The Dartmouth Sports Weekly 2/27/17

02.27.17 Women’s hockey team hopes to improve next season p. 7 Squash teams win national tournaments p. 8 Softball team discuss championship aspirations p. 8 Tearing Up the Playbook with Sam Stockton ’19 p. 6 The Weekend Roundup p. 2-3, 7

The Dartmouth fan experience A look at the students and Hanover residents that support the Big Green p. 4-5

By Nathan Albrinck & Sabena Allen

SAPHFIRE BROWN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

SW 2

The weekend Roundup

Compiled by Mark Cui, JONATHAN KATZMAN, EVAN MORGAN AND MATT YUEN

WOMEN’s SQUASH On Friday, the Big Green cruised past No. 16 Middlebury College 9-0 to advance to the semifinals of the Krutz Cup in Division B of the College Squash Association Team Nationals in Princeton, New Jersey. Annie Blasberg ’20, Julia Potter ’20, Zainab Molani ’18, Becky Brownell ’18 and Junnat Anwar ’20 all dominated their opponents with straight set victories.

On Saturday, the team defeated No. 12 George Washington University 6-3 to advance to the finals. Both Molani and Janel Gaube ’18 won in extremely tight five game sets with final respective scores of 5-11, 2-11, 11-7, 12-10, 11-8

and 12-10, 6-11, 7-11, 11-5, 12-10.

In the finals, Dartmouth defeated No. 14 Drexel University 5-4 to claim the B Division Championship. The Big Green also defeated the Dragons in the finals last year at New Haven, Connecticut. With the match tied 4-4, it all came down to Brownell’s match against Mary Fung-a-Fat. Despite dropping the first two games, she rallied with an incredibly clutch performance to claim victory with a final score of 5-11, 5-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-6. Madeline Fraser ’17, Emma Roberts ’19, Anwar and Gaube all cruised to three-game victories.

BASEBALL The baseball team opened its season in Port Charlotte, F lorida on Saturday with a doubleheader versus Easter n Michigan University and St. Bonaventure University. Left fielder Matt Feinstein ’19 recorded three hits, while designated hitter Michael Calamari ’20, second baseman Dustin Shirley ’18 and first baseman Michael Ketchmark ’17 each knocked in two runs, en route to an 8-4 victory over the Eagles. Beau Sulser ’16 threw five strong innings of one-run baseball to earn his first win of the season.

In their second game of the day, the men lost to St. Bonaventure in an 8-7 thriller. Feinstein continued his strong play, tallying two singles

and three runs batted in. Cole O’Connor ’19 started the day for the Big Green, giving up seven hits and four runs, though only two were earned. Down three runs in the ninth inning, Dartmouth rallied for two more runs, before falling to the Bonnies.

On Sunday, the Big Green avenged its loss to St. Bonaventure with a 13-1 win to close out the weekend. The Big Green outhit St. Bonaventure 18-4, while Feinstein and Shirley recorded four hits apiece. In five innings of work, Michael Danielak ’16 shutout the Bonnies and struck out six.

The baseball team will return to action with three games against Miami University this weekend.

Ray Lu ’18 Editor-in-Chief

02.27.17 Vol. CLXXIV No. 38

Rachel DeChiara ’17 Publisher

Kourtney Kawano ’18 Executive Editor

Mark Cui ’19 Evan Morgan ’19 Sports Editors

Nathan Albrinck ’20 Assistant Sports Editor Saphfire Brown ’18 Paula Mendoza ’19 Photography Editors Jaclyn Eagle ’19 Templating Editor

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017

Swimming & DIVING From Feb. 22 to Feb. 25, the men’s swimming and diving team competed in the 2017 Ivy League Championship in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a tournament consisting of all the Ivy League universities except for Princeton University due to its suspension on Dec. 15, 2016 after posting lewd content on the team’s mailing list.

On day one, the team placed last in the 200-yard medley relay despite finishing with their fastest time of the season. In the 800yard freestyle relay, the team edged Brown University by less than two-tenths of a second to grab sixth place. At the conclusion of the two events, the team stood in last place with 94 points.

Day two included the 500-yard freestyle, 200-yard individual medley, 50-yard freestyle, 1-meter diving and 200-yard freestyle relay.

AJ Krok ’19 was the first Dartmouth athlete to make it into the A final, and he ended up placing sixth on the 1-meter diving board. By

the end of the day, the Big Green accumulated a total of 198 points to remain in last place.

Day three included the 400-yard individual medley, 100-yard butterfly, 200yard freestyle, 100-yard breaststroke, 100yard backstroke, 1000-yard free-style and 400-yard medley relay. David Harmon ’17 broke his own record by 1.77 seconds in the 100-yard fly with a new time of 48.18, placing ninth. At the end of the day, the Big Green remained in last place with 376 points.

The final day included the 200-yard backstroke, 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard breaststroke, 200-yard butterfly, 3-meter diving and 400-yard relay. In the 3-meter diving final, both Krok and Taylor Clough ’17 finished in the A final in sixth and fourth respectively. By the end of the tournament, the Big Green finished in seventh with 561 points, 235 points behind sixth place Brown.

Harvard University finished in first with 1,705 points.

TRACK & FIELD This weekend at the 2017 Ivy League Heptagonal Indoor Championship at The Armoy in Manhattan, Dartmouth’s men’s track and field team tied in third with Yale University with a total of 78 points, trailing behind second place finish Cornell University by 15 points. Princeton University won its fifth straight title with 135 points.

