The Dartmouth Sports Weekly 02/16/15

2.16. 15

MEN’S HOCKEY LOSES AFTER SIX-GAME WIN STREAK

WOMEN’S HOCKEY SWEEPS WEEKEND GAMES

MEN’S BASKETBALL ENDS FIVE-GAME LOSING STREAK ELIZA MCDONOUGH, WEIJA TANG, ALISON GUH/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

SW 2

BY THE NUMBERS

1,000 Gabas Maldunas ’15 scored his 1,000th career point Saturday

7

Seven-game loss-free streak broken for men’s hockey Saturday

35

35 minutes served in penalties in men’s hockey loss to Colgate

6

Six-game losing streak snapped by overtime win for women’s hoops

Men’s basketball snaps five-game losing streak B y Ray Lu

The Dartmouth Staff

The men’s basketball team returned home to Leede Arena this past weekend for the first leg of a two-weekend Ivy League homestand. The Big Green (913, 2-6 Ivy) showed mixed results over the weekend, taking a heartbreaking loss in overtime to Cornell University (12-12, 4-4 Ivy) 81-72 before stifling Columbia University (11-11, 3-5 Ivy) in a 61-49 victory.

The weekend pitted the top two scorers in the Ivy League — Maodo Lo of Columbia, who averages 16.2 points per game, and Cornell’s Shonn Miller, who follows closely behind with 16.1— against Dartmouth’s stingy defense, which leads the Ivies with 7.6 steals per game.

In the end, restricting those two scorers’ access to the net was the key difference between winning and losing.

Against the Big Red, Dartmouth started strong and opened with an 11-2 lead less than three minutes into the game, and the men maintained a lead over Cornell throughout much of the match. During the run, Miles Wright ’18 chipped in two three-pointers and Connor Boehm ’16 added a three and a jumper to put the visitors at an early disadvantage.

Once again, Wright led the Big Green in scoring for the weekend.

After breaking out with an average of 20.5 points per game last weekend and being named Ivy League Rookie of the Week, the freshman finished with 19 points against Cornell and led both teams with 16 against Columbia.

“I’m more comfortable with the offense now,” Wright said. “I know my role, and I know the coaching staff is more comfortable with me and I know my teammates are more comfortable with me taking the shots that I’m taking.

When everyone else believes in you, it makes it easy to believe in yourself.”

After Dartmouth’s hot start, Cornell crawled back into the game. With five minutes left in the first half, Cornell’s Robert Hatter sank a three to give the Big Red its first lead of the night with 25-23. The Cornell sophomore finished the night tying Wright’s game-high 19 points.

After a tight first half, the two teams

Katie McKay ’16 Editor-in-Chief

02.02.15

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Luke McCann ’16 Executive Editor

entered the locker room tied at 31-31.

The Big Green pulled away from the gridlock and opened the second period with an 8-4 run on the strength of a Wright jumper and free throws from co-captain Gabas Maldunas ’15 and John Golden ’15.

The second half played out similarly to the first. Dartmouth held a slight margin for most of the period but never led by more than six. Down six with five minutes to play, Cornell’s Hatter converted a four-point play to spark a late rally from the Big Red, leading to a 60-60 tie with four minutes left in the game.

With 1:41 to go, Cornell’s Miller hit a jumper to give Cornell its first lead, 64-62, since the opening seconds of the second half. Dartmouth took a timeout, but it failed to help recuperate and the team returned to the court with misses by both Golden and Malik Gill ’16. Maldunas managed to come away with the offensive rebound on Gill’s attempt and pulled the score even on an impressive layup with only 27 seconds remaining.

On the final possession of regular time, Cornell’s Miller attempted a buzzerbeater, but failed to close the match when the ball bounced off the rim.

Neck and neck at 64 points, the two teams headed to overtime, Dartmouth’s first since edging Northern Illinois University 58-55 on Dec. 19. Cornell lost its only prior overtime game of the season to Saint Peter’s University 59-52 on Dec. 28.

