The Dartmouth Sports Weekly 02/24/15

2.23. 15

MEN’S BASKETBALL SPLITS HOME PAIR

MEN’S HOCKEY GOES WOMEN’S HOCKEY DROPS 1-1 ON THE ROAD LAST HOME GAMES ELIZA MCDONOUGH, WEIJA TANG, ANNIE DUNCAN, ALISON GUH/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

SW 2

BY THE NUMBERS

4 Goals in women’s hockey’s senior day loss to St. Lawrence

10

Goals deficit for men’s lacrosse in loss to Ohio State

7 Goals for Jaclyn Leto ’16 in women’s lacrosse’s loss to UConn

10

Wins and no losses for the women’s tennis team

Men’s basketball loses to Princeton, beats Penn B y RAY LU

The Dartmouth Staff

The Big Green men’s basketball team went 1-1 in the last week of its two-week home stand, dropping to Princeton University on Friday 63-56 before avenging a loss to the University of Pennsylvania earlier this season with a victory of 67-62 on Saturday.

Traditionally, the PrincetonPenn weekends have been tough on the Big Green (10-14, 3-7 Ivy). The Tigers (12-13, 5-4 Ivy) now hold a lifetime 147-62 record, while the Quakers (7-16, 2-7 Ivy) dropped to 150-59.

Earlier in the season, the Big Green faced both teams on the road, taking tough losses to Penn 58-51 and to Princeton 64-53. The defeats sparked the beginning of a five-game losing streak for the Big Green, who had not lost or won more than two consecutive games at that point in their season.

While Princeton never trailed in the first contest, Dartmouth maintained a lead throughout the entirety of the first half of this matchup. After co-captain Gabas Maldunas ’15 put the Big Green on the board 11 seconds into the game, the Tigers would remain at a disadvantage before their rally midway through the second.

Dartmouth opened the game strong against the Tigers, leading by as much as nine before going cold in the second half, which saw the team shoot 34.6 percentage from the field.

Princeton missed its first eight shots from the field, giving Dartmouth a 9-0 lead six minutes into the game. Wilson broke the drought with a three, but Wright quickly responded with a deep ball of his own.

The two teams traded baskets from then on. Princeton began to mount a comeback with seven minutes to go in the half. A three by senior Ben Hazel, who drained four triples in the teams’ last matchup, cut Dartmouth’s lead to 20-19. The Big Green responded with some big baskets, including a jumper from Maldunas and a three from

Katie McKay ’16 Editor-in-Chief

02.23.15

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015

Luke McCann ’16 Executive Editor

Mitola. Dartmouth entered the second half with a 32-27 lead.

As Dartmouth’s lead began to slip in the second half, Maldunas hit a jumper with 9:44 to go, putting the team ahead 47-45.Tigers senior Clay Wilson responded with a three, and the Big Green would never regain the advantage.

Including the triple, Princeton mounted an 11-2 run over the next seven minutes by taking advantage of Dartmouth’s cold shooting.

During the run, the Big Green went 0-for-3 from the line and 1-for-9 from the field, including a miss on a contested breakaway dunk by Wright. “[Princeton’s] a three-point shooting team, so when you’re a three-point shooting team, you rely on runs,” Mitola said. “In the first they were a little cold, but in the second half they got hot and that spaced out the floor for them, and then that was a big reason as to why they were able to come back.”

Two of three free throws from co-captain Alex Mitola ’16 made the basket and brought the deficit to 56-51 with 1:45 to go, but a corner three from Princeton sophomore Steven Cook served as the dagger. Princeton went on to hit 4-for-7 from the line and sealed the game.

Wright, who was just the second Dartmouth men’s basketball player to be named Ivy League Rookie of the Week for two consecutive weeks, had nine of his game-high 16 points in the first half. After reaching the 1,000-point milestone last weekend, Maldunas matched Wright with 16 points and also tacked on seven boards and five assists, leading both teams.