Max Cosculluela ’17 earned SecondTeam All-Ivy League honors in the pole vault, bringing home eight points. Nico Robinson ’17 also earned Second-Team AllIvy honors after placing second in the men’s heptathlon. By clearing 16-6.75 feet/5.05 meters, Cosculluela achieved second place overall for the second year in the row.

In the men’s weight throw, Timothy Brennan ’17 secured third place with his 65-1.5 feet/19.85 meters throw on his fifth attempt, adding six points to the Big Green’s scoring. In the long jump, Corey Muggler ’17 earned fourth-place with a 23-11.0 feet/7.29 meter jump. In the 3000-meter run, Connor Clark ’17 ran a 8:15.87 to take sixth place overall, contributing one point to the Big Green. In the high jump, Alex Frye ’17 secured fourth place with a 2.04m, earning four points. In the triple jump, Justin Donawa ’19 and Muggler secured third and fourth place respectively, earning six and four points.

In the 500-meter dash, Phil Gomez ’17 finished in fourth place. In the 1000-meter run, both Reed Horton ’19 and Henry Raymond ’20 qualified for the finals. In the finals, Raymond and Horton finished in third and fifth with respective times of 2:25.10 and 2:25.47. In the preliminaries of the mile run, Patrick Gregory ’18 finished first with a time of 4:12.21 and placed fourth in the finals with a 4:13.19, bringing home four points. In the 5000-meter run, Kyle Dotterer ’18 finished in third with a 14:19.25. In the 60-meter hurdles, Parker Johnson ’19 secured sixth in the finals by finishing in 8.19 seconds, earning one point.

In the 4x800 meter relay, Trevor Colby ’19,

Horton, Raymond and Gregory finished with a 7:35.51, earning six points. In the distance medley, the Big Green team of Dominic Carrese ’19, Johnson, Miles Irish ’18 and Michael Thurston ’20 finished with a 10:00.34 time, earning two points.

On the women’s side, the track and field team took sixth with 62 points. Harvard University won its fifth straight title with 125 points. Distinguishing feats included Cha’Mia Rothwell ’20 setting a new Dartmouth record and the sixth best Heps record for the long jump with a 20-3.0 feet/6.17 meter jump, and an all-time Ivy League record of 8.30 in the 60m hurdles. At the post-meet awards presentation, Rothwell won the Most Outstanding Female Field Performer. Additionally, Rothwell was fourth in the finals of the 60-meter run, earning four points. At the end of the weekend, Rothwell contributed 24 points to Dartmouth’s team total of 62.

Over in the pole vault, Julia Valenti ’20 cleared 12-7.5 feet/3.85m on her first try, tying for third and earning five points for the Big Green. In the weight throw, Amelia Ali ’19 earned six points by securing third place with a 60-9.25 feet/18.52m throw.

In the pentathlon, Maria Garman ’19 and Miranda Lawson ’17 each picked up two and one points respectively, as Garman was fifth and Lawson sixth.

For the second year in a row, Helen Schlachtenhaufen ’17 was the winner of the mile, winning the race in a 4:46.25.

Claire Dougherty ’20 finished in sixth in the 500-meter final, running a 1:14.90.

Schlachtenhaufen and Dougherty were also part of the women’s distance medley relay with Aliyah Gallup ’17 and Eliza Dekker ’19, winning second place in the event.

Shanthi Hiremath ’20 placed sixth in the triple jump with her final jump measuring 38-1.5 feet/11.62m, while Bridget Flynn ’18 took sixth in the 800-meter with a time of 2:11.01. Nicole Deblasio ’19 secured sixth in the 200-meter final with a time of 24.93s.

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017

MEN’s HOCKEY No. 20 St. Lawrence University scored two unanswered goals late in the third period to hand Dartmouth a 5-4 loss on Friday at Thompson Arena. After finding themselves down 3-1 late in the second period, the men showed some resilience and scored three unanswered of their own, including two power play tallies from Corey Kalk ’18, who registered his first career hat-trick. The loss dropped the Green and White back into ninth place in the Eastern College Athletic Conference standings behind Princeton University. “[St. Lawrence] found a way,” head coach Bob Gaudet ’81 said. “It was disappointing for us because I thought we played well enough to win the game.”

While Dartmouth kept St. Lawrence goaltender Kyle Hayton busy early in the game, the Saints got on the board 15:26 into the opening period after Mike Graham picked Will Graber ’20’s pocket in the Dartmouth zone. Taggart Corriveau collected the loose puck and put a nifty move on Devin Buffalo ’18 before slipping the puck into the back of the net. Kalk tied it up at one apiece 1:00 into the second, knocking home a rebound after Troy Crema ’17’s initial try. St. Lawrence goals from New Hampshire talent Gavin Bayreuther and Drew Smolcynski put the Saints up 3-1 before Graber made up for his first period blemish with 2:33 to go in the second, beginning Dartmouth’s comeback.

“It was a good test for us against a top-20 team that is going to finish top-four in the league,” Kalk said after his career night. “We now know where we have to set the bar before playoffs begin.”

