The Dartmouth Sports Weekly 04/06/15

4.6. 15

WOMEN’S RUGBY GAINS VARSITY STATUS

MEN’S LACROSSE RUGBY TEAM WILL MAKE LOSES TO YALE SWITCH IN FALL Courtesy of Allison Brouckman; Josh Renaud/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

SW 2

BY THE NUMBERS

8 Strikeouts by Duncan Robinson ’16 against Princeton

13 Goals by Jack Korzelius ’18 this season

29 Seconds into overtime when Jaclyn Leto ’16 scored a gamewinner

26 Consecutive scoreless innings pitched by Kristin Rumley ’15

Women’s rugby to gain varsity status in fall

B y kourtney Kawano The Dartmouth Staff

Nearly 37 years after the Dartmouth Women’s Rugby Club was originally founded, the College will now promote the program to varsity status beginning with the next academic year, athletic director Harry Sheehy announced last week. The decision to elevate women’s rugby will raise the total number of varsity sports at the College to 35, with 17 teams for women, 16 for men and two coed teams.

While the decision may have been an unexpected development for some at the College, the announcement was not too surprising for the women’s rugby team, which began its campaign for varsity status last spring when Allison Brouckman ’15, Michaela Conway ’15, Diana Wise ’15 and Becky Marder ’15 submitted a proposal to the athletics department outlining their interest in seeing the program’s transformation into a varsity sport.

The captains, Brouckman said, felt the time was right for the College to include an additional women’s varsity team in the athletics department because of the lack of a full-contact sport for women at the varsity level, whereas men have three: football, hockey and lacrosse.

The team saw the upgrade as something necessary for continued improvement, Wise added.

“We feel very accomplished with all the work we put in,” Wise said. “It’s great to be a part of the legacy and history of women’s rugby and especially Dartmouth women’s rugby.”

Women’s rugby head coach Debra Archambault ’85, who played on the team during her time at the College, said that if anything about the decision was unexpected it was the timing of the announcement. The team, she said, had just returned from tour the day before Sheehy broke the news.

“It’s exciting, and it’s something that I’ve thought about for over 20 years,” Archambault said. “Women’s rugby has developed to the point where it does make sense to be a varsity program for lots of reasons.”

To format their proposal, the team drew from a petition previously submitted by the team’s 2012 captains, Brouckman said. Three years ago,

Katie McKay ’16 Editor-in-Chief

04. 06. 15

MONDAY, APRIL 6, 2015

Jessica Avitabile ’16 Executive Editor

the rugby team requested varsity recognition from the athletic department, which was ultimately denied. At that time, however, the landscape of college women’s rugby looked very different than it does today.

Before 2012, there were only six schools with recognized varsity women’s rugby programs, although none existed in the Ivy League. The list has since grown to include 14 schools from across the country. In 2013, Harvard University became the first Ivy to add women’s rugby to its list of varsity programs, and Brown University followed in 2014.

With the elevation of the College’s women’s rugby club to varsity status, the Ivy League now requires two more colleges to make the transition in order for the sport to become eligible for recognition as an official Ivy League sport.

“We felt that especially with Brown and Harvard as varsity programs, we needed support from the school to keep our program at a really competitive level,” Brouckman said.

Although the proposal submitted last spring detailed the team’s interest in becoming a varsity sport, it also made references to Title IX in order to explain the ways in which the College was not complying with federal laws.

Under Title IX, colleges are required to meet the requirements in three areas. The first area, which measures participation, includes three criteria. Schools must meet at least one of these critera to determine whether they are in compliance with providing equal participation opportunities for both sexes or risk losing federal funding.

The first part tests for proportionality, which states that an institution’s ratio of female to male full-time students

should be equal to the ratio of female to male athletes.

According to the athletic department’s annual Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act report, female students accounted for 44.9 percent of varsity athletes during the 2013-2014 school year. As of Fall 2014, 49.1 percent of undergraduates are female.

