The women’s soccer team outplayed, outran and out-hustled Dartmouth Sunday at Hanover, N.H.
But Yale’s dominating play proved futile when Erin Osborn out-jumped the Bulldogs and headed in a corner kick in the 107th minute, lifting the Big Green (7-3-1, 2-1 Ivy) over the Bulldogs (6-3-1, 1-2 Ivy) in double overtime 2-1.
“It’s very disappointing. We dominated play for the majority of the game,” goalkeeper Lindsay Sabel ’03 said.
Yale grabbed an early lead at 10:20 when forward Chandra King ’03 took a through-ball from midfielder Ali Cobbett ’03 and nestled it into the back of the net.
Two minutes earlier, King led a breakaway and blasted a pretty shot that just deflected off the crossbar.
“[King] was working really hard up front and did a great job creating a lot of opportunities for herself,” Sabel said. King was named to the Ivy League Weekly Honor Roll this past week.
But the Bulldogs were not able to protect their lead, reminiscent of the Oct. 2 Central Connecticut State University contest.
Mary McVeigh, unassisted, answered the Bulldogs in the 31st minute. A poor clear in the backfield left a loose ball in front of the goal that McVeigh put away.
But unlike the game against the Central Connecticut Blue Devils, Yale never recovered the lead. Both defenses shut down the scoring for the remainder of regulation, and the teams headed into overtime tied 1-1.
Dartmouth picked up play in the first overtime, out-shooting the Bulldogs four to one. But neither team could produce a goal.
With 3:57 remaining on the clock in the second overtime, 6-foot-1-inch Osborn entered the lineup for the first time in the game as the Big Green set up for a corner kick. Anne Peick delivered a pass to Osborn, who headed it in from 10 yards out to give Dartmouth its sixth straight win.
The loss is Yale’s second in a row after No. 8 University of Connecticut snapped the Elis’ five-game winning streak on Oct. 6.
And this loss greatly limits Yale’s chance of winning the Ivy League.
“A win would have been a whole lot better than a loss,” Sabel said. “The effort was definitely there. It was just mental mistakes. We gave 110 percent. Losing today does not give us much hope to win the Ivy League.”
With its second conference loss, the Bulldogs have all but removed themselves from contention for the Ivy League championship. Nationally ranked No. 18 Princeton has yet to drop a contest and continues to ascend the polls.
But the Bulldogs still entertain thoughts of a post-season and are confident they can receive consideration for an at-large bid.
“We know we can play with anyone,” Sabel said. “I mean, we were able to stick with UConn, who is number eight in the nation. We just have to win the rest of our games.”
Yale will look to regain its winning ways when it travels to Cambridge to take on Harvard on Oct. 19.
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