Dartmouth came out firing in the third, and when Kalk beat Hayton low glove-side from the left circle to put Dartmouth up 4-3, it looked like St. Lawrence would have to wait to clinch the ECAC’s No. 4 seed. Buffalo made some key saves to keep St. Lawrence at bay, but he was unable to deny the Saints down the stretch, including Michael Ederer’s game winner from the top of the left circle.

Buffalo finished with 17 saves, while Hayton registered 28 of his own, including 14 in the first period, to earn the win. In addition to out-shooting the Saints 32-22, Dartmouth also won the special teams phase of the game, going 2-for-4 while the

Saints finished 1-for-5.

“Come-from-ahead losses” were the tale of the weekend, as Dartmouth again blew a multi-goal lead against visiting Clarkson University. Despite a strong start that found the Big Green heading into the first intermission with a 3-0 lead, the Golden Knights rallied back in the second period and never looked back on their way to a 6-4 victory.

As a result, Dartmouth cemented its ninth place position in the conference and will open ECAC playoff action at Yale University this Friday.

“Clarkson beat us to some pucks in the second period and used that momentum well,” Gaudet said. “We got tentative, and that was the difference because they are a big, strong team. We now get a clean slate and head to Yale where we will battle hard and expect to win.”

Dartmouth started quickly out of the gate and took a 1-0 lead just 1:34 in on Crema’s 17th goal of the season. Ryan Blankemeier ’20 and Kalk rounded out the scoring in the first. The final Big Green goal of the evening was a Cam Strong ’20 tally late in the third.

After a sloppy first period, the Golden Knights picked it up both offensively and defensively in the second, scoring three goals and limiting Dartmouth to just four shots on net. Clarkson scored three more times in the third to make it six in a row for the visitors. Troy Josephs’ second of the evening 11:20 into the final stanza put the visitors up for good as the Golden Knights continued to dominate possession and the battles in the corners. James de Haas and Sheldon Rempal scored Clarkson’s final two goals of night to put the visitors up 6-3 before Strong cut the lead to two with 2:29 to play.

Buffalo got the start in net and made 27 saves before he was relieved by Dean Shatzer ’20, who played the final 6:14 and was subsequently pulled for an extra skater. On the other end, Ville Runola registered 20 stops in the win. Clarkson capitalized on two of its four man advantages, while Dartmouth’s special teams unit was 1-for-3.

Dartmouth heads to Yale for a best-of-three series in the first round of the ECAC tournament.

Despite being outscored 11-0 in two regular season games against the Bulldogs, the Big Green will hit the road seeking to repeat last year’s quarterfinal upset.

BASKETBALL On Friday, the men’s basketball team fell 80-75 to Brown University at Leede Arena despite Evan Boudreaux ’19’s 25 points and 10 rebounds. The Big Green fell into a deep hole from the very start, facing a 32-12 deficit with seven minutes left to play in the first period. The team valiantly rallied back in the second half to get within three with 53 seconds remaining, but Taylor Johnson ’18’s shot rolled off the rim with 17 seconds left. A key difference in the game was the difference in free throw percentage; Brown converted 21 out of 25 free throw attempts, while the Big Green only made 26 out of 38. With the win, Brown broke a five game losing streak.

On Saturday, the men were defeated by Yale University 99-86 at home. Boudreaux matched a career-high 27 points and collected 12 rebounds to lead the Big Green to a season-high 86 points. The Big Green kept it a close game at 77-76 with seven minutes to play, but Yale’s offense went on a scoring burst to solidify the win. The Big Green now holds an overall record of 6-19 and an Ivy League record of 3-9. With only two Ivy League games remaining,

the Big Green’s chances of making the Ivy League Tournament are very slim but still mathematically possible.

On Friday, the women’s basketball team defeated Brown 92-88 in overtime at the Pizzitola Sports Center. The game was a back-and-forth affair with 17 lead changes. Andi Norman ’18 made five 3-pointers to lead all scorers with a total of 22 points.

In the final minute of overtime, Olivia Smith ’18 helped seal the victory for the Big Green by making a jumper, adding a free throw and recording a lastminute steal.

However, the team fell to Yale University 58-44 on Saturday. Kate Letkewicz ’18 led all scorers with 17 points. The team kept within single digits of Yale until the second period when the Bulldogs went on an 11-point scoring burst to go ahead. The win and loss over the weekend pushed the Big Green’s overall record to 7-18 and Ivy League record to 2-10. The Big Green will wrap up its season at home against the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University next weekend.

SW 3

SOFTBALL On Friday, the first day of the Mardi Gras Classic, the softball team fell in its first two games of the season to Drake University and University of Louisiana at Lafayette 3-2 and 12-5, respectively. Against Drake, the Big Green sent its most experienced pitcher, Breanna Ethridge ’18, who pitched seven strikeouts while only giving up two runs. However, the team ultimately fell in the 10th inning after the Bulldogs’ Megan Sowa hit a single to left center to plate Taryn Pena for a walk-off victory.

Against Louisiana-Lafayette, the Ragin’ Cajuns exploded in the seventh inning for five runs to eliminate any potential Big Green comeback.

On the second day of the Mardi Gras Classic, the Big Green again dropped both games, falling to Bradley

University 6-3 and to Mississippi Valley State University 13-5.

Despite the Big Green’s early 2-0 lead, Bradley rallied to score four runs in the fifth inning. Against Mississippi Valley State, Morgan Ebow ’20 got her first start for Dartmouth but gave up a grand slam to the Delta Devils’ Deja Talton in the first inning. Talton finished her perfect game with an astounding six runs-batted-in through four hits in four plate appearances.