Princeton had four players in double digits, including freshman Amir Bell with 12 and Wilson with 11. Cook and sophomore Spencer

Weisz — Princeton’s leading scorer on the season with 12 points per game — had 10 points each.

“Princeton missed a couple of open looks early in the game, so we opened up with a 9-to-0 lead,” Maldunas said. “They didn’t change anything. They just kept playing together, and at the end of the game they started making those shots that they were missing in the first half. Once they started hitting those, we weren’t able to bounce back up again. On the other end, the shots that we were hitting in the first half we weren’t hitting in the second half. If you’re not going to hit shots, you’re not going to win.”

Against the Quakers, the two teams were largely matched in the first half, with five ties and no team taking larger than a fourpoint lead. Mitola hit the game’s opening basket — a three — on a night when he seemed unable to miss.

The point guard led all scorers with 18 points, including four baskets from downtown. The offensive output was much needed, and it was Mitola’s highest scoring game since the matchup against Harvard on Jan. 24.

“That’s just kind of the game of basketball,” Mitola said. “Some nights you shoot better than other nights, and we haven’t been having a great year on offense.”

The Big Green led 29-28 going into the second half and started off strong after the intermission.

After Maldunas scored an opening layup, Mitola rattled off eight unanswered points on his own, including two triples.

The Quakers held their ground and responded with a 16-4 run over the next five minutes. Freshman Mike Auger sparked the momentum with a drive to the basket for an

and-one. The Quakers also tacked on four deep balls, including two by freshman Sam Jones.

Penn took its largest lead of the game thus far, 51-46, when Antonio Woods was fouled on a layup and sank the accompanying free throw.

With under four minutes to go, the Big Green still trailed the visitors 57-56. This time around, however, Dartmouth would recover.

Tommy Carpenter ’16 and Mitola combined for a 9-2 run, putting Dartmouth ahead for good.

Carpenter had a career night with 13 points and five assists.

Maldunas chipped in 12 points and seven boards, and Connor Boehm ’16 had 10 points. Wright had his lowest scoring output — two points on 1-for-4 shooting — since the first game against Penn on Jan. 30 when he played 11 minutes and scored just one point.

“In the second half it was Tommy Carpenter,” Maldunas said. “He played really well. Down the stretch he made a couple of big plays, some and-one buckets, and I feel like the Penn defense started honoring that a little more, and that opened up the space for [Mitola], [Boehm] and myself or [Gill].

His contribution was real big in that game, because he made those couple of big plays that might not seem as big during the game but it really opens up a lot.”

Darien Nelson-Henry led the young Quakers squad with 12 points. Woods had 11 points and six dimes, and Camryn Crocker added 10 points.

The men’s basketball team gets back on the road next weekend, with games against Columbia University on Friday in and Cornell University on Saturday. A time change pushed the first game back to 8 p.m., and the second game will tip off at 6 p.m.

Justin Levine ’16 Publisher

Jessica Avitabile ’16 Executive Editor

Henry Arndt ’16 Katie Jarrett ’16 Sports Editors

Natalie Cantave ’16 Photography Editor

FAITH ROTICH/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

The men’s basketball team fell to Princeton University on Friday night but bounced back with a win over the University of Pennsylvania.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

Men’s hockey splits pair of road games

SW 3

THE

RUNDOWN Men’s Basketball SCHOOL

IVY

OVERALL

HARVARD YALE PRINCETON COLUMBIA CORNELL BROWN DARTMOUTH PENN

9-1 8-2 5-4 5-5 4-6 3-7 3-7 2-7

19-5 19-8 12-13 13-11 12-14 12-15 10-14 7-16

Women’s Basketball

ELIZA MCDONOUGH/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

In its penultimate regular season weekend, the men picked up some critical points and now sit one point out of fourth in the ECAC.

B y GAYNE KALUSTIAN The Dartmouth Staff

Personally, I find the game-winning goal statistic to be over-hyped. Players collect them here and there, sometimes coincidentally in the middle of the game or right after the puck drops if their team’s defense is good enough.

