4.27. 15
WOMEN’S TENNIS FINISHES SECOND IN IVY LEAGUE
MEN’S TENNIS UPSETS HARVARD
HEAVYWEIGHT CREW LOSES TO BROWN JEFFREY LEE, WEIJIA TANG, KELSEY KITTELSEN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY
SW 2
BY THE NUMBERS
22 Years since men’s tennis beat Harvard
14 Consecutive games won by baseball team
10 Home runs this season by Katie McEachern ’16
0 Losses in Ivy League singles play by Taylor Ng ’17
Ng leads women’s tennis to victory at Harvard, B y Joe Clyne AND HENRY ARNDT The Dartmouth Senior Staff
In the women’s tennis team’s final game of the regular season, the No. 31 Big Green (18-5, 5-2 Ivy) beat Har vard University (7-12, 0-7 Ivy), who occupies last place in the Ivy League 5-2, at the Murr Tennis Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dartmouth ended the year in second place among the Ivies, behind only Princeton University (12-8, 6-1 Ivy). With the win, the women will likely secure a spot in the NCAA Women’s Tennis National Championships, which begins May 14. Standout performers for the Big Green included Taylor Ng ’17 and Kristina Mathis ’18. Ng and Mathis teamed up to win their doubles match, and each took home a point in the singles section as well. With her singles win, Ng — the No. 99 singles player in the countr y — remained undefeated in individual competition in this year’s Ivy League play. “I think my season was largely a product of the team culture that we had this year,” Ng said. “The fact that I can go into practice ever y day knowing that I will be pushed by my coaches and teammates is what makes you physically and mentally stronger. That’s probably what made one of the biggest differences.” Katherine Yau ’16 credited Ng’s growth as a player for some of the Big Green’s success this year. “It’s really cool to see how much [Ng] has improved since her freshman year and how much she has grown both physically and mentally on the courts,” Yau said. “It’s really inspiring to watch how she goes about ever y match. She’s just ver y mentally strong, kind of tunes out all negativity.” The Big Green jumped out to a fast start in the doubles portion of competition as Ng and Mathis won their No. 1 match-up 8-3. Yau and Akiko Okuda ’15 then secured the doubles point for the women by taking down Har vard’s Amy He and Ellen Jang-Milsten 8-4. Yau and Okuda jumped out to a 7-0 lead before dropping a few games to He and Jang-Milsten. Ultimately,
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4. 27. 15
MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2015
Luke McCann ’16 Executive Editor
JEFFREY LEE/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
Taylor Ng ’17 won both her doubles and singles matches this weekend to help lead the Big Green to a win over Harvard. the Dartmouth duo managed to hold on, despite Yau saying she felt less than her best during the match. “We lost a few games, and our coach was just tr ying to tell us to have more energy, which was hard when [Yau] was not feeling her best because she’s usually the one who has a lot of energy,” Okuda said. “It was definitely a challenge for me to tr y and build that energy for the team.” Mathis and Ng followed up their success in doubles by each notching victories on the single side. Mathis took a win at the No. 3 spot by taking down Har vard’s June Lee 7-6, 6-2. Ng took down Monica Lin 6-1, 4-6, 6-1. Ng managed to take advantage of Lin’s mistakes to put the Big Green up 3-0 over the Crimson and leave the squad just a point from victor y. “I’ve played [Lin] once before
and it was kind of a similar thing,” Ng said. “She’s a really good player, she sometimes has periods where she’s really on and periods where she makes a lot of unforced errors. I came out really fast and more focused in the first set and was able to take advantage of some her inconsistencies, especially on her forehand.” Though the Big Green held a dominating lead, the clinching point would not come easily. In the second position, Yau was still feeling unwell. If she proved unable to play in the match at all, the team’s other players would all have to shift up a position and play a higher ranked player, leaving the Big Green at a disadvantage. Yau battled through her discomfort to play in the match, though she withdrew after falling behind 7-5, 1-0. “It was really great that [Yau]
stayed tough and played some of her match so that it would be easier on the rest of her teammates who were playing below her so we didn’t all have to play a position up,” Okuda said. “I think seeing how close the match was it could have made a difference. All of our matches we’re always thinking that ever y match matters, but since we knew [Yau] was not doing so well it made us even more determined to win our own matches.” The Crimson continued to claw its way back into the match by taking another point at the No. 6 position to set the overall score at 3-2 in favor of the Big Green. Okuda, playing in the number six spot on senior day, fell to Harvard’s He in straight sets, 7-5, 6-3. If the Crimson could take the singles point at both the number four and five positions, which were in decisive third sets, Har-
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JEFFREY LEE/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
Though Harvard finished the regular season without taking an in-conference win, the Crimson fought well against Dartmouth.
THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY
MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2015
team finishes second in Ivy League
vard would earn its first Ivy win of the season and knock Dartmouth down into a three-way tie for second in the conference. Har vard’s dreams did not come to fruition, however, as the Big Green’s Julia Schroeder ’18 clinched a win by taking down Amanda Lin, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. “Schroeder has been clinching so many of our Ivy League matches. She’s so tough, ver y determined and ver y vocal on the court. It’s ver y entertaining to watch,” Okuda said. “It’s really cool that even in my senior year I’m still inspired by my younger teammates.” After Schroeder’s match ended, the women added another point to their
victor y margin thanks to Jacqueline Crawford ’17 winning her match in the four position, 6-4, 6-2, 2-2 (7-1). With the final singles point, Dartmouth defeated Har vard by a score of 5-2 overall. “It was my senior day and it was my last match. I didn’t win my match but that’s what’s great about team tennis,” Okuda said. “Even when you didn’t have a great day, its still a great feeling that your team can do so well and have such a good win.” Now the team is waiting for April 28 to see if it qualified for the NCAA Tournament. Ranked No. 31 in the nation entering this weekend’s play,
it seems likely that the team will earn an at-large bid to the championships. Ng will also likely receive the Ivy League’s automatic entr y to the individual national championships, thanks to her remarkable season. “[Dallis] mentioned to us yesterday how we had set all these goals for ourselves in the beginning of winter term. We set them really high,” Okuda said. “We didn’t even imagine ourselves to be up that high in the rankings, and we were able to accomplish those. We didn’t win Ivies, but we put ourselves in a good position to accomplish our goal of going to NCAAs. It’s really cool to end on this high note.”
Heavyweight crew narrowly falls to Brown B y Alex Kane
As the spring thaw continued to melt the ice and snow in the hills of the Connecticut River Valley, the first through fifth varsity boats of the heavyweight crew team raced Brown University at home this past Saturday, the team’s first home race since last November. With three weeks until the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges Sprints — the championship race for crews on the East Coast — the Big Green narrowly fell to the Bears, who won three of the five races. Dartmouth’s fourth and fifth varsity boats beat out Brown, while the first, second and third boats took losses with margins as narrow as two seconds. The lightweight crew team had a bye week after dropping to Yale University last weekend. This time of year is always tumultuous on the Connecticut. Winter clings to the Upper Valley just long enough that the river stays frozen well after crews farther south have transitioned from ergometers to rowing on their home courses. In the space of four months the Connecticut goes from a solid sheet of ice to placid, lake-like conditions — the kind of calm, glassy current coveted by the United States National Team. This is the second year running that the ice over the Connecticut River has remained intact well into the rowing season. The heavyweight team took on Columbia University and Yale without meeting for a practice on the water, heavyweight captain Stuart Maeder ’15 said. The lightweights have raced the University of Delaware and Har vard University in the same stretch. No access to open water is an obstacle for any crew team. The first weeks of spring are crucial for regaining technical skill and nuance made rusty or lost after months spent only on rowing machines and lifting, lightweight captain Eliot Harper ’16 said. Despite the handicap of being denied crucial practice time on the water after a long term of winter training, both crews have seen some success. For the first time in two years, the lightweight team was not swept by
Delaware in the first race of the spring season, edging out the Blue Hens in the second varsity race. Over the same weekend, Dar tmouth boats swept Columbia University in the heavyweight season opener. “It’s typically a pretty close race,” Maeder said. “This is the first time that the varsity has beat Columbia in four years.” The heavyweight team followed their win against Columbia with a close series of losses against Yale in all boats, save a win for the fourth varsity. A week later on the Charles River, Dartmouth was swept by Boston University, but by closer margins than last year.