Over the course of the game, Cornell led for only 8:33, compared to Dartmouth’s 31:37 time spent ahead.

The Big Red, however, peaked when it mattered most and dominated overtime play. Cornell opened scoring on a layup by senior Devin Cherry and a free throw

by Miller. Dartmouth didn’t score its first basket until Alex Mitola ’16 hit a jumper with 3:34 to go, cutting the score to 66-67.

“We collapsed a little bit and we didn’t hit shots when we needed to,” Maldunas said.

After Mitola’s three, Cornell pulled away with a 7-0 run, capped off by a three. Wright hit a three to pull the game within four with just under a minute remaining, but the Big Green wouldn’t find the bottom of the net for the rest of the game. Cornell sealed the affair by hitting 5-for-6 from the line in the final minute.

The game featured strong offensive performances from both teams. Wright led the way for Dartmouth with 11 points in the first half en route to his 19 for the overall game. Maldunas posted a double-double with 14 points and 12 boards, and Boehm and Tommy Carpenter ’16 had 10 points each.

With the loss of the previous night still smarting, Dartmouth opened Saturday’s affair against Columbia with all cylinders firing.

The Big Green rattled off a stunning 19-2 run from the first whistle into the first eight minutes of the game. During the run, Dartmouth forced four turnovers and limited the Lions to 1-for-8 shooting. Wesley Dickinson ’17 started for an unavailable Boehm and immediately made an impact, blocking Columbia’s Lo’s opening three-point attempt.

“I think the main reason why [the opening run] happened was [that] we switched up our defense, and we started the game playing zone instead of manto-man, and I think Columbia wasn’t really expecting that,” Maldunas said.

Columbia bent but didn’t break, responding with its own 11-2 run on the strength of two threes by senior Steve Frankoski. Slowly, the Lions whittled down nearly all of Dartmouth’s early lead. After a layup by Maldunas with 5:48 left in the first, Columbia rattled off seven unanswered points and an overall 12-1 spurt, bringing the score to 27-26 with 1:27 to go in the half. A free throw by Cole Harrison ’17 gave the Big Green a two-point lead heading into halftime.

The second half opened with both teams in a gridlock. Dartmouth and

Columbia traded buckets, and neither led by more than four points for the first 12 minutes. With 7:41 left in the game, a Gill three opened the floodgates for eight unanswered Dartmouth points. Wright drained a long ball, Mitola and Gill hit free throws and Maldunas topped the run with a layup, making the score 50-37 with just under four minutes to go.

With three minutes left to play, Columbia’s Frankoski hit the last of his four triples to pull the margin to 10, but the Lions would not get any closer for the rest of the game. Dartmouth held off all offensive efforts by going 8-for-10 from the line in the last two minutes of the game.

Mitola credited both the team’s defensive adjustments and offense in the win.

“We played a matchup zone defense and it worked very well,” Mitola said.

“We also came out hitting shots and that propelled us out to a big lead. They came back and took the lead in the second half but we showed some resilience and got the lead back and finished it off down the stretch.”

In addition to Wright’s 16 points, Mitola had 13 — including three triples, and Gill chipped in 10 — going 7-for10 from the charity stripe. Maldunas fell just short of his second straight double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds, but the senior became the 26th player in Big Green history to score 1,000 points with his final point of the game, a free throw. Maldunas is the first Big Green player to reach the milestone in six years.

“I know [Mitola] and [Boehm] and [Wright] maybe are on the path to get to 1,000 points as well, but to be the first guy of our generation in the second stint of [Cormier’s] coaching career is also a great feeling,” Maldunas said.

The Big Green continues their homestand with rematches against Princeton University on Saturday and the University of Pennsylvania on Sunday. Both games tip off at 7 p.m. in Leede Arena.

