The Dartmouth Sports Weekly 01/04/16

01.04.16

HOCKEY DOMINATES LEDYARD CLASSIC

RUGGERS NAMED TO ALL-STAR CAMP

TRACK AND FIELD SETS MEET RECORDS

ROLAND ’16 HITS 1,000 CAREER POINTS TIFFANY ZHAI, KELSEY KITTELSEN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

SW 2

BY THE NUMBERS

1011 Career points for Lakin Roland ’16

3 Meet records set by women’s track on Dec. 12

4 Dartmouth women’s rugby NASC players

1 Goal allowed by Devin Buffalo ’18 in his first career start

01. 04. 15

MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2016

Women’s basketball ends non-conference play B y Alexander Agadjanian The Dartmouth Staff

On the back of a significant improvement in the 2014-15 season — including a nine-win increase and avoiding a losing season for the first time in six years —t he women’s basketball team entered their current campaign with an optimistic outlook.

Preseason and out-of-conference bouts, however, put a damper on those prospects so far, as Dartmouth has gone 5-11 and lost by an average scoring margin of 6.2 points per game. Nevertheless, with a key Ivy League opener at home against Harvard University looming on Saturday, the true defining point for the Big Green in the 2015-16 season begins once the conference games do.

“I think we’ve been preparing for the Ivy League since we started playing games,” forward Lakin Roland ‘16 said as her team inches closer to the greater challenges of the season.

“All the games that we played, starting with Drexel [University], that was [all preparation].”

To commence the new season, Dartmouth participated in the preseason Women’s National Invitation Tournament, playing against Drexel University in its first game. After trailing only 12-9 after the first quarter, the Dragons began to pull away thereafter and an eight-point fourth quarter advantage wasn’t nearly enough as the Big Green fell 69-53.

Head coach Belle Koclanes felt that the game against Drexel, along with ones against later WNIT opponents, benefited the team in terms of the tough competition and diverse styles of play it faced. The Ivy League does not hold a postseason tournament, Koclanes said. She noted that this made the experience of partaking in tourneystyle basketball before the season even more worthwhile.

A few days later, the team returned to Hanover for the home opener to face the University of New Hampshire.

Extending its lead in each of the first three quarters and staying on the top side of the scoreboard for all but three minutes and 26 seconds of the total 40 minutes of play, Dartmouth faltered in the final quarter, as the visitors closed the final seven minutes of the game on

Rebecca Asoulin ’17 Editor-in-Chief

Rachel DeChiara ’17 Publisher

Annie Ma ’17 Executive Editor

Maya Poddar ’17 Executive Editor

Gayne Kalustian ’17 Ray Lu ’18 Sports Editors Eliza McDonough ’18 Tiffany Zhai ’18 Photography Editors

BLAZE JOEL/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Dartmouth women’s basketball goes into Ivy play this weekend after seven weeks of competition.

a 18-7 run to edge out a 61-57 win.

A return to WNIT play in the consolation bracket brought two more losses, but the Big Green snapped the losing streak after returning home to face Boston University. Springing out to a 29-10 lead after just a quarter of play, Dartmouth never looked back after its opening surge en route to a 72-52 win.

The team enjoyed several sources of offensive production, as Roland, guard Kate Letkewicz ’18, and center Olivia Smith ’18 fueled the strong start all finished with at least 12 points,. Letkewicz, in particular, caught fire from deep, draining four of seven three-point attempts.

The sophomore has represented the team’s most potent deep ball threat, leading the squad in total three’s by a wide margin and averaging just about two made per game. Moreover, Letkewicz has undertaken a greater offensive workload, seeing a 2.7 to 10.1 points per game jump from her freshman year and leading the team in 36.4 minutes played per game, an increased responsibility she has thus far fulfilled well.

“Personally, [my offensive role] definitely changed [from last year],” Letkewicz said. “Coach Belle kind of gave me the green light to score more.

Last year we lost [Milica Toskovic ’15] and Tia [Dawson ’15], and they both had an offensive presence. So my role has definitely changed, I’m looking to score more.”

Roland, on the other hand, has been an offensive mainstay in her role as senior leader, topping the team in points per game (14.4) and rebounds per game (8.0), as well as posting the sharpest field goal percentage (.391) among players with responsibilities both inside and outside of the paint.