In its final game of the Mardi Gras Classic, the Big Green tied against the University of Maryland 5-5. Pitching for the Big Green, Tessa Grossman ’20 allowed six hits and struck out two players. Maddie Damore ’17 led the team by scoring three runs, while Claire Bird ’18 added two more. The team recorded a total of nine hits.

SKIING

For the first time since 2010, the Big Green is officially the top dog in the East. The skiing teams scored 896 points to win the 2017 Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association Championship held Friday and Saturday at Bates College, besting longtime foe University of Vermont by 76 points.

Despite the rainy weather, which held Friday’s giant slalom to one run, Big Green skiers continued to dominate. Foreste Peterson ’18 took the top step of the podium for the women, her third giant slalom win on the 2017 carnival circuit.

The other Dartmouth scorers were Kelly Moore ’18 in fourth and Steph Currie ’18 in sixth. On the men’s side, Brian McLaughlin ’18 won the giant slalom for the second straight week. Tanguy Nef ’20, who finished six hundredths of a second behind McLaughlin, earned a podium spot in second, with Thomas Woolson ’17 rounding out the scoring in fourth.

The women’s Nordic team had an off day in the 5-kilometer classic on Friday. Dartmouth’s top finisher was Zoe Snow ’18 in eighth, leading the women to a fourth place finish overall in the event. The men fared better on the day, finishing second overall in the 10-kilometer classic.

Fabian Stocek ’17 and Callan DeLine ’18 just missed podium spots in fourth and fifth.

For the second time in three weeks, the slalom vexed the men’s alpine team. Standouts McLaughlin and Nef both fell in

their first runs and did not finish.

Woolson did his part by grabbing the third step of the podium, but the Big Green posted a season-low 67 points on the day, finishing in sixth overall. In the women’s slalom, five Dartmouth skiers finished inside the top 10. Alexa Dlouhy ’19 and Peterson were fourth and fifth, with Moore, Currie and Hannah Melinchuk ’19 a few spots back in eighth, ninth and tenth, respectively.

The women’s Nordic team bounced back on Saturday with a strong performance. Lauren Jortberg ’20 turned on the jets in the latter half of the season, winning the classic sprint relay last weekend at Middlebury College and topping the podium at Bates in the 15-kilometer freestyle. Jortberg led nearly wire-to-wire after the mass start and triumphed by nearly 19 seconds. Lydia Blanchet ’19 and Abby Drach ’20 finished in sixth and seventh, around a minute after Jortberg. Stocek won the 20-kilometer freestyle for the men, making him the only Dartmouth skier to top the podium in every carnival this season. Behind Stocek, Luke Brown ’18 and Gavin McEwen ’19 were fourth and fifth.

After their best carnival season in six years, the Big Green ski teams now turn their eyes to the NCAA Championships, which begin March 8 in Jackson, New Hampshire. Dartmouth will look to improve on its fifth-place performance last season.

SEE ROUNDUP PAGE 7

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

SW 4

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017

The Dartmouth fan experience: u

Average home attendance across sports

Faces of

Tom

Stud

Average number of people attending

Football attendance was at its highest in 1974, the year Dartmouth’s streak of five Ivy League titles (1969-1973) came to an end. Numbers may have been even higher in earlier years, when attendance data was not recorded. The original capacity of Memorial Field was 22,000. After renovations in 2006 and 2015, its current seating capacity is 11,000.

By Nathan Alb

EVAN MORGAN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Average attendance at basketball games has dipped over the past 20 years where data are available.

In recorded data, attendance at men’s basketball games was highest in 1997, when an average of 1,843 fans attended games at LeedeArena. Women’s basketball peaked at 1,195 fans in 2004.

SABENA ALLEN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Geneva Jonathan, Hanover, New Research assistant at Geise Medicine

“[I like] basketball specifically beca friends are on the team, so regardle they win or lose, I like to come and s

Eric Eco

Average number of people attending

As the winning percentage of the men’s lacrosse team decreased over the past several seasons, so has fan engagement. In 2016, the men had their lowest average attendance of the last 13 seasons — just 316 fans. The women drew an average of 339 fans last year, the first recorded year they drew more fans than the men did.

SABENA ALLEN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Overall soccer attendance for men’s and women’s games rose the years data are available. The men’s team drew a low of 202 fans in 2003, but nine years later the number increased to 1,300.

Women’s soccer drew a high of 630 fans in 2014.

“It’s g work wha exec bask in pl to se wha

Ron Kase, San Francisco, Califo Dartmouth father

“We’re here on a parents’ weekend v and there are events going on at D we just wanted to experience Dartmo went to the hockey game [Friday] and game [Saturday] just to get a feel for w a sense for how many students turn o many folks from the community, and it a nice community building event.”

Joe High

Baseball consistently draws the fewest fans of all sports examined

by The Dartmouth. The average crept above 500 in 2009, a year Dartmouth went 16-4 in the Ivy League. Last spring, it fell to a nine-year low of 290 fans.

