One Goal, Two Goal, Red Goal, Big Green Goal!: A look into women’s soccer’s historic season
The Dartmouth women’s soccer team had a historic season this year, defeating the top-seeded Princeton Tigers to win the Ivy League Championship on Nov. 9, 2025 and securing the Big Green a spot in the NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championship for the first time since 2005. The win follows a 2024-25 season in which the team won just one Ivy League game. In just one year, the Big Green went from last in the Ivy League to conference champions.
Head coach Taylor Schram said there was “so much excitement and joy” surrounding the win.
“It was amazing,” Schram said. “I think all of us can close our eyes and be back at the Princeton stadium on that day so easily.”
A trip out west
The magic started to build during the first games of the season. In September 2025, the team traveled to northern California to play a pair of games against the University of San Francisco and the University of Santa Clara.
In their matchup against San Francisco, the Big Green scored two quick goals in the 12th and 13th minutes, before adding another in the 83rd minute to win 3-0.
After the game, Schram and her staff realized there was “really something special in this team” and that “they’re here to approach things with an all-business mindset, while really enjoying each other and having fun through the process.”
Three days later, the Big Green held Santa Clara, the 2020 NCAA national champions, scoreless for most of the game before the Broncos got one in the net to win 1-0. After this performance, Schram realized that strong defense was going to be the team’s “way forward” in the fall.
The significance of this trip was less so the final scoreboards, but in the relationships and bonds built between teammates as they started their season. The coaching staff, senior class and team captains worked hard to build a team that was both dedicated and close-knit.
Co-captain Ellie Davidson ’27 said she wanted the incoming Class of 2029 to “feel the culture” of the team at the beginning of the season.
“[We wanted to cultivate] a space where there was accountability and everyone was expected to work really hard, but also everyone loved each other and had a lot of fun,” she added.
Schram said the younger players on the team learned from the seniors “what it means to build a culture that couples high standards and support and love for one another in the room.”
“We spent a lot of time together as a team, and you could see just the relationship and the vibe and the team growing and growing as that trip went on,” she said.
The path to a spot in the Ivy League tournament
The Big Green opened the Ivy League season with a historic win against Harvard University, whom they hadn’t beaten in Cambridge in 20 years. Dartmouth then tied the University of Pennsylvania and took the win against Columbia University, a team they hadn’t beaten since 2014.
Dartmouth’s next home game ended in a disappointing loss to Princeton University. The Big Green dominated the first half, outshooting the Tigers 9-2, but could not find the back of the net. Princeton then shifted the momentum early in the second half, scoring twice to take a 2-0 lead. Dartmouth continued to press for a goal, but the team’s attempts ultimately came up short.
“We showed up really strongly in the first half, and then in the second half, we unfortunately took our foot off the gas, and — credit to Princeton — they came out firing,” Schram said. “We felt like it was a game that got away from us.”
Schram said she believes this regular season result gave the team “a little bit of a chip” on their shoulders leading up to their win against Princeton in the Ivy League championship game.
Despite the disappointing loss, Dartmouth learned that they had a chance to clinch a spot in the Ivy League tournament the next weekend against Yale University. The Big Green came out hot with nine shots and 10 corner kicks in the first half. They continued to find chances in the second half, but the goal “just wouldn’t come,” Schram said.
Finally, with less than three minutes left in the game, Frankie Valverde ’27 drew a foul in the box to grant Dartmouth a penalty. Co-captain Hailey Rorick ’26 took a shot into the bottom left corner of the net to give Dartmouth the win over Yale and a spot in the Ivy League tournament for the first time.
Rorick noted that she and her fellow captains, Kellie Sutton ’25 and Davidson, gave every player a piece of paper that said “our time to make history” to inspire the team before the game.
“We were able to finally do that through that PK [penalty kick],” Rorick said,
Schram remembered the experience as “surreal.”
The team returned home the next week for their final Ivy League matchup against Cornell University, a 2-1 victory that earned them the No. 2 seed in the tournament, where they would face Columbia in the semifinal round.