The ratios, Brouckman said, were not significantly different, but enough so that adding another women’s team would help bring them back into balance.

In order to comply with the proportion aspect of Title IX, many institutions drop men’s sports rather than add varsity programs for women. The College, for example, discontinued several varsity sports, including wrestling, gymnastics and fencing.

Donna Lopiano, president of Sports Management Resources, a consulting company that specializing in sports consulting in educational environments, said it is not accurate to say this is an era of expansion for women’s sports opportunities.

“Division I schools are dropping men’s minor sports and not adding women’s sports so we’ve got to get to that point,” Lopiano said. “Rugby is one of the few women’s sports to have such a diverse population and Dartmouth should be applauded for adding it.”

The second criterion for determining if a school is in compliance with Title IX’s participation requirement evaluates the institution’s history and continued practice of expanding athletic programs for the underrepresented sex.

In 1994, the College’s women’s softball and volleyball teams were elevated to varsity status, which created an equal number of male and female

varsity sport programs.

The last aspect of the Title IX participation criteria concerns accommodating the interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex. Title IX also requires schools to meet two other “compliance prongs,” including athletic financial assistance and equal treatment of athletes, in addition to the participation requirement.

“We obviously showed our interest through the proposal,” Brouckman said. “But we wanted to show that we meet not just one but all three prongs of the test and the school agreed.”

In the team’s efforts to achieve varsity recognition, Brouckman and Conway credited senior associate director of athletics for varsity sports Megan Sobel and associate athletic director for club sports and intramurals Joann Brislin as forerunners in aiding the team during the early stages of proposal planning and writing.

“Once we put in the proposal and presented our case, it was out of our hands from then on,” Conway said.

“There were tons of voices who were involved, but ours had been put out there and then we took a step back.”

Sobel said upon receiving the proposal, the athletic administration needed to conduct research to determine if women’s rugby would be a good fit at the varsity level for the College.

“Because it’s such a strong club sport here, we felt confident that they could be successful,” Sobel said. “Rugby is also such a growing sport and our hope is that the other Ivies will add it.”

The athletics department will also conduct a national search for a head coach for the varsity women’s rugby team through senior associate athletics director for varsity sports Wendy Bordeau. Archambault said it follows NCAA regulations to conduct a search

Justin Levine ’16 Publisher

Luke McCann ’16 Executive Editor

Henry Arndt ’16 Joe Clyne ’16 Sports Editors

Julietta Gervase ’16 Photography Editor

KATHY RAO/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Three of the eight Ivy League schools already have more women’s than men’s varsity sports. Dartmouth will become the fourth.

MONDAY, APRIL 6, 2015

for a new coach whenever a program is elevated to varsity status. When women’s volleyball and softball gained full varsity status, two new coaches were hired to replace previous coaches before their opening seasons with Division I NCAA status.

Archambault said she is aware of the search and is happy to compete for the job.

“There are good coaches out there, but I think I am the best person for the job,” Archambault said. “I have really good plans for a varsity team, and I look forward to transitioning our team and helping them make good decisions as they move forward into varsity status.”

With varsity status, Sobel said the rugby team will have access to a budget allocated by the College to aid in the transition along with the rugby team’s friends account to pay for basic equipment, uniforms, traveling and the cost of recruiting.

In last school year’s EADA report, the College reported that 60.3 percent of all athletic-related operating expenses were used by men’s teams, compared to the 39.7 percent used by women’s teams.

Since the announcement last week, the team said they have received an outpouring of support from the athletics department and the student body.

“We have to credit the administrators in the athletic department as well as our coaches, our alumni, club sports and the men’s rugby team,” Brouckman said.

“They’ve all been extremely supportive for the whole year.”

The men’s rugby team is not looking to become a varsity sport because of their satisfaction as a premier club team, Brouckman and Conway said.

“There also isn’t the same push Ivy League-wide or nationwide for men to transition to varsity rugby as we’ve seen on the women’s side,” Conway said.