EVAN MORGAN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

“I gre stud I lov com who who thos kind

“I’ve Dart Han team SABENA ALLEN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

SW 5

up close, from afar and over time

brinck and Sabena Allen

Big Green fans

m Estabrook Tu’18, Newport, New Hampshire

Fans through the years

dent at Tuck School of Business

ew up in this area, and I’m now a first-year dent at Tuck [School of Business], so I think ve that it’s [also] a part of my hometown mmunity. There are people who I grew up with o come to games, but there are also people o now I go to school with who are here, and se two communities coming together is really d of fun for me.”

w Hampshire el School of

COURTESY OF RAUNER SPECIAL COLLECTIONS LIBRARY

A baseball game on a sunny 1987 afternoon filled the stands.

COURTESY OF RAUNER SPECIAL COLLECTIONS LIBRARY

A scene from the stands of a football game in the 1980s.

ause all of my ess of whether support them.”

SABENA ALLEN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

c Edmonds, Hanover, New Hampshire onomics professor

great to see how hard our student-athletes k. It’s neat to see the educational side of at the coach does out on the floor and the cution of a variety of strategies that [men’s ketball head coach David McLaughlin] puts lace, and it’s a lot of fun to watch. It’s easy ee how it kind of complements what a lot of at the players do on the academic side.”

ornia COURTESY OF RAUNER SPECIAL COLLECTIONS LIBRARY

visiting our son, Dartmouth. And outh sports. We d the basketball what it’s like, get out versus how t just seems like

In an undated photo, fans came out in force for a swim meet, with spectators’ feet hanging into the shot.

SABENA ALLEN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Nawcy, Canaan, New Hampshire h school student

e always loved sports, and I’ve always loved tmouth. And my mom has always worked in nover, and Dartmouth is one of my favorite ms to watch of any college team.”

SAPHFIRE BROWN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

2,298 fans were on hand at the final regular-season game of the 2016-2017 men’s hockey season.

SAPHFIRE BROWN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

The stands were partly full at a lacrosse game on an overcast Saturday.

SW 6

Tearing Up the Playbook with Sam Stockton ’19 The Present of America’s Pastime As spring training signals the open of the 2017 season, Major League Baseball is once again embroiled in a controversy regarding its relationship between its past and present. Last year, Bryce Harper began his “Make Baseball Fun Again” campaign, critiquing the uptight, traditionalist baseball establishment that limited a player’s ability to express himself.

Harper expressed a resentment for the “tired” nature of the game and hoped to see more players express themselves through their style of play.

This season, everyone affiliated with the game is caught up in the issue of the pace of play. The consensus is that baseball games take too long and need to be streamlined to attract new and younger fans.

The latest proposal aimed at picking up the rate at which baseball games unfold is to slightly raise the

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

lower limit of the strike zone from the “hollow beneath the kneecap” to the top of the hitter’s knees. The theory here is simple: a lower strike zone means fewer strikeouts since pitches that were once strikes or difficult to hit would be balls. Also, hitters would face higher and more easily hittable pitches.

The thinking here seems reasonably sound, but it also has its drawbacks.

To evaluate its strengths, let’s consider two key questions: does baseball have a legitimate problem and does this rule change address that problem?

If baseball has a problem, and I’m not sure that it does, it is that the pace of action, not necessarily the pace of the game, is too slow. The problem isn’t exactly that a game takes too long. It’s that the time between action — when the ball is put in play — is too long.

Consider the National Football League. The pace of play is quite slow — between commercial breaks, huddling, sending in a play, lining up and actually snapping the ball, each individual snap takes a long time. However, each snap leads to an intensely action-packed play, so although the pace of play is relatively slow, the pace of action is not bad at all.

The same cannot be said of baseball. Different pitchers, like different NFL offenses, operate at different speeds. The average Major League pitcher took roughly 23 seconds between pitches in 2016. This number is not terrible, though some pitchers, Los Angeles Dodgers’ reliever Pedro

Baez for instance, take notably longer.

The problem is that many pitches don’t lead to much action at all. A pitcher gets ahead 0-2 on a batter and throws two straight curveballs in the dirt.

Depending on who is pitching, we are now closing in on a full minute where in effect nothing happened. Combine the fact that catchers can call timeout and speak with their pitcher on the mound with the fact that hitters can step out of the box whenever they want, and the pace of action gets even worse.

This leads us into the second question — does this potential rule change actually address the problem?

I don’t think so. A higher strike zone means a greater percentage of the strike zone is in a prime position for the hitter.

However, it also means a smaller strike zone, and, when combined with being situated in a preferential location for the hitter, one can only assume that pitchers will be more cautious, ensuring they paint corners rather than throw into the dangerous parts of the zone or luring hitters into swinging at pitches thrown outside the strike zone. As a consequence, this rule change seems more likely to bring more walks into the game then anything else, which does nothing to pick up the “actionproblem” in baseball. To be sure, there are likely to be more hits when pitchers have a smaller target, but I’m not so sure that this change will make the game more exciting.

More effective rule changes would directly pick up the pace of action.

The best way to do this without

corrupting the integrity of the game and avoiding changes like moving in the fences to create more home runs would be to pick up the pace of action dramatically, so that even with some pitches being relatively meaningless, the action occurs with shorter breaks in between. This objective could be accomplished by setting a firm limit on the permissible time that can elapse between pitches (think basketball’s shot clock or football’s play clock), limiting the number of timeouts that a catcher and hitter can take, or maybe even setting a minimum on the number of batters one pitcher can face. These strategies would avoid the common situation in which a pitching change occurs, the TV broadcast goes to commercial, the new pitcher warms up, the new pitcher faces one batter and then he is replaced and TV goes back to commercial.