Yet just as the team found some footing in the new season, it proceeded to drop four consecutive games. The tail

end of that stretch marked the only competitive contest. After leading for a good majority of the day, Dartmouth let victory slip out of its hands in losing to Vermont 56-54 in devastating fashion. Further inundating the Big Green under .500, the loss, however, did not deter the team from finishing the preseason on a high note—namely, going 4-3 over the last seven games. In a low-scoring, tight affair at University of Hartford, Dartmouth followed doubledigit scoring efforts from seniors Roland and center Daisy Jordan ’16 to edge out a 43-36 victory.

A few games later, the team returned to its home Leede Arena to face a onewin Niagara University team. Needing to stave off a few opposing runs and buoyed by a .460 team-wide shooting percentage — far exceeding the team’s .364 mark for the year — the Big Green managed to pull away in the final quarter to secure a 60-47 win.

Notably, junior guard Fanni Szabo ’17 — who has experienced a dropoff in offensive production from the previous season — led the team with 15 points on an efficient .500 shooting, with both marks well above her season average.

Koclanes noted that the junior actually started the season playing for the Hungarian national team — causing her to miss the two early season games — and has been hampered as of late by a nagging foot injury. Koclanes, however, said she expects Szabo to be ready and in full form as the begins the Ivy League season.

In the three contests that followed, the team nabbed two more victories, making for a 3-1 closure to the preseason. Though the team fell behind early in the first quarter to the college of the Holy Cross, a strong third quarter effort that saw a nine-point swing Dartmouth’s way ensured a 60-54

win, driven by a strong 36-22 rebound margin and Roland’s season-high 24 points.

Against the New Jersey Institute of Technology on New Year’s Eve, the Big Green possessed as much as a 17-point lead at one point, which was cut to four with 27 seconds left, before the team closed out a 46-39 victory.

“Something that we definitely do when we’re winning is we’re playing really well as a team and everyone contributes, everyone sees shots,” Letkewicz said when discussing what has characterized her team’s successes this season. “[When] everyone’s contributing whether they’re on the bench or on the floor is when we get wins.”

Among the three losses during this stronger stretch of the season for the team, all were close games with two being four-point losses. There was one understandable exception — a 94-52 loss to the University of Louisville, a powerhouse in women’s college basketball in recent years. The loss came despite the Big Green playing the Cardinals close early on in the game.

With its preseason schedule wrapped up, Dartmouth will now enter the Ivy League season head on in welcoming conference rival Harvard to Hanover this Saturday night. The Big Green will likely not forget the way this matchup unfolded last year, when after leading the Crimson for the first 39 of 40 minutes of play, the visitors rattled off a 12-2 run in the final one and a half minutes to stunningly defeat Dartmouth 75-69. The loss seemingly exacted an additional toll on the team, as the Big Green lost five straight Ivy games thereafter.

Koclanes said that a game like that is one both coaches and players never forget, and indicated it would provide extra motivation to start the conference season with success.

MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2016

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

Men’s hockey wins Ledyard Classic B y ASHLEY DUPUIS The Dartmouth Staff

The Big Green won the 27th Annual Ledyard Classic on Sunday night when the team defeated No. 20 Merrimack College 3-0.

The champion of the 27th Ledyard Classic was determined by point differentials after Union College and Dartmouth both finished the tournament 2-0. The Big Green claimed the tournament title for the first time since 2008 with a point differential of 7 to Union’s 2.

Against Merrimack, Grant Opperman ’17 gave the Big Green its first goal with six minutes left of the first period, which was preceded by a big save from goalkeeper Charles Grant ’16. Dartmouth couldn’t convert its first power play 13 minutes into the game, but with less than a minute left in the first period Brett Patterson ’16 was able to score off of Dartmouth’s second power play of the night. As time ran out, Merrimack attempted a last second shot only to be stopped by Grant.

Dartmouth continued their strong play in the second period. With twelve minutes left in the second, Grant made a big save as the puck rested on the Big Green goal line. Nick Bligh ’16 made Dartmouth’s final goal of the night shortly later.

Merrimack received its first power play of the night after Troy Crema ’17 went to the penalty box for roughing late in the period, but the Warriors were not able to find the net. Neither team scored in the third period.