On Friday night, though, team point leader and alternate captain Eric Neiley ’15 put a game-winner top shelf against Clarkson University for the 3-2 victory that represented everything a gamewinning goal is supposed to — nicked off a perfect pass, under pressure in overtime, with nothing accidental or incidental about it. The overtime goal — just over a minute into the period — was the first of his collegiate career.

“The defenseman won a battle in the D zone and got the puck up to [Grant Opperman ’17] on the wing who gave it across ice to [Brandon McNally ’15], and we went down three-on-two,” Neiley said. “[Opperman and I] both drove the net hard. It really was the perfect pass right off my stick — I just redirected it.”

Dartmouth’s game against Clarkson went scoreless for nearly 30 minutes and was finally cracked open by Carl Hesler ’18, who collected his second goal of the season in what Opperman described as “a great individual play.”

“I remember him having the puck below the goal line and then starting to walk up the half wall,” Opperman said. “He cut back on the [defenseman] and absolutely just burnt him. As soon as Hesler realized he had [the defenseman] beat he took it right to the net,

which was the right play.”

Jesse Beamish ’15, who has been quietly working himself into the fabric of Dartmouth’s offensive strength, netted the second goal of the game. Beamish was scratched from the lineup from Jan. 24 through Feb. 7 and was reintroduced to the ice against Yale University. Since then, he has collected five points on three goals and two assists. Beamish, Neiley said, is a critical element to the team’s recent offensive success.

“It’s good to see whenever someone — especially a senior — is not playing, and you know he will come back with a little extra fire,” Neiley said. “To see him produce and help the team, that’s part of the reason why we’ve been so successful recently because guys like him, guys like Nick Bligh [’16], who weren’t playing have been really contributing offensively. That’s huge to get guys like that who have been in and out of the line up and have that extra motivation. That’s how you’re going to get the best out of them.”

Dartmouth, whose penalty kill percentage is just over 79, gave up two goals on Clarkson’s only two power plays of the game, both set in motion by two uncharacteristic penalties for defenseman Tim Shoup ’18. After playing in 23 of the team’s 27 games this season as a freshman, Shoup has only taken six total penalties and amassed a +8 rating, second only in the pool of defenseman to Rick Pinkston ’15 with +11. Pinkston became a standout for Dartmouth against St. Lawrence University on Saturday night after netting the team’s first two goals — one of them unassisted.

“It’s nice to get that production from the back end,” alternate captain Eric Robinson ’14 said. “I think the past 10 games or so we’ve been getting production from just about everyone, including first, second, third [and] fourth lines and also defensemen. It’s good to get everyone on the same page.”

Ultimately, St. Lawrence got the best of Dartmouth, catapulted ahead of the Big Green by a four-goal third period.

The teams entered the third separated by a single goal, and Robinson felt the team had chances to win the game.

The final goal came on an empty net, vacated with over three minutes left to give Dartmouth a six-on-four power play. The Saints, Opperman said, outworked the Big Green.

“They were pretty opportunistic,” he said. “It felt like the chances they got they scored on. We did not have our A-game and that’s for sure. You might see them in playoffs, and I’m not afraid of that match up. I think if we bring our game, it’s a whole different game.”

The season is coming down to the wire for Dartmouth, who stands just one point out of fourth place in the ECAC, currently held in a tie by No. 23 Colgate and No. 14 Harvard University. Colgate has the challenge of facing off with third place and No. 15 Yale University in the closing weekend of the regular season, while Harvard and Dartmouth both will have to take on the top of the ECAC and No. 10 Quinnipiac University. Dartmouth will first face off against Princeton University, ranked in the bottom position of the ECAC, at home on Friday night at 7 p.m.

