored the game's final four goals including two by Caroline Salisbury and one each from Shannon McHugh and Olivia Knotts. Time, however, was not on Cornell's side as just 34 seconds remained on the clock when the Big Red came within two.
 
Dartmouth goalie Kristen Giovanniello made five saves in each half, and Kirsten Goldberg led the way offensively with five goals for the visitors. The Big Red got hat tricks from Salisbury and Knotts, while Steinberg added two goals of her own. Senior captain Katie Kirk had a good day as well, picking up five ground balls and two draw controls.
 
The Big Red has lost to Dartmouth five times in a row now, and the Big Green is in great position to claim the Ivy League regular season title with a contest against also-undefeated Penn still ahead. Cornell closes its Ivy League schedule with games at home against Yale and on the road against Brown, still needing at least one win to secure an Ivy League Tournament berth.
 
The game's first half was very even, with each side putting five goals on the board. Cornell goalie Kyla Dambach had two saves while Dartmouth's Kristen Giovanniello racked up five. Dartmouth had a slight 6-5 edge on draw controls, but Cornell dominated 11-5 in the ground ball category.
 
Dartmouth took the early 1-0 lead, but Olivia Knotts took a nice pass right in front of the net from Jessi Steinberg to tie the game at 1-1. Another goal by Dartmouth made it 2-1 in favor of the visitors, but Cornell rattled off three straight after that to take a 4-2 lead.
 
Those three goals were scored by Caroline Salisbury on a free position shot, Steinberg on a bad-angle shot from the left wing after a pass from behind the net by Knotts, and a nice individual effort by Knotts where she beat a defender and went straight to the net.
 
Dartmouth, though, proved resilient and re-tied the game with two consecutive goals. Kelly Lang got into the scoring action for Cornell next, taking a dish from Salisburuy and beating Giovanniello, but once again the Big Red's lead was short-lived. Dartmouth knotted the game at 5-5 just two minutes later, and that's how the score stood at halftime.
 
Cornell gets no rest from a tough schedule as No. 13/11 Loyola-Maryland comes to Ithaca for a contest next Saturday before No. 2/3 Syracuse visits Schoellkopf the following Tuesday.