After a two game losing streak on the road, the team rallied to defeat Robert Morris University in a 5-1 victory in the first game of the 27th Annual Ledyard Classic on Saturday.

“We had a tough road stretch at the end of 2015,” head coach Bob Gaudet said. “That schedule was brutal, so it was nice to come home to start the second half and come out playing really well in front of our fans.”

The Big Green held the Colonials to 18 shots, 17 below their season average. Robert Morris came into the game as the top ranked power play team in the nation but was held to 0-2 in man advantage situations.

Captain Brad Schierhorn ’16 followed a successful penalty kill when he netted his first goal of the season at 8:17 in the third period, putting the Big Green up 3-1.

Schierhorn cited the moment as a turning point.

“Our penalty kill was solid all night, so for us to get a goal right after a good kill felt like it might have been deflating for [Robert Morris],” he said.

Goalkeeper Grant and forwards Schierhorn and Bligh earned all tournament recognition. Bligh also picked up MVP honors, and Grant received special recognition as the first goalkeeper of the tournament to achieve a shutout game since 2011.

Throughout the entire tournament, Grant allowed just one point.

“We got back to our fundamentals,” Bligh said of Dartmouth’s tournament performance, adding that the break before the Ledyard Classic was helpful after being on the road.

Prior to the Ledyard Classic Dart-

mouth’s men’s hockey team took on a challenging interim schedule, facing four nationally ranked teams.

For the second consecutive year, the team kicked off their season against Harvard University, now No. 7. Despite a home match-up, the Big Green could not match the success of last years initial meeting with the Crimson, falling 0-7 on Oct. 31 and 2-5 in a following away match-up on Nov. 1.

The team sits at an overall record of 5-7-1 for interim. Despite a losing record, the Big Green scored league victories over Brown University and Princeton University, leaving them with a conference record of 2-3.

Dartmouth also tied No. 10 University of Michigan — then ranked No. 12 — 1-1. The tie came after a 0-7 loss to Michigan the day before.

The second Michigan meeting proved to be a showcase of goalkeeper Devin Buffalo ’18’s talent. Buffalo made a great impact in his first career start for the Dartmouth men’s hockey team, making a total of 37 saves. The Wolverines stayed in the game by outshooting the Big Green 38-36, despite Dartmouth’s 18 shot offensive kick in the third period. Michigan ultimately won the subsequent exhibition shootout 1-0; however, the game will still go into the NCAA records as a 1-1 tie.

Subsequently, the match became the first draw in the eight-game history between the two programs.

The Big Green head to Burlington, Vt. next to face the University of Vermont on Friday, Jan. 8, followed by a matchup against College of the Holy Cross in Thompson Arena on Sunday,

SW 3

THE

RUNDOWN Men’s Basketball SCHOOL

IVY

OVERALL

PRINCETON COLUMBIA YALE CORNELL PENN HARVARD DARTMOUTH BROWN

0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0

8-4 9-6 7-5 6-7 6-7 6-8 4-7 4-9

Women’s Basketball SCHOOL

IVY

OVERALL

BROWN PENN PRINCETON COLUMBIA YALE CORNELL HARVARD DARTMOUTH

0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0

10-2 8-2 11-3 9-4 9-7 7-6 5-7 5-11

Men’s Hockey SCHOOL

ECAC

OVERALL

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

8-0-2 6-1-1 4-1-3 4-1-3 4-2-1 3-3-2 3-5-0 2-5-2 3-7-0 2-5-1 2-6-1 0-5-2

17-1-3 9-2-2 8-1-3 11-7-3 10-5-2 7-4-2 4-7-1 4-8-3 4-12-0 9-6-4 5-13-1 8-9-2

Women’s Hockey

TIFFANY ZHAI/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

The Big Green won their home tournament, the Ledyard Classic, for the first time this weekend since 2008.