Champions! Lathrop leads Big Green to a title
In the semifinal matchup, Dartmouth scored early in the 24th minute. Lourdes Lauterborn ’28 got a steal in Dartmouth’s offensive half and then dribbled towards the goal. Her shot was stopped by a Columbia defender, but Stephanie Lathrop ’28 got to the deflected ball and shot it into the top right corner of the net, giving Dartmouth the lead.
The two teams battled for the rest of the game but neither scored, giving Dartmouth the 1-0 win and a spot in the Ivy League final. Princeton’s victory in their semifinal game against Brown University meant that Dartmouth would face the only Ivy League team they had lost to in the regular season.
“To be with my team for a few more days and have our season keep going was truly just one of the best feelings,” Davidson said. “Our whole season was about making it to the tournament, but then to have the win [against Columbia] after just really solidified everything we had built and worked for that season.”
Sunday’s game against Princeton got off to a slower start, with each team only taking two shots in the first half.
In the 62nd minute, Rorick drew a foul in Dartmouth’s box to give the team a penalty kick. Lathrop blasted the ball into the right side of the net to put the team up 1-0.
“As soon as it left her foot, I said, ‘Goal!’” Schram said.
“We still watch the goal today,” Rorick added. “We watch it a lot.”
Princeton fought hard to come back, firing off eight shots in the second half. Dartmouth’s back line stood strong, and goalkeeper Ola Goebel ’27 saved the one shot on goal.
The team’s close wins during the regular season empowered the team’s mental game, Rorick said.
“We’ve had a lot of close games,” she explained. “Harvard was 1-0. Yale was 1-0. So we knew how to handle the pressure of being up 1-0.”
As the final whistle blew, Dartmouth’s bench ran onto the field into a dogpile to celebrate the win.
“We just had our banquet last week and we were able to relive the last five seconds of that game, and I still got chills,” Rorick said.
Strong showing in Arkansas
As a conference champion, the Big Green earned an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The team waited anxiously to hear who they would play during the selection show, when the matchups for the first round of the tournament were revealed. They learned that they would face the University of Arkansas, the SEC regular-season champions.
“I think going to NCAA was going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and honestly, not something that I ever expected I’d get to experience coming to Dartmouth,” Davidson said.
The team knew they were up for a challenge because Arkansas had “one of the most dynamic and relentless offenses in the country” and had played in five of the last seven SEC finals, Schram said.
Nonetheless, the Big Green held the Razorbacks scoreless in the first half. Goebel made three saves in net behind a strong back line.
Arkansas was able to break through in the 60th minute to go up 1-0. Dartmouth made several attempts to come back, but they were unsuccessful. Goebel ended the game with six saves.
“Shout out to Ola [Goebel],” Rorick said. “She was our player of the year this year. She had a huge performance against Arkansas.”
Schram said that, even though the team was unable to score, “you saw how committed defensively we are, how we swarm with pressure, how we defend together.”
The players were proud of their overall performance in the match.
“We were able to prove the Ivy League can compete at the top level, even against SEC champions,” Rorick said. “It was pretty exciting to show the world that the Ivy League is pretty good.”
Looking forward
The team is looking forward to next season to try to continue the immense success they had last fall.
“The players came in at the end of the season saying, ‘We want more ... we’re willing to do whatever it takes to push for another championship run and beyond,’” Schram said.
Rorick said that the hard-fought game against Arkansas was a “huge confidence booster” for the team and that she hopes the team can “take the energy that we had” into the next season.
Eight of Dartmouth’s 11 starters will return next year, including four of the five players named to All-Ivy teams and Ivy League Rookie of the Year Anna Leschly ’29.
But, for now, the team can reminisce on the wonderful season they had and the memories they made.
“The silly conversations at dinner, the funny games on the bus when we were in California — those are the things that really stand out loudly,” Schram said. “We were able to craft the big moments because of all the little moments in between.”
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