Previously, I said that if baseball has a problem, it is the pace of action.

Again, I’d like to convey that I’m not so sure this problem should be addressed.

Baseball should not chase the role of entertainment for the masses. As the old saying goes, “baseball is dull only to dull minds.” The beauty of baseball often lies in its intricacies of strategy rather than the raw excitement of its action. The sport has never really been an exposé of athleticism in the way of, say, basketball. It is a sport that is sometimes at its most exciting when the score is tied at zero, and one team must manufacture offense. A walk, a stolen base, a sac fly and a squeeze

play. Besides, turn on the 2016 World Series film, and then tell me baseball isn’t exciting enough.

Musings of the Week: (1) Another huge issue with baseball is replay. The reality is that replay is a necessity. When fans at home can easily see the outcome of a bang-bang play thanks to instant replay and slow-mo, it would be unacceptable not to use that technology to ensure accuracy on the field. The problem is that this takes way too long, even on seemingly obvious calls. Baseball needs to find a way to come to a ruling more quickly and should also set a firm limit, beyond which the call on the field simply stands if it is still unresolved.

(2) I saw that Chad Le Clos, Michael Phelps’s wannabe rival in the 200-yard butterfly, said in an interview, “I wake up in the middle of the night in a sweat over that race.” For me, Phelps is the most successful athlete of all-time, plain and simple. Chad “Not So Close” on the other hand is an all-time loser and cautionary tale. First of all, you can see Chad looking over at Phelps in the last 50 of the race, and as everybody knows: winners care about winning, and losers care about winners. So strike one, Le Clos. Secondly, you can’t talk trash and make a big fuss if you aren’t going to win. Le Clos smack-talked Phelps, puffed out his chest like a Frigatebird before the race and didn’t even win a medal. To paraphrase Eric Church, if you’re gonna bark at the big dog, you’re gonna get to feel his bite.

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017

SW 7

Women’s ice hockey team looks to keep building on foundation

By JONATHAN KATZMAN The Dartmouth Staff

A 7-21 overall record is likely not what fir st-year women’s ice hockey head coach Laura Schuler and her team had in mind coming into the team’s 2016-2017 campaign. It became apparent after an 0-5 start, including a 5-1 loss to Harvard University — who finished the season with a 5-19-5 record — that Schuler, the head coach of Canada’s women’s national team, would need time to point Dartmouth in the right direction.

While a 0.333 winning percentage does not look good on a stat sheet, early-season public comments from Schuler and assistant coach Chris Cobb suggested that the Big Green’s first order of business was to learn new systems and find its identity as a team. The message was to learn, play hard and build foundations now, and the winning would take care of itself later.

Though Dartmouth fell far short of its goals — ending the regular season with a winning percentage over .500 and qualifying for the Easter n College Athletic Conference playoffs — it would be naïve to evaluate a rebuilding season by just analyzing statistics.

What matters is that new offensive and defensive systems are in place, and that Schuler believes her returning players have bought into her message. Schuler’s position

as head coach of the Canadian women’s national team is also certain to benefit the recruiting pipeline in the years to come. While Schuler and her staff deserve praise for building a foundation that will pay off in seasons to come, perhaps more credit lies with Dartmouth’s players, who had to prepare for a new staff on short notice.

“We found out that we had a new coach last April, so the team really had to come together,” assistantcaptain Eleni Tebano ’17 said.

“While I wish that we had won more games, the way in which we built a foundation and got used to the new coaches and systems very quickly was impressive.”

Despite the team’s disappointing rec ord, th e s eas on w a s n ot without its share of bright spots.

Goaltender Robyn Chemago ’17 was named to the All-Ivy Second Team, and classmate Kennedy Ottenbreit ’17 to the Honorable Mention list, for their efforts this season. A native of Slave Lake, Alberta, Chemago was stellar all season, consistently keeping the Big Green in close games this season while posting a careerhigh 0.928 save percentage, good enough to tie for 13th nationally.

E ve n m o r e i m p r e s s i ve w a s Chemago’s 0.934 save percentage in ECAC play. Ottenbreit, who recorded a hat-trick in her final collegiate game in a win over Yale University, was the Big Green’s top offensive force this season. The

FROM ROUNDUP PAGE 3

On Friday, the men’s tennis team dropped an intense 4-3 match to No. 44 Memphis at home. After claiming the doubles point by winning two out of the three matches 6-3, the opposing team managed to claim victory by defeating the Big Green’s No. 1 through No. 3 spots. All the singles victories for both Dartmouth and Memphis occurred in straight sets.

O n S u n d ay, th e Big Green rebounded to beat Boston College 6-1 at home. The team swept all three doubles matches to clinch the doubles point. In singles, Ciro Riccardi ’18, Charlie Broom ’20, David Horneffer ’20 and Max Schmidt ’17 all cruised to straight set victories.

SAPHFIRE BROWN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

The women’s ice hockey team finished its season with a 7-21 overall record.

united.

So how bright does the future look? It is difficult to say how long it will take Schuler and her future teams to bring hockey back into the national spotlight, but the players’ increasing confidence in Schuler’s new systems is a positive sign. And

on the ice, it showed.

“At the end of the season, we really began to drive wide and take pucks to the net to get quality shots off,” Tebano said. “This offensive mentality is something Coach Schuler preached since day one.