SCHOOL

ECAC

OVERALL

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

9-1-2 7-4-1 5-3-1 4-3-2 2-1-4 3-3-2 4-4-0 3-4-1 3-4-1 2-3-2 1-7-0 0-6-2

16-1-3 13-4-1 8-4-1 4-9-2 10-3-5 15-3-2 9-9-1 5-10-3 4-10-1 6-6-2 3-11-0 0-14-5

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

SW 4

SPORTS

MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2016

TUESDAY MONDAY LINEUP LINEUP

MEN’S LACROSSE MEN’S HOOPS AT VERMONT AT FAIRFIELD 3 PM 7 PM

Women’s rugby sends four to National All-Star Competition B y RAY LU

The Dartmouth Senior Staff

This past winter break, four members of the Dartmouth women’s rugby team participated in the National All-Star Competition. Cocaptain Yejadai Dunn ’16, Audrey Perez ’17, Milla Anderson ’19, and Kat Ramage ’19 received invitations to compete at Tigertown in South Florida from Dec. 28 through Jan. 3.

“The National All-Star Competition, or NASC, is a pathway created

by USA Rugby to centralize selections for national teams,” Dunn said.

“It’s kind of a more clear pathway to get noticed by coaches.”

The coaches of national women’s rugby teams, Dartmouth women’s rugby head coach Katie Dowty said, selected the 215 athletes participating in this winter’s NASC. The coaches and the players are part of the Women’s National Team Pathway, a program that recognizes high performance in women’s rugby and accelerates player development

for international competition.

“They take people with good character and athleticism who have stood out during their regular season,” Dowty said.

Former Dartmouth men’s rugby head coach Alex Magleby ’00 was appointed director of performance at USA Rugby in spring of 2014, expanding his role as national director of sevens. Magelby now oversees development including these rugby programs.

Participants in the NASC are divided into eight teams under three age groups. Participants of the Emerging Coach Development Program coach two Under-20 teams, two Under-23 teams and four senior teams. The senior team is dedicated to more experienced post-college female rugby players. These teams train together and play in games.

“It’s basically a collection of the high-performing, elite rugby players, specifically female rugby players,” Perez said. “We train throughout the week, two-a-days.”

High performance at NASC

increases chances for athletes to be selected onto national teams, such as the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2017 and Women’s Eagles Sevens squads.

“You kind of just play here,” Dunn said. “Most of the coaches for those [national] teams are here. So if they notice you, they’ll [be more likely] to invite you onto one of their teams.”

For the players, the day starts at 5:30 a.m., when athletes wake up and get ready to leave. Participants see the medical staff and get taped up and ready for the day.

“We have a practice preview,” Perez said. “Basically we get a debrief of the objectives for practice and stuff. And then we go train.”

Perez added that her routine basically consisted of eating, sleeping, and training.

“Making new friends and making new connections has been really cool,” Dunn said. “I went to the last NASC in Colorado last August. It’s just cool to meet up with new people but also friends you made last time

and just keep that connection strong throughout the rugby community because that’s really important.”

Dunn was one of 55 studentathletes to be named a USA Rugby Women’s Collegiate All-American for 2014-15. Perez was recovering from a recent anterior ligament tear and said she was surprised to receive the invite to the winter’s NASC. “It was my first season back from an ACL tear,” Perez said. “They say you don’t feel [like] yourself your first season back, and that was actually pretty accurate. I didn’t feel that great about my performance this season.”

Perez received an e-mail invitation for the National All-Star Competition, but initially thought the message was spam. She finally accepted her invitation when Dowty called to ask why she hadn’t accepted it yet.

“Being surrounded by a lot of high level players — I’m being pushed in a really different way and I’m learning a lot, so that’s really refreshing,” Perez said.

Anderson and Ramage are both

first-year student-athletes and made enough of an impact to catch the attention of coaches for the national team.

Anderson started playing rugby this term, but was a varsity athlete in four different sports in high school. Ramage played soccer and track in high school, but also captained several elite high school rugby teams, including squads that won back-to-back National Rugby Sevens Championships in 2013 and 2014.

The women’s rugby team went undefeated in League play this past fall and claimed the Ivy League Championship in the sport’s inaugural varsity season. All four players started the entire season for this year’s squad. “[The selection of Dunn, Perez, Anderson, and Ramage] is a testament to the level of athletes we have in our rugby program,” Dowty said.

“They have all been identified as potential athletes on the national team. They’re starting out on the pathway at an early age which is

Track and field finds early success during the winter interim B y MARK CUI

The Dartmouth Staff

On Dec. 12, Dartmouth’s track and field team competed at the seventh annual Jay Carisella Track and Field Invitational hosted by Northeastern University.