College women’s rugby itself still has a long way to go before it can remove its classification as an “emerging sport,” which, according to the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics, is defined as a sport “that is intended to help schools provide

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

SW 3

THE

RUNDOWN Baseball

Courtesy of Allison Brouckman

The women’s rugby team gained varsity status, becoming the third Ivy squad to do so.

more athletics opportunities for women, more sport sponsorship options for institutions and help that sport achieve NCAA championship status.”

In order to hold a national championship, however, a minimum of 40 institutions must offer women’s rugby at the varsity level. The upgrade to varsity makes the College the 14th institution with membership in the National Collegiate Varsity Women’s Rugby Association, which includes Eastern Illinois University, Bowdoin College, Quinnipiac University, Notre Dame College and Sacred Heart University.

Colorado College Rugby Football Club head coach and co-founder of VarsityRugby.org, an organization dedicated to providing educational resources for the expansion of interscholastic and intercollegiate rugby, Amy Rusert said collegiate women’s rugby is certainly reaching a tipping point, making it possible for an NCAA Championship in the near future.

“Patience has been a virtue for a lot of us in this process,” Rusert said. “It seems to have had an exponential effect when one program in a particular area adds rugby,

others will be in the process of adding.”

As far as the Ivy League goes, Conway estimates it will take three years before the conference has five institutions with varsity level women’s rugby teams.

“It’s excited to be a forefront of varsity rugby,” Conway said. “That puts us as a leader in helping to shape what NCAA rugby will look like and what Ivy League Championships for rugby will look like.”

In accordance with NCAA regulations, the women’s rugby team’s varsity status will not be put into effect until July 1, which is also when the athletic department will announce the team’s head coach. Until then, the team will look to its spring season and defending its Ivy League title in sevens.

This past weekend, the women competed at a tournament hosted by the University of New Hampshire with two sides of sevens. The A team beat Plymouth State University 28-0, Colby College 45-10 and UNH 27-12, before losing to Norwich University. The rugby team will spend time resting after a tough weekend before travelling to face conference rival Brown University on Saturday.

SCHOOL

IVY

OVERALL

PENN COLUMBIA CORNELL DARTMOUTH HARVARD BROWN YALE PRINCETON

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

12-9 13-10 8-15 5-17 14-13 6-16 8-13 4-19

IVY

OVERALL

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

14-13 8-16 14-15 13-13 8-12 10-17 5-12 8-14

Softball SCHOOL

DARTMOUTH COLUMBIA HARVARD PENN BROWN PRINCETON YALE CORNELL

Men’s Lacrosse SCHOOL

IVY

OVERALL

CORNELL BROWN PRINCETON YALE DARTMOUTH HARVARD PENN

3-1 2-1 2-1 2-2 1-2 1-2 1-3

7-3 8-2 6-3 8-2 3-5 5-5 4-6

Women’s Lacrosse SCHOOL

IVY

OVERALL

PENN PRINCETON CORNELL HARVARD COLUMBIA DARTMOUTH YALE BROWN

3-0 3-0 3-1 3-1 1-3 1-3 1-3 0-4

9-2 8-2 8-3 5-4 4-6 1-9 6-6 5-5

Women’s Tennis

KATHY RAO/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

The number of varsity women’s rugby teams nationwide has more than doubled since 2013 and more than tripled since 2010.

SCHOOL

IVY

OVERALL

PRINCTON CORNELL COLUMBIA BROWN YALE DARTMOUTH HARVARD PENN

3-0 2-0 2-1 1-1 1-1 0-1 0-2 0-3

9-7 8-6 10-6 8-7 7-8 14-4 7-7 6-7

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

SW 4

ONE

ON

ONE

WITH PATRICK CALDWELL ’17

JIN LEE/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Patrick Caldwell ’17 won a national title in the men’s 10K freestyle race.