Justin Levine ’16 Publisher

Jessica Avitabile ’16 Executive Editor

Henry Arndt ’16 Katie Jarrett ’16 Sports Editors

Natalie Cantave ’16 Photography Editor

MARK WIDERSCHEIN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Men’s basketball broke five-game losing streak after returning home to Leede Arena from three weekends on the road.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

Men’s hockey splits, ends winning streak

B y Gayne Kalustian The Dartmouth Staff

Not too high, not too low. You hear that phrase in interview after interview, from player after player. What it means, in not so many words, is that a team is looking for consistency — ways to manage big victories so they don’t start pushing the boundaries of their own play while handling tough losses so they can take the ice with enough confidence to avoid getting stuck in a rut.

After this weekend, which began with an exciting late-game 3-2 win over Cornell University and ended in a devastating 0-3 loss to Colgate University, not too high, not too low is what men’s ice hockey is counting on as the team nears the end of the regular season.

Dartmouth (12-9-4, 9-7-2) came into play this weekend off one of its hottest stretches of hockey all season, riding the wave of a five-game winning streak and six games without a loss. True to its recent style of play, the Big Green came out hard and scored the first two goals of the game against Cornell — the first at the hands of Brad Schierhorn ’16 just 19 seconds into play. Jesse Beamish ’15 was eventually credited with the next goal after the puck bounced off several players before crossing the crease. Two goals for Cornell, the first of which came as Dartmouth tried to kill a five-on-three, tied the game 15 minutes in.

For the next 37 minutes of play, the teams fought to a total stalemate. Competing for both Ivy League pride and better postseason seats, Dartmouth needed a goal in this game to secure the two points well within reach.

Enter alternate captain Eric Neiley ’15.

Brandon McNally ’15, against the boards, pushed the centering pass to Rick Pinkston ’15 while Grant Opperman ’17 screened Cornell goaltender Mitch Gillam. Rather than taking the shot, Pinkston backhanded it to Neiley. In the circle, Neiley buried the puck in the back of the net, securing a singing sixth victory in a row for Dartmouth — its longest streak since Nov. 10, 2012. The game, Pinkston said, was one of the team’s “more complete games all season.”

“I was really happy, defensively,” he said.

“There was maybe one minor breakdown in the defensive zone, but other than that I thought it was a solid game from start to finish.”

Offensively, Dartmouth knew they had their work cut out for them, going up against the No. 3 overall defense and No. 2 penalty killers in the NCAA. Dartmouth had four power play opportunities on Friday night, none of which they capitalized on. While it’s understandable that the men would struggle against the strength of Cornell’s penalty killing units, the power play continues to be a growth opportunity for the Big Green, who is currently scoring on about half as many power plays as the top teams in the country overall. The team’s thought process against Cornell, who kills over 90 percent of their penalties, Neiley said, was to try and draw out the Big Red. “They had a good penalty kill obviously,” he said. “They just sat back. We probably should have been coming up with speed

SW 3

THE

RUNDOWN Men’s Basketball SCHOOL

IVY

OVERALL

HARVARD YALE PRINCETON CORNELL COLUMBIA PENN BROWN DARTMOUTH

7-1 7-1 4-3 4-4 3-5 2-5 2-6 2-6

17-5 18-7 11-12 12-12 11-11 7-14 11-14 9-13

Women’s Basketball

ELIZA MCDONOUGH/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Dartmouth will face off with St. Lawrence next after splitting ECAC matchups this weekend.

and been trying to get behind them and beat them to pucks instead of trying to enter the zone with possession.”

As the team took the ice on Saturday, it was clear from the start that something was different. The team opened up with a somewhat lethargic first period, forfeiting the first goal of the game to Colgate after an unsuccessful penalty kill. The second period opened up with more of the same.

A Dartmouth opportunity was derailed — quite literally — by a Colgate player who intentionally knocked off his own goal.

The officials did not call the penalty.

The growing frustrations on the ice began to manifest physically, kicked off by two aggressive, but not punishable, hits

by Nick Bligh ’16, one of which knocked over Colgate’s goaltender. McNally was the next to go down after a crushing blow to a Colgate player near center ice. The officials ruled the hit as direct contact to the head — which warrants a major penalty and game misconduct and sent McNally off the ice for the duration of the game. Later review of the play in the press box made it seem as if McNally just went shoulder-to-shoulder with the player, though his elbow and stick were in the air at the end, giving the look of an intentionally dangerous hit.