T he Big Green’s women’s team secured second place with 157 points, behind only the host team Northeastern’s 207.5 points. in fifth place with a score of 83, falling to the University of New Hampshire’s 189, Northeastern’s 150.5, University of Massachusetts Lowell’s 90 and Sacred Heart University’s 89.5.

A total of 17 schools — Dartmouth, American International College, Emmanuel College, Fitchburg State University, University of Hartford, College of the Holy Cross, Keene State College, Lasell College, Merrimack College, New England College, New Hampshire, Rhode Island College, Sacred Heart, University of Massachusetts Boston and UMass Lowell — competed in the tournament, which took place in the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center

in Boston, Mass.

“We have been working very hard in the fall practices and it was great to see the results carry over in the meet,” coach Barry Harwick said. “It’s a very good sign for the season to come.”

On the women’s side, Kaitlin Whitehorn ’16 and Jennifer Meech ’16 both set new meet records as they took first-place in their respective events.

Whitehorn won the 60-meter with a time of 7.47, while Meech came out victorious in the 200-meter in 24.63. Meech also won the 400-meter race in 55.56, setting another meet record and outpacing second place by nearly two full seconds. Though she didn’t set another meet record, Whitehorn added another event title to her amazing day by winning the high jump with a 5-7.0/1.70m on her third attempt.

“They are definitely two of our top athletes coming into the season. They have been contributors in scoring to our championships throughout their career here,” coach Sandy Ford-Centonze said.

“They are two people we really

depend on and they really drive hard and put it all out there. It’s exciting especially because they are both seniors.”

In addition to Whitehor n and Meech, Molly Shapiro ’16 added on to the women team’s record-breaking day with a 397.25/12.07m perfor mance to win the triple jump event and set a meet record for the event.

The rest of the women’s team also performed extraordinarily.

Sara Kikut ’16 competed in the 60-meter, finishing second only to teammate Whitehorn, with a 7.64 . Nicole DeBlasio ’19 finished fourth in the 200-meter event, with a time of 25.91 .

In the 800-meter event, Abby Livingston ’18 (2:11.86) came out on top, followed by Bridget Flynn ’18 (2:12.33), Aliyah Gallup ’17 (2:15.92), and Alexa Jennings ’19 (2:20.56) in second, third and fifth, respectively.

On the men’s side, Sam Siegel ’19 impressively cleared 149.0/4.50m on his second attempt to give Dartmouth a win in the men’s pole vault event. In the triple jump event, Corey Mug-

gler ’17 scored an astounding 45-10.75/13.99m on his sixth and final jump to take the title.

On his approach to the triple jump, Muggler said, “My mindset going into any jump is just to stay confident, try to visualize before I start my run-up down the runway, visualize a big jump every time and to just go for it.”

Another impressive individual perfor mance came from Alec Eschholz ’19, who claimed third place in the finals of the 60 meter hurdles. Alex Frye ’17 and Daniel Katz ’16 followed behind, taking sixth and seventh place respectively. Frye also received fourth place in the high jump event with a 6-4.0/1.93m. Rounding out the scoring for the Big Green, Zachary Plante ’18 (50.77) and Edward Wagner ’16 (51.7) finished fourth and sixth, respectively, in the 400-meter event. In the 200-meter event, Wagner finished sixth while Plante finished eighth with respective times of 22.89 and 22.97 .

Jules Hislop ’17 finished fifth in the 500-meter event with 1:07.45, while Kevin Stanko ’16 secured third in the 800-meter event with

a 1:57.95.

Before the Dec. 12 meet, the men and women’s track and field team had begun their indoor campaign on Dec. 5 at the Boston University season opener. Though the event was non-scoring, both the men and women teams performed well. Ford-Centonze noted that the meets, practices, and hiking trips have helped build team chemistry.

Harwick agreed, adding that, “Although this is one our larger first-year classes, the team chemistry has been great. It’s a great and eclectic group. They’re very supportive of each other.”

With great individual performances across the board, the team looks forward to their upcoming meets.

“It has been an encouraging start of the year,” Muggler said.

“There have been a lot of great performances out of the team, and we are excited and looking forward to the rest of the season.”

After a few weeks of rest, the team will move on to its next challenge at the Dartmouth Relays in Hanover, N.H. from Jan. 8 to Jan. 10.