“We’re deeper than we’ve ever been. We’re definitely fitter than we’ve ever been as a team. Winter training was extremely successful.” -Jamie Billings ’16 The team has taken these results and the strong showing they put up against Brown as signs of encouragement, Jamie Billings ’16 said. “We’re deeper than we’ve ever been,” Billings said. “We’re definitely fitter than we’ve ever been as a team. Winter training was extremely successful. The vast majority of our team [made personal records] in both our [2,000-meter] and our [6,000-meter races]. Beyond that, the team is just rowing a more unified stroke than they have in the past.” What’s more, Brown is historically a strong contender in the heavyweight league. The crew took second in the countr y last year and third the year before at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association regatta. In that context, the race against Brown is even more significant. “We were up on them for about
a length for the first 1,500 meters,” Maeder said. “It was one of the better fights the Dartmouth crew has put to the Brown crew in quite some time. Looking for ward it gave us a glimmer of the championship season. If we can hang with Brown for that middle thousand, we can hang with anyone.” After Delaware, the lightweights have taken some tough losses, falling to both Har vard and Columbia in one weekend and to Yale the next. Their race against Yale, though another loss, showed signs of progress, Nick Pugliaresi ’16 said. “We lost by a little over a length,” Pugliaresi said. “It was the best race we’ve had this season so far, though. We made some productive changes and were able to establish a good rhythm for most of the piece.” Though results in dual races — the competitions pitting two or three schools against one another — are important, both teams are focused on the long term. Serious training on the water and a competitive race at Eastern Sprints, followed by the Intercollegiate Rowing Association’s National Championship Regatta — the race that pits the best of the East Coast against West Coast crews — are more important than any win in the weeks prior, Pugliaresi said. “The main goal is to do well at sprints and IRAs,” Billings said. “While we’d like to win our dual races in the next couple weeks, we’re going tr y to hit it hard the next three weeks to prepare for Sprints. We’re definitely in a better position to do well than we have been in the past.” So now, the Big Green crews are tasked with making the most of each and ever y hour on the water to translate the physical gains of winter training into speed on the water. This past Saturday alone, the heavyweight crew team’s two weeks of time on the water had to compete with Brown’s month and a half, Maeder said. “We’ve known that we’re playing catch up,” Maeder said. “Ever yone’s been showing up ever y day with a sense of urgency to catch up to the other crews that have had more time than us.”