SCHOOL

IVY

OVERALL

PRINCETON PENN CORNELL YALE BROWN HARVARD DARTMOUTH COLUMBIA

9-0 7-2 6-4 6-4 4-6 3-7 2-8 2-8

25-0 16-7 15-9 12-12 10-14 10-14 11-13 8-16

Men’s Hockey SCHOOL

ECAC

OVERALL

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

15-2-3 14-5-1 11-6-3 10-7-3 10-7-3 10-8-2 9-8-3 8-10-2 7-12-1 6-13-1 5-13-2 2-16-2

20-8-4 18-11-3 16-7-4 18-11-3 14-9-3 13-10-4 11-11-5 11-17-4 9-23-2 14-16-2 8-17-2 4-19-3

Women’s Hockey SCHOOL

ECAC

OVERALL

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

16-4-2 16-4-2 15-5-2 14-6-2 13-5-4 13-8-1 9-11-2 9-11-2 5-16-1 4-16-2 1-16-5 2-19-1

22-9-3 21-5-3 24-7-3 16-10-5 19-10-5 15-12-2 15-13-1 13-13-2 7-23-2 7-25-2 4-22-8 5-23-1

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

SW 4

ONE

ON

ONE

WITH MILES WRIGHT ’18

WEIJIA TANG/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Miles Wright ’18 has emerged as one of Dartmouth’s strongest offensive threats.

B y LILY GORDON The Dartmouth Staff

ing at some point in time so you need a great education to fall back on.

This week, I sat down with men’s basketball’s Miles Wright ’18. This season, Wright became the second Big Green player to be named Ivy League Rookie of the Week for two consecutive weeks, while also earning the accolade of Northeast Credit Union Athlete of the Week this past week.

What’s been your favorite part about playing here?

MW: My teammates. It’s the first time that I’ve been on a team where everyone is so skilled. There’s not one guy on our team that can’t play. It makes practices more fun. It makes games more fun.

How did you first get into basketball?

MW: As soon as I was born — it was about the first thing that I remember.

I’ve been playing since I was about four years old. My dad just put the ball in my hands, and I’ve been dribbling ever since.

What’s been the biggest transition between high school and college level ball?

MW; The biggest difference is probably just size. I’ve played against some bigger guys in my career, but now at this level everyone is generally bigger and stronger and faster. It’s tougher, and you have to learn to score in different ways.

What has been your favorite part about the sport?

MW: My favorite part about basketball is that all you need is a ball and hoop. You don’t really need anything else to go out and play. With a lot of other sports you need equipment and all that, but all you need in basketball is a ball and a hoop.

How specifically have you tried to change your game this season?

MW: As an individual I’ve just been working on my skill set. In high school you can make it off your athleticism, but now in college you really need to have skill as well in order to have success.

Did you play any other sports growing up?

MW: I played baseball for a little bit, then I played football up until senior year of high school. I enjoyed playing both, but I’m definitely glad I stuck with basketball as my main sport.

What has the team been working on collectively to improve?

MW: Our team’s been working on togetherness. Our coach is really big on playing as a team, not as individuals. So for the last six games of the season we are really trying to come together as a team for six wins.

Did anyone else in your family play college basketball?

MW: One of my great uncles played basketball back in the ‘50s of ‘60s, but other than that my family has a lot of college football players.

What ultimately made you choose Dartmouth?

MW: Dartmouth has a great education that you really can’t beat. At the end of the day, the ball is going to stop bounc-

Aside from basketball, how do you like to spend your time at Dartmouth?

MW: Usually when I’m not in the gym or doing something basketball-related, I’m working on homework. I’ve met a lot of cool and interesting people here that I wouldn’t have otherwise met. So that’s definitely been the most enjoyable part about being here at Dartmouth,.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015

Women’s hockey drops last home games B y HALEY GORDON The Dartmouth Staff

In the last week of the regular season, the women’s hockey team lost against Eastern Coast Atlantic Conference No. 1 Clarkson University and ECAC No. 4 St. Lawrence University in Thompson Arena. The two-loss weekend left Dartmouth ranked eight in the 2015 ECAC Women’s Hockey Championship this weekend. As the lowest seed, Dartmouth will rematch top seed Clarkson in the first round of the tournament.