I think we are in goods hands.”

SAILING

The women’s sailing team sent a contingent to South Carolina over the weekend to compete in a field of 18 teams the Charleston Women’s Regatta. Under light winds on the Cooper River, the Big Green took fourth place behind

TENNIS

Grayson, Saskatchewan native led Dartmouth in scoring for the second consecutive season with 17 points, which included two game winners and three power play markers.

Fa n s w h o k e p t u p w i t h Dartmouth this season witnessed a team in transformation. Despite the Big Green’s effort, the team still started with an 0-5 record.

The team’s lack of coordination in the offensive and defensive zones was evident from the very start.

But the Big Green continued to fight. It broke the winless streak in a spirited 3-2 overtime win against then No. 10 Princeton University thanks to Tebano’s heroics with under a minute to go in the extra period. Dartmouth’s three consecutive victories from Jan. 10 to 14 were also signs of continuous progress.

The progress showed in flashes: killing nine power plays against Clarkson University, who entered the game with the ECAC’s number one special teams unit; a one-goal heartbreaker to No. 5 St. Lawrence University; and the season-ending win against Yale. These outings were not all winning efforts. But the performances featured heart, toughness, defensive coordination and spurts of offense that were nonexistent early in the season.

The definitive 4-1 victory against the Bulldogs was the icing on the cake for the seven seniors who began the season with the responsibility of keeping the squad

Boston University, Brown University and Stanford University.

Dartmouth was in first place after race 4A, almost midway through Saturday’s racing, but a string of lower finishes dropped the team to fourth by the conclusion of the first day.

Dartmouth’s B squad was one of the best-performing groups of the regatta, notching seven top-five finishes in 10 races, winning both of its races on Sunday. The A squad had three top-five finishes of its own.

LACROSSE On a warm and rainy Saturday at Scully-Fahey Field, the Big Green lost its home opener 15-8 to Sacred Heart University. Wiley Osborne ’17 opened the scoring 1:46 into the first quarter, giving the Big Green a 1-0 advantage that would be its only lead of the game. The advantage held for a short five minutes until Sacred Heart’s Joe Saggese netted a pair later in the quarter. After another Sacred Heart goal, Osborne scored again near the end of the first quarter, bringing the deficit to 3-2, but the Pioneers would allow them no closer. In a physical game that included three pushing, two tripping, three unnecessary roughness, four cross-check and one unsportsmanlike conduct calls, Sacred Heart led by as many as eight goals in the fourth quarter.

Jack Korzelius ’18 led the game by netting four goals, followed

by Osborne with a hat trick. Cameron Nolting ’19 netted his first goal of the season while Ben Martin ’20 had the team’s only assist.

In the net, George Christopher ’20 played the entire game and set a career-high with 12 saves.

With the loss, Dartmouth drops to 0-2 and Sacred Heart improves

to 2-1.

On Wednesday, the women’s lacrosse team secured a decisive 18-8 victory over the University of New Hampshire in the Wildcat stadium. Elizabeth Mastrio ’19 and Cara DePippo ’18 both contributed four goals to the victory, while Courtney Weisse ’17 secured three. Kierra Sweeney ’19 and Sophia Turchetta ’20 added two goals each. Although she allowed eight goals, goalie Kiera Vrindten ’20 had an overall solid game with nine saves.

On Saturday, the women’s won its 2017 home opener against Binghamton University 15-11 at Scully-Fahey Field. DePippo and Sweeney each led the team with four goals, while Taryn Deck ’17 supported with another three points, giving first-year head coach Danielle Spencer her first win in front of a home crowd. The Big Green entered intermission with a 9-4 lead, but the Bearcats showed resistance and scored five goals in the next 10 minutes to bring the score to a close 11-9. With a heroic performance by Vrindten at the net, who saved a total of 19 shots, the Big Green held on to win. With the victory, the Big Green is now 3-0 in the season.

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017

SW 8

SPORTS

Softball team opens season, shares hopes to reclaim Ivy Title

By SAMANTHA HUSSEY The Dartmouth Staff

With spring quickly approaching, Dartmouth softball is out in full force, seeking its third league championship in four years. Last season, the Big Green finished with a 27-15 overall record and a 15-5 record in conference play. While Dartmouth was a favorite to win the league crown, the women lost 8-5 against Harvard University in a winner-take-all Game 2 in the Ivy League’s North Division. Harvard later lost to Princeton University in a best-of-three series.

For the players, this was heartbreaking, especially for the upperclassmen who were still riding the high of their back-to-back league championships in the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 seasons.

“Well, honestly, it sucked,” catcher and outfielder Karen Chaw ’17 said. “But, in the end, it was a wake-up call [for] our team that to compete we were going to have to work even harder, because none of us want to experience that feeling again.”

The team hopes to enter the new year with lessons from these losses.

Pitcher Breanna Ethridge ’18 said the team realized how competitive the Ivy League is becoming, noting

how the women must give each game an equal amount of effort.

“This season, I think we will be looking at all the other Ivy League teams differently,” Ethridge said.

“After we won two straight titles, it was easy to think of ourselves [as] the [best] of the Ivies, but after coming up short last year, we have learned never to take anyone else for granted.”

One downside for the Big Green this upcoming season is the loss of Katie McEachern ’16, who holds the school’s all-time records in home runs with 40, RBIs with 129, runs with 128 and hits with 203.