A team penalty for too many men on the ice put Dartmouth killing a fiveon-three when Pinkston and a Colgate player both got nabbed for roughing, crowding Dartmouth’s penalty box with three players at once. When all was said and done, the Big Green killed about six straight minutes of penalties, aided and abetted by Chuck Grant ’16 in the goal who made an incredible glove save before punctuating the penalty kill by smothering the shot. The team spent almost half the second period working at a disadvantage with a missing player, though they only attempted two fewer shots than Colgate during the 20 minutes.

What could have been a critical momentum-building moment for Dartmouth ended up as more of the same in the third period, as Colgate ultimately netted two more goals. Geoff Ferguson ’16 took a game misconduct for unsportsmanlike conduct, and Dartmouth finished the game without a goal. The team accumulated 35 total penalty minutes taken on eight penalties.

After the game on Saturday, head coach Bob Gaudet said the team was making “no excuses” and that Colgate played “a great game.”

It would be difficult to say Dartmouth’s fan base was pleased with the performance on Saturday night — the team has proven itself more than capable of playing a better game than the one it played against Colgate.

Had the game been called differently, it’s still not clear that Dartmouth would have emerged with a different outcome. The team took plenty of bad penalties, engaged in what was likely more gratuitous scrumming than necessary. Emotions were high on the ice, and when things begin rolling downhill for the Big Green, they really start rolling downhill.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this phenomenon for Dartmouth — against St. Lawrence University, the Big Green served 25 minutes on seven penalties.

St. Lawrence took 27 minutes on eight penalties that night, and now the two are set to face off again this Saturday at St. Lawrence at 7 p.m. Before reuniting with St. Lawrence, however, the Big Green will travel to Clarkson University on Friday to begin play at 7 p.m.

While Dartmouth is only two points away from third place in the ECAC, they’re also two points away from eighth. The race is tight. If the team can take this weekend and put it away, store it somewhere it won’t affect them going forward, there really is little reason to be concerned for the Big Green who have proven themselves — when they properly partition their energy

SCHOOL

IVY

OVERALL

PRINCETON PENN CORNELL YALE HARVARD BROWN DARTMOUTH COLUMBIA

7-0 5-2 5-3 5-3 3-5 3-5 2-6 1-7

23-0 14-7 14-8 11-11 10-12 9-13 11-11 7-15

Men’s Hockey SCHOOL

ECAC

OVERALL

QUINNIPIAC ST. LAWRENCE YALE HARVARD DARTMOUTH COLGATE CORNELL CLARKSON RPI UNION BROWN PRINCETON

15-2-1 12-5-1 10-6-2 9-6-3 9-7-2 8-7-3 8-8-2 8-8-2 7-11-0 6-11-1 4-13-1 2-14-2

20-8-2 16-11-3 15-7-3 13-8-3 12-9-4 16-11-3 10-11-4 11-15-4 9-22-1 14-14-2 7-17-1 4-17-3

Women’s Hockey SCHOOL

ECAC

OVERALL

HARVARD QUINNIPIAC CLARKSON ST. LAWRENCE CORNELL PRINCETON DARTMOUTH YALE RPI COLGATE UNION BROWN

16-3-1 14-4-2 14-4-2 12-5-3 12-6-2 12-7-1 9-9-2 10-10-0 4-15-1 4-15-1 1-15-4 2-17-1

21-4-2 23-6-3 20-9-3 18-10-3 14-10-3 14-11-2 13-11-2 13-13-1 6-22-4 6-24-1 4-21-7 5-21-1

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

SW 4

ONE

ON

ONE

WITH KATHY DZIENKOWSKI ’16

B y LILY GORDON The Dartmouth Staff

This week I sat down with softball catcher, Kathy Dzienkowski ’16. The 2014 Ivy League Champions open the 2015 season this weekend in Tampa, Florida at the University of South Florida Wilson-DeMarini Tournament taking on Auburn University, Marshall University and USF. As a team, how are you preparing for your first game against Auburn this Friday?