“It’s unfortunate that we couldn’t come out with a couple points, but I think we had a good weekend as a team,” Laura Stacey ’16 said.

On Friday night, the women’s ice hockey team fell to Clarkson 2-1 in overtime.

In the first period, Kennedy Ottenbreit ’17 got Dartmouth on the scoreboard with a one-timer from the top of the face-off circle on the power play. Posted up on the blue line, Stacey dished a soft pass to Ottenbreit, who the ripped a slap shot pass the Clarkson goalie. The Big Green held onto the 1-0 lead for the first two periods.

Dartmouth had a chance to lengthen its lead with a few scoring chances in the second, including a shot that Karlee Odland ’15 took directly in front of the net that went just wide of the goal. Clarkson enjoyed a 26-13 shot advantage over the Big Green across the first two periods. Dartmouth goalie Robyn Chemago ’17 showcased play that could keep Dartmouth in the game against any team in the ECAC Championship, making 40 saves over the course of the night.

With just under six minutes left in the third, Clarkson finally broke

the offensive seal, taking advantage of a checking penalty against Dartmouth. It took a man advantage and a redirected slap shot from the point to finally beat Chemago and even the score at 1-1.

Neither team was able to score again in the third, and the game headed to overtime. With a minute left in the extra time, Clarkson entered the offensive zone on an odd-man rush. After some confusion in front of the net, Clarkson center Genevieve Bannon was able to knock in a rebound past Chemago, giving Clarkson the win.

On Saturday, Dartmouth took the ice to face St. Lawrence in the final home game of the regular season, which also aligned with the team’s senior day.

In honor of senior day, Gianna Guarino ’15 got her first collegiate start and spent 24 minutes of the game between the pipes.

“Having [Guarino] in the net was a big deal,” Lindsey Allen ’16 said. “We just knew we had to stay confident and back her up.”

In the opening 20 seconds, Karlee Odland ’15 intercepted a Saints’ pass in the neutral zone, handled the puck in the slot and sent it past the St. Lawrence goalie for an early unassisted goal. With six minutes left in the first, St. Lawrence evened the score up at 1-1.

“We wanted to come out with a bang and play for our seniors,” Allen said. “And that’s what happened with [Odland’s] goal.”

The St. Lawrence offense exploded in the second period. In just seven minutes, the Saints scored three goals, building a 4-1 lead over the Big Green.

In the last minute of the second period, Dartmouth was able to generate some momentum to take

them into the second intermission.

Devon Moir ’17 stole the puck from a fallen St. Lawrence defender and made a quick centering pass to Catherine Berghuis ’16, who charged into an open slot. Berghuis got off a quick low shot and scored, cutting St. Lawrence’s lead to two goals. Chemago was able to shut down the pressuring Saints’ offense in the final seconds of the period.

Despite falling behind by three, the Big Green never lost faith in its offense and fought back to tie the game. In the third period, Dartmouth matched its open to the game, scoring in the first 20 seconds.

Ottenbreit controlled a bouncing pass in the slot, spun around and whipped a shot into the bottom right corner of the Saints’ net.

With 12 minutes left to play Allen scored the equalizer for Dartmouth.

Stacy took the puck up the right side, making it to goal and getting off a hard shot that hit the goalie’s pads, which set up a rebound that Allen jammed into the top right corner of the net, tying the game at 4-4.

The tie lasted until the final four minutes of the game. Jenna Marks regained the lead for the Saints after knocking the puck off Chemago’s glove and into the net.

The Big Green tried to fight back by using an extra offensive player, but with a little over a minute left to play, the Saints iced the game with an empty net goal.

Next weekend marks the beginning of the ECAC tournament, and the Big Green will head to New York to face Clarkson in the quarterfinals. Dartmouth has played and lost to Clarkson twice this season.

Chemago said that the team is ready to “do some damage” against its highly ranked opponent.

ANNIE DUNCAN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

The women’s hockey team, No. 8 in the ECAC, lost to Clarkson and St. Lawrence Universities this weekend.