B y alex carr The Dartmouth Staff

This week, I talked with men’s Nordic skier Patrick Caldwell ’17. Caldwell had a historic winter season which he capped with a national title in the men’s 10K Freestyle race at the NCAA skiing championships, helping the Dartmouth ski team place sixth at the event, an improvement over last year’s finish.

How did you get into skiing?

PC: I grew up skiing with my family.

Skiing was one of the first things we learned how to do. I probably started when I was two or three years old. Every year we’d go on a trip to Quebec to go skiing for Christmas so it was definitely something we grew up doing.

Did you go to a ski academy for high school?

PC: I did for my junior and senior years. I went to Hanover High [School] and then Stratton Mountain School in southern Vermont. A few of my [Dartmouth] teammates went [to Stratton Mountain School] as well.

What is your favorite thing about skiing?

PC: The people you meet while competing. Also, the fact that it’s an individual sport, but you are with a team and that you are always with other people. It is a very social sport in that sense. You’re always with other people.

What was the week of the NCAAs like?

PC: The NCAAs were hosted in [Lake Placid, New York], which is a really unique venue. It is a really historical place because they had the [Winter] Olympics there about 30 or 35 years ago.

It was amazing to be in a place with so much history for cross-country skiing. It was a really fun week. It was also good to see my friends from western schools, like in Alaska and the Midwest. During the week you see really high energy from everyone. It’s always cool to go to the NCAAs because everyone is so fired up to race and compete.

Were you nervous to compete that week?

PC: It was a definitely a higher stress week for sure. Any championship week is intense in that way. There is a bigger pressure to do well because you are contributing to a team score. It is a good kind of nervous because everyone is really excited as well.

What are your highlights from this past season?

PC: Definitely the NCAAs. One of my biggest goals was to do well in that race. U.S. Nationals in January would be my second highlight. I had my first podium at Nationals, which qualified me for [the U23 Championships] in February, which would be my third highlight. Those are my three highlights from this past season.

How do you think that Dartmouth skiing can improve upon its already impressive record in future season?

PC: As a whole, the NCAAs is a really challenging week because it takes a lot to have a high caliber team effort because there are so many different variables going on. We maybe had a little bit of bad luck during the week, but overall we performed well and better than people expected us to do. I think we need to keep doing what we’re doing, and if it all comes together at the right time, we should have successful future seasons.

MONDAY, APRIL 6, 2015

Men’s lacrosse falls to No. 11 Yale

B y EMILY WECHSLER The Dartmouth Staff

The men’s lacrosse team dropped its match Saturday at Yale University’s Reese Stadium, falling to the No. 11 Bulldogs 10-4. The loss brings the Big Green’s total record to 3-5, with the team 1-2 in the Ivy League after an overtime win against Harvard University on March 21 and an 8-2 loss last weekend against Cornell University. Between the two Ivy games, the Big Green secured a 16-15 win over the University of Vermont on March 24. .

The men have a new-found confidence in their abilities under first-year head coach Brendan Callahan and headed into the match undeterred

by Yale’s top-15 ranking, coaches and players said.

“We believe that we deserved to be on the field with those guys, but we didn’t make enough plays in the game to get a win,” Callahan said.

Despite the team’s confidence in their own abilities against the Bulldogs, the team came out flat in the first quarter, showing less of the energy that has earned them early goals in other games.

The Big Green ended the first quarter without a tally on the board and behind by four. Trends from previous games show that when the Big Green men don’t score early, they are less likely to win. The quarter ended 4-0 in Yale’s favor.

In the second quarter, the men got on the board with an unassisted goal from Wiley Osborne ’17. Yale managed to find the back of Dartmouth’s net twice more and go up 6-1 before Evan Key ’18 put one away off an Osborne assist.

“We didn’t make enough plays early in the game, and that just kind of put us in a hole,” Osborne said.

The third period saw the Big Green tally its final two goals of the match, though the team took only four shots.