KD: In January, we focused primarily on strength and conditioning, as well as mental toughness. That’s a big part of softball, so it’s really helping us in our team practices as we get closer to the real season. Last Saturday, we scrimmaged Southern New Hampshire University in Leverone [Field House]. As a team, we focused on making routine plays and controlling the “controllables” throughout the whole game. This was also the first time to see live pitchers, other than our own pitching. It was also a good experience for the younger players to see live action and get some of their initial the nerves out.

How are you as an individual player preparing for the season?

What specifically are you working on?

KD: I’ve been focusing a lot on my hitting this year and improving my skills in order to be more successful at the plate. Specifically, I am working on “hands to the ball” and other technical skills to clean up my stroke. I am hoping that this will contribute more to the team’s offensive success.

Have you noticed a transition in your leadership role, both on and off the field, now that you are an upperclassman on the team?

KD: I’ve definitely noticed a change both on and off the field. It’s a really rewarding experience having the freshmen look up to you for advice during practice and around campus.

It’s especially nice because I remember how helpful the ’13s and ’14s were to my class when we were younger, so I feel great about giving back to the program now. They are a very talented young bunch, and I now they will have many bright years ahead of them.

What advice would you give to the freshmen and sophomores on your team that you wish you had done differently at those ages?

KD: Don’t take no for an answer. If you want something badly enough, go for it and work for it. Success will follow.

What has it been like having a new coach this season?

KD: It’s really nice to have someone come in with a new perspective, who sees the game slightly differently and can work with the team to help point out some of our strengths and weaknesses. It is common to get into patterns and routines once you have been playing for multiple seasons. So having a fresh pair of eyes can bring versatility and strength in areas we might have fallen short in before.

Who do you see as your stiffest competition this season?

KD: Harvard [University] is definitely our toughest competitor in our division. We play them last so it’s always a battle with who is going to win. In the past few years we have had similar records, so when we face them there is an added sense of pressure because whoever wins the series goes on to the Ivy League Championship.

How long have you been playing softball?

KD: I’ve been playing since I was six years old. I started tee-ball and never played any other sport because I loved softball so much. It’s hard to articulate the feeling of stepping out onto the field before a game, you and all your teammates. There is a sense of excitement and competitiveness in the air that drives me to do my best day in and out.

What has been your favorite part about playing for Dartmouth for the past three years?

KD: My favorite part has to be the fans. Freshman year, not many students came to our game, but due to our team’s increasing success, a lot of students have started coming to our games. Last season especially, a lot of students came to our games dressed in flair and roaring with enthusiasm. Looking into the stands last year during the Ivy League Championship and seeing the crowd so full and enthusiastic was such an exciting feeling. I cannot wait to get back out there this coming season!

Aside from softball, how else do you like to spend your time on campus?

KD: I really enjoy attending other sporting events. I try to go to as many as I can because I also appreciate it when people come to my games. Dartmouth is a great size because it is big enough to have competitive sports but small enough that you feel like you know the players when you go to various games.

I also really enjoy being outdoors and hiking. This past fall, I went on “the Stretch,” an earth science [foreign study program], where we traveled across country studying geology and looking at our country’s national parks.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Women’s hockey wins two on road B y HAley Gordon The Dartmouth Staff

The women’s ice hockey team swept the competition this weekend, winning away games at both Colgate and Cornell Universities. With the back-to-back victories the Big Green (13-11-2, 9-9-2 ECAC) cemented its entry into the Eastern Coast Athletic Conference tournament.

On Friday night, the Big Green began their weekend facing off against Colgate. Despite Colgate’s (7-24-1, 4-15-1 ECAC) lower rankings in the ECAC, where they are currently tied for ninth, the Big Green recognized the potential threat Colgate posed.

The Raiders managed to defeat the Big Green 2-0 just three weeks earlier.

The first period ended with both teams scoreless, despite a Colgate offense that pressured the Dartmouth defense down low, goaltender Robyn Chemago ’17 said.