SW 3
THE
RUNDOWN Baseball SCHOOL
IVY
OVERALL
COLUMBIA DARTMOUTH PENN CORNELL HARVARD BROWN YALE PRINCETON
16-4 16-4 16-4 9-11 7-13 6-14 6-14 4-16
26-14 20-19 22-14 12-26 18-24 11-28 15-23 7-32
IVY
OVERALL
16-4 13-7 13-7 10-9 8-12 7-13 7-13 5-14
23-16 23-21 22-18 18-24 16-23 13-21 16-28 11-23
Softball SCHOOL
DARTMOUTH HARVARD PENN PRINCETON CORNELL BROWN COLUMBIA YALE
Men’s Lacrosse SCHOOL
IVY
OVERALL
BROWN CORNELL PRINCETON PENN YALE HARVARD DARTMOUTH
4-2 4-2 4-2 3-3 3-3 2-4 1-5
12-3 10-4 8-5 6-7 9-4 7-7 5-8
Women’s Lacrosse SCHOOL
IVY
OVERALL
PRINCETON PENN CORNELL HARVARD DARTMOUTH YALE BROWN COLUMBIA
7-0 6-1 4-3 4-3 3-4 2-5 1-6 1-6
12-3 12-3 9-6 8-7 3-11 7-8 7-8 5-10
Women’s Tennis SCHOOL
IVY
OVERALL
PRINCETON DARTMOUTH BROWN COLUMBIA CORNELL PENN YALE HARVARD
6-1 5-2 4-3 4-3 3-4 3-4 3-4 0-7
12-8 18-5 11-9 12-8 9-9 9-8 9-11 7-12
THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY
SW 4
MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2015
Men’s tennis upsets Harvard, finishes second in Ivy League B y ALEXANDER AGADJANIAN The Dartmouth Staff
For the first time since 1993, the No. 46 men’s tennis team (1410, 5-2) defeated its rival, No. 34 Harvard University Crimson (19-7, 5-2), ending with a score of 4-3 in both schools’ regular season finales on Saturday afternoon and extending the Big Green’s win streak to five. After finishing the season tied with Har vard for second in the Ivy League behind Columbia University, the Big Green finds itself in position to reach another milestone — an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament for the first time in more than 20 years when the field is announced this Tuesday. Playing in chilly temperatures on its outdoor courts, Dartmouth had a groundswell of support behind it to see the final match of the season. Celebrating the careers of Chris Kipouras ’15 and Sam Todd ’15, the crowd made for a raucous atmosphere and urged the Big Green players on throughout the upset victor y. “It’s been an incredible four years with this atmosphere, all these guys supporting us,” Kipouras said. “It helps fuel us to get these victories, to make these moments. They provide something else.” To start against its conference powerhouse opponent — which was vying for its fourth-straight top-two Ivy finish — Dartmouth opened the match on an uncharacteristically positive note. For only the second time in conference play and second time in the last nine contests, the Big Green managed to win the opening doubles point and secure an early advantage. After surging out to a 3-1 lead in their No. 3 match, Ciro Riccardi ’18 and Max Fliegner ’18, the latter of which seeing his first Ivy action, could not sustain their strong start and fell 6-4. Yet the
No. 33 doubles pair of Kipouras and Dovydas Sakinis ’16 ensured the team would stay in contention, eventually pulling away in their No. 1 match to win 6-3. And so, the doubles point came down to the No. 2 match, in which Brendan Tannenbaum ’16 and George Wall ’17 squared off against Crimson senior Denis Nguyen and freshman Grant Solomon. A tight and lengthy affair concluded when Tannenbaum and Wall were finally able to break their opponents’ ser ve and win the match 7-5, granting Dartmouth the key doubles victor y. The Big Green, however, saw its momentum recede when singles action kicked off. The men lost all but one of the six first sets — a 6-4 win by Riccardi in the No. 3 match — to begin its singles play. As the outlook turned more and more bleak, Riccardi continued to be the only Big Green player capturing immediate success. The freshman became the first player on all courts to clinch his match, prevailing in his second set 6-1 to extend Dartmouth’s overall match lead to 2-0. The win marked his third straight in singles play, capping a powerful finish to his first season with the Big Green. Har vard responded with its strongest stretch of the afternoon, as Crimson players powered their way to three consecutive match victories — 6-2, 6-4 in the No. 6 match, 6-4, 6-3 at No. 4 and 7-5, 6-3 at No. 5. The Crimson had cruised ahead to a 3-2 overall match lead, leaving Dartmouth on the brink of a loss that would effectively eliminate its chances of qualifying for the NCAA tournament. Yet, the Big Green’s top two competitors had no plans on ending the year with a loss. After the conclusion of the first four singles matches, the team’s fate rested on the shoulders of Sakinis in the No.