In the same time, the Bulldogs outshot the Big Green by seven attempts, scoring four additional goals before the period ended. Osborne notched a second goal with an assist from KC Beard ’16 before collecting his own assist on a goal from Cam Lee ’16. Osborne extended his lead as the top point-scorer for the Big Green by notching his 21st point of the season, well in front of Jack Korzelius ’18, whose 13 points this season place him in second overall. All 13 of Korzelius’ points come from goals, compared to Osborne’s nine goals and 12 assists.

Osborne is third overall in goals, led by Korzelius and Adam Fishman ’15, with 13 and 10 respectively..

“Right after the half it felt like we were getting to make a run, but they sort of answered right back and scored on the next possession and started to put the game out of reach,” Callahan said.

“That’s what good teams do. Every time we had a push, they had an answer for us.”

The fourth quarter saw action around the cages — 12 shots total — but

JOSH RENAUD/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Dartmouth fell to the nationally-ranked Yale University on Saturday on the road.

no goals for either team. Both goalkeepers, the Big Green’s Blair Friedensohn ’16 and senior Eric Natale for Yale, ended the game with 10 saves.

“I don’t think anyone on the team is satisfied,” Osborne said. “We all still think we could beat them if we played the kind of game that we wanted to play.”

The 10-4 loss doesn’t look good, but it seems players and coaches are solid in their belief that they can reach the top four in the Ivies.

“I think the confidence level is still high,” Osborne said. “We’re 1-2 in the Ivy League, we’re right there with a bunch of teams. With three games left, if we can come out and play the kind of game that we do want to play in our next three games, I think we’re going to be in a really good position.”

There were some good spots of play for the Big Green. Bobby Osgood ’15, a long-stick midfielder, had a strong game against Yale, according to coaches and teammates, helping the team in transition and making impressive interceptions. Friedensohn played particularly well in the second half and continued to be a key to the defense, and Osborne stood out as a contributor by scoring or assisting on all four goals.

Aside from the score, the men’s stats put them nearly even with Yale.

One of the Big Green’s primary focuses this year has been winning the 50-50 situations that are ground balls.

The team tries to win this area each game, players said. Yesterday they managed to do so, collecting 25 ground balls to Yale’s 20. The Big Green also controlled nine of 17 faceoffs and took 28 shots to Yale’s 31. “[The Bulldogs] were able to turn those shots and ground balls into goals, and we struggled to do that,” Osborne said, “We want to keep working to outgroundball every team, out-compete them, but right now it’s got to be all about the details so we can actually turn those ground balls and possessions into

goals.”

The men had just three more turnovers than Yale and converted on most of their clears, only failing to convert two of their total 19.

This means the team will likely focus this week on their “systems,” which were not quite together in the Yale game.

With a shooting percentage at just 14.3 percent, Osborne said the team is likely to spend some time with their skills in that area. Yet the team was earning good looks at the cage, and doesn’t need to grossly overhaul its ideas.

The team will also likely run some faster practices to combat the slow start it had against Yale, Jack Connolly ’16 said.

“I think now we’ve gotten to the point with our mentality and all the other things we need to do to compete in a game, we’ve done those things now, so I think now it comes down to execution of our systems, execution in our shooting, in our fundamentals,” Callahan said.

“Now, when we’re playing good teams in the league week after week we have to… focus in on all the details of what it takes to get better.”

The team will also likely discuss their man-up and man-down play. Particularly on the man down, the Big Green has been strong this season, so going one-for-four when up and allowing Yale to go three-for-four with the advantage is a step backwards for the team.

“I’m feeling mixed emotions about it,” Connolly said. “We came out flat and started slow against a really good team and definitely didn’t execute well enough in our systems to beat a team of that caliber. But at the same time, I think everyone on our team and in the program believes that we took huge steps forward in our belief as a program that we can compete with a team like that, so I think we’ll be even more ready for Princeton [University] next week.”

The men will return home to ScullyFahey Field to face Princeton Saturday at 1 p.m.