The Dartmouth offense came alive in the second period, producing three goals against Colgate’s one. The Big Green women got on the board first with a power play goal by Karlee Odland ’15 just under five minutes into the period. Odland was able to score off of a rebounded puck, after shots by Brooke Ahbe ’18 and Olivia Whitford ’16 failed to find the back of the net.

A few minutes later, the Raiders evened the score at 1-1, also putting themselves on the board with a power play goal. The tie did not stand long, as Odland made her second goal of the night only four minutes later to retake the lead for the Big Green. Odland took advantage of passes from teammates Samantha Zeiss ’15 and Kennedy Ottenbreit ’17 to put the puck past Colgate’s goalkeeper.

Lindsey Allen ’16 extended the lead to 3-1 with her 17th goal of the season, assisted by Ailish Forfar ’16 and Emma Korbs ’17.

With a comfortable lead on their hosts, Dartmouth maintained its offensive dominance throughout the third period. Devon Moir ’17 scored her first goal of the season just over eight minutes into the period.

Colgate refused to go down quietly, and the Raiders answered back with a goal snuck past Chemago three minutes later, cutting Dartmouth’s lead back to two.

With only a few minutes left in the game, Ottenbreit, taking advantage of Colgate’s empty net, sealed the win for the Big Green with a long shot from the blue line. The final score was 5-2, and Dartmouth outshot Colgate 35-25.

The win against Colgate has guaranteed Dartmouth’s place in the ECAC tournament, but the remainder of the regular season’s games will determine the final rankings in the league.

Knowing this, and remembering a recent defeat at the hands of Cornell, the Big Green took the ice in New York on Saturday afternoon with redemption on their minds, Allen said.

Forfar did not hesitate as the puck dropped, scoring the first goal of the game against the Big Red (14-10-3, 12-6-2 ECAC) just 24 seconds into the first period. Laura Stacey ’16 took a point-blank shot at the goal, which was blocked and flew to Forfar at the left pipe, who then slipped the puck in behind the goalie.

“We came out as hard as we could,” Stacey said. “The puck came out front right to me, and I was able to put it on net, and Ailish got the rebound and it was in the net before we knew it. We were pretty pumped about it…It kind of set us up for what happened in the rest of the game.”

Cornell was able to even the score nine minutes in with an unassisted goal by Jillian Saulnier. After a tripping penalty against Dartmouth, Cornell took the lead with a power play goal

by Saulier, with assists from Brianne

Jenner and Emily Fulton.

Chemago was kept busy at the goal in the second period, making big saves and keeping Cornell from increasing the lead over the Big Green.

With five minutes remaining in the second, Forfar took advantage of another deflected shot, this time Allen’s, to equalize the score.

The third period began with both teams fighting to gain the upper hand.

The tie was broken at 6:28, when Allen intercepted a pass between Cornell players and took the puck all the way to the net, slamming a shot in the right corner.

Both teams fought hard the rest of the third period, but neither managed to find success in grabbing another goal and Dartmouth came away with the 3-2 win.

“It was really fun for us… putting in a solid effort for 60 minutes and getting out with a win is a great confidence builder,” Chemago said.

Chemago made a career-high save record in this game, saving 44 shots total.

Cornell outshot Dartmouth 46-29, but could not ultimately come away with a victory over the Big Green, demonstrating the outstanding performance that Chemago gave.

“Goaltending was a big thing,” Allen said. “[Chemago] spun on her head, [and] she made a lot of saves. She stood tall for us, which is what we needed.”

Allen said that looking ahead, keeping the game simple and focusing on a productive offense will be two goals for the team.

“At this point, offense is the biggest thing because not a lot of goals are going to be scored from here on out,” she said. “We have to be sure that we do get them when we have the opportunity.”

The Big Green will next take the ice against Clarkson University and St. Lawrence University in Thompson Arena this weekend at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday at 4 p.m., respectively.

ELIZA MCDONOUGH/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Women’s hockey came away from the weekend with two wins and a spot clinched in the ECAC tournament.