McEachern also closed the season batting an average of 0.380, the best career average by any player at Dartmouth.

While McEachern was a crucial part of the team, Ethridge is confident in the team’s ability to step up in her absence.

“We have a strong group of returning players this year with much experience,” Ethridge said.

This season, Dartmouth will see the return of four All-Ivy selections to its team, including Chaw, Morgan Martinelli ’19, Maddie Damore ’17 and Ethridge.

“The returners on this team have the goal of continuing to set the standards for the program and

defining what it means to be part of Dartmouth softball,” first base and utility player Damore said. “We know where we want this team to go, and it’s our responsibility to lead the team there.”

The Big Green also added eight new faces to their roster — Jade Bravo ’20, Sophia Ausmus ’20, Micah Schroder ’20, Loghan Thomas ’20, Morgan Ebow ’20, Calista Almer ’20, Tessa Grossman ’20 and Tatyanah Castillo ’20.

“The recruiting classes get better and better each year, and this year’s [freshman] group is extremely talented,” Ethridge said. “They are extremely athletic and encompass all aspects of the game: speed, power, mechanics.”

Damore agreed, emphasizing the young team will lead to a very different team dynamic.

“For this year to be successful we are going to need every single person on the team to step up and make plays when they are called upon,” Damore said. “It is going to be a total group effort this season, which is super exciting.”

Despite the inexperience, the team is confident that it can succeed.

“We have numbers at every position and have a strong knowledge for the game,” Ethridge said.

She also pointed out that in

SEAMORE ZHU/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

The softball team opened its season this past weekend in Louisiana.

practices, their coaches have focused on the little things, such as plays on defense and approach at the plate, which Ethridge believes will help the team improve in its ability to produce more runs and win more games.

D e s p i t e t h e t e a m ’s h i g h expectations and recent success, it has failed to live up to them this past weekend, starting 0-4-1. In the Mardi Gras Classic in Louisiana, the team

lost to Drake University, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Bradley University and Mississippi Valley State University, and tied against Maryland University.

This weekend, the softball team will hope to improve its record in the Kennesaw State Tournament against the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Kennesaw State University and Akron University.

Squash teams compete in and win B-division national tournament

By CODY FUJII The Dartmouth

In the past two weeks, both the men’s and women’s squash teams traveled to compete in national championships, and both returned to Hanover with hardware to show for it. The men won the College Squash Association’s Hoehn Cup last weekend, and the women took the Kurtz Cup on Sunday.

The No. 9 men and No. 9 women each competed in the B division of the College Squash Association tournaments, taking on a bracket of teams ranked ninth to 16th nationally.

After a drought against Princeton University for many years, the men’s squash team notched its third consecutive victory against the Tigers in the final game of the Hoehn Cup. On their path to the final, the men downed No.

14 Franklin and Marshall College and No. 15 George Washington University.

The Hoehn Cup was a riveting tournament for the men’s squash player s despite Dartmouth’s standing as the top-seeded team.

“Coming in as the top seed is definitely tough because you know you’re playing teams that have nothing to lose,” Carson Spahr ’19 said. “They’re always going to be out there firing.”

During the quarterfinals of the tournament, Dartmouth won a convincing 8-1 victory over Franklin and Marshall.

“We were pretty confident after getting that first win,” Spahr said.

George Washington, who Dartmouth faced in the semifinals, presented a greater threat to the Big Green with a strong lineup in its top half.

“We knew the bottom half of our

lineup really had to come through,” Spahr said. “And they did.”

Dartmouth prevailed 7-2, a win that included a sweep of the third round of matches.

After the relative ease of its previous two matches, the team felt confident going into the finals against Princeton. But it was hard not to remember the Big Green’s regular-season nailbiter against the Tigers, when Dartmouth eked out a 5-4 win that was decided in the final match. Despite the earlier challenge, Dartmouth toppled Princeton in the finals.

“It was stressful in the beginning matches but seeing everyone playing well really propelled the next kids,” Spahr said.

The Hoehn Cup win gives the men’s squash team a record of 10-7 on the season.

“We were really able to come together as team and play our best

squash at the end of the season,” co-captain Glen Brickman ’17 said. “We comfortably won all our games 8-1 or 7-2, so were able to put everything together.”

Head coach Hansi Wiens attributed the team’s success last weekend to drive and preparation.

“The key things were that they were highly motivated and trained really well,” Wiens said.

The women’s squash team found similar success in the Kurtz Cup tournament, which concluded yesterday and included a 9-0 romp over No. 16 Middlebury College.

“We were pretty comfortable in knowing that we were going to win, but definitely faced some fight from them,” Maddie Fraser ’17 said.

“However, we were able to pull it off.”

The women’s squash team was challenged in its semifinal game against No. 12 George Washington

but still clinched the win 6-3. All six wins came from the bottom of the Big Green lineup.

“The match was pretty predictable ... but the top three definitely had really good matches,” Fraser said.

The team turned in a riveting performance in the championship against No. 14 Drexel University, pulling out a 5-4 victory. In the decisive match, Becky Brownell ’18 was down by two games before claiming the next three in a row.

“We were most proud of our confidence, but we also had the drive to win,” Fraser said. “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy just because we were the top seed. We kept the fighting attitude that we maintained throughout the season.”

This weekend, select players in the men’s and women’s squash teams will play in individual championships at home.