WEIJIA TANG/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
Ciro Riccardi ’18 won his singles match to push Dartmouth’s lead to 2-0. The Big Green held on to win the match 4-3. 1 match and Kipouras, playing his home farewell, in the No. 2 match. After dropping a close first set 6-4, Kipouras kept his opponent, junior Nicky Hu, at a comfortable distance for much of the second set en route to a 6-2 win. The third and decisive set would not start as well for Kipouras, who fell in three straight games and found himself in a 4-1 hole. Kipouras, showing great mettle, fought back to win five straight games to notch the 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 comeback win on senior day. Leveling the overall scoreline at 3-3, Kipouras also grew his streak of singles match victories to six, having only lost one in conference action. Kipouras said Hu was a familiar face in his section, and the Big Green athlete knew he would have to stay even with the Crimson player in rallies if he wanted to stay competitive. “I started to find my legs, find my ground, push him back [and] put him on defense more, and I
WEIJIA TANG/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
With the upset win over Harvard, the Big Green is well-positioned to snag an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
think that’s what helped me get to a third set,” Kipouras said. “Down 4-1, I just tried to focus on one point at a time, not thinking too far ahead, but just making sure [I was] focusing on the present, which was tough with the crowd we had today.” Kipouras’ victor y left the clash at the one spot between No. 54 Sakinis and No. 43 Denis Nguyen as the contest that would determine the victor on Saturday afternoon. Sakinis had to overcome an unusual circumstance for him early on in yielding the first set 7-5, but he bounced back in the ensuing set. After having to fight through a deficit, Sakinis broke his opponent’s ser ve to win 6-4, forcing the match to enter a tense, final set. Sakinis ultimately overwhelmed Nguyen in this grueling set, breaking ser ve twice and willing his way to the precipice of victor y with a 5-1 advantage. While Nguyen did all he could to mount a comeback in grabbing two games late, Sakinis responded by breaking through, holding his ser ve to win the final set 6-2 and top off a dramatic 4-3 comeback victor y for the Big Green. “It was tough, [Nguyen] is a good player, we’ve played a bunch of times [before],” Sakinis said. “I was a down a set… it was a situation where it didn’t look good for the team, but [I] came back. The fans helped for sure, they were just unbelievable. It kind of gave me strength in the end.” While things had once looked dire for the Big Green halfway through the match, head coach Chris Drake said that the players shine in moments when it seems their backs are against the wall. In particular, he spoke to the impressive play shown by Kipouras and Sakinis. “[Kipouras] and [Sakinis] fighting back was really amazing. [Kipouras has] done it so many times here, he’s a resilient kid and
he’s so tough under pressure. He fights back, but then he’s also calm in the key moments and that’s what you need to be in the clutch situations,” he said. “And [Sakinis] has been in that situation before too, and to come back against a really good player and win was a great effort.” After dropping its first two conference matches at home, the Big Green stormed back with tenacity to end on a five-match win streak and salvage its season. Drake noted that this season-long resolve has often been reflected in individual matches, like those on Saturday. “With our backs against the wall, we’re tough, we fight back,” Drake said. “And that was the situation after losing our first two Ivy League matches. We had to stay with it, and I give the guys a lot of credit.” With the end-of-season triumph complete, Dar tmouth will now lie on the fringes of postseason participation in the lead-up to the tournament selection on Tuesday. Currently ranked No. 46 by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, the team has bolstered its resume and is bound to move up in the standings before Tuesday. For a basis of comparison, the Ivy League has sent an at-large team — one in addition to its conference winner who is guaranteed a bid — to the NCAA tournament in two of the last three seasons. Har vard, with a rank of No. 31 in 2014, and Columbia, with a rank of No. 42 in 2012, each grabbed tournament spots. The Big Green should be in close range of a bid. “I think [the win] does [give us a chance], hopefully we’ve earned it,” Drake said about his team’s tour nament chances. “I think it’s going to be close. The guys did ever ything they could to put themselves in that position. We’ll see, it’s not under our control, so we’ll find out.”