The Dartmouth 02/18/19

02.18.19

The Weekend Roundup p. 2-3 No. 9 women’s squash prepares for nationals next weekend p. 5 The Redshirt Senior: The Evan Griffith Completely Accurate AllDivision I First Team p. 7 Men’s basketball loses pair of onepossession games on the road p. 8

Women’s hockey stuns No. 4 Clarkson in 3-2 overtime win p. 4 NATALIE DAMERON/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

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THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

The weekend Roundup

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2019

Women’s hockey

Compiled by THE DARTMOUTH sports STAFF

LACROSSE The men’s lacrosse team opened its 2019 season on the road at Boston University, losing to the Terriers 15-8. Ben Martin ’20 scored two goals and registered four assists, while Matt Paul ’21 and Harlan Smart ’21 each added two goals of their own. But BU outshot Dartmouth 46-26, and the Big Green was never able to overcome the six-point lead the Terriers established in the first quarter.

The No. 25 women’s team likewise opened its season with a loss, falling 21-15 to No. 7 Northwestern University on Friday and suffering an 11-10 overtime loss on Sunday against the University of

Michigan. Against Northwestern, Campbell Brewer ’19 and Elizabeth Mastrio ’19 both scored three goals and the Big Green outshot the Wildcats 42-41, but Northwestern’s 12-5 advantage after the first half proved insurmountable. Two days later, Katie Bourque ’20 scored three goals and the Big Green was able to recover from being down 10-7 late in the second half to force overtime, but the Wolverines were able to score the decisive goal in double overtime.

The men’s team will next face Bryant University on Feb. 23, while the women will take on the State University of New York at Binghamton on Feb. 24.

m Basketball In a season full of close losses, the Big Green continued that narrative this weekend by dropping two heartbreaking games at the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University on Friday and Saturday night. The Big Green lost 82-79 in overtime to Penn on Friday night and lost 69-68 to Princeton on Saturday night.

With those two losses, the team dropped to 2-6 in conference play, with five of those six losses coming by five points or fewer and four of them coming by three points or fewer. The team lost heartbreakers to Brown University, Cornell University and Harvard University earlier in the season, and these losses added to a season full of frustrating defeats for the team.

While making the Ivy League tournament is still a possibility for the Big Green, they would probably need to win out to make it by finishing in the top four in the conference. The team is 1113 on the season and has a very small chance to make the NCAA tournament, but it still has a lot to play for as the season comes to a close. With only one senior on the team, a strong finish will set the stage for what promises to be an exciting 2019-20 season as the Big Green return everyone except for Guilien Smith ’19.

Next weekend, the Big Green will travel to Brown University and Yale University for a doubleheader before returning to Hanover for a homestand against Penn and Princeton in the first weekend of March.

Zachary ZacharyBenjamin Benjamin’19 ’19

Zachary Benjamin ’19 Editor-in-Chief Editor-in-Chief Editor-in-Chief

Hanting Hanting Guo Guo ’19 ’19

Vinay Reddy ’20 Publisher Publisher Interim Publisher

Ioana IoanaSolomon Solomon’19 ’19

2.18.19 Vol. CLXXV CLXXV No. No. 27 136 4.30.18 4.23.18 Vol. 21

AmandaZhou Zhou ’19 Ioana Amanda Solomon ’19 ’19 Executive Editors Executive Editors Executive Editor

Mark Cui ’19 Mark Cui ’19 Alex Fredman ’20 Justin Kramer ’21’20 Samantha Hussey Evan Morgan ’19 Associate Sports Editor Sports Editors Divya DivyaKopalle Kopalle Kopalle’21 ’21 ’21 Divya Michael MichaelLin Lin Lin’21 ’21 ’21 Michael Photography Photography Editors Editors Photography Editors Jaclyn Jaclyn Eagle Eagle ’19 ’19 Hattie Newton ’21 Templating TemplatingEditor Editor Editor Templating

NATALIE DAMERON/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Linda Essery ’21 went after the puck during the Big Green’s 0-0 against St. Lawrence on Saturday.

The women’s hockey team came into their final home weekend of the season with a disappointing 4-20-1 record but left with one of its biggest victories in recent memory.

The Big Green defeated No. 4 Clarkson University, the defending national champions, in a stunning 3-2 overtime victory Friday night. After Clarkson gained an early 2-0 lead in the first period, the Big Green was able to respond with goals by Christina Rombaut ’20 and Tess Bracken ’19 in the second. After neither team scored in the third, Chloe Puddifant ’22 scored just her second goal of the season with 9.4 seconds remaining in overtime to secure the upset victory.

The win was the Big Green’s first over Clarkson since 2011, when Dartmouth prevailed in another overtime victory.

The team’s next outing against St. Lawrence University on Saturday afternoon proved to be much less dramatic, as the game ended in a scoreless tie. The Big Green withstood a barrage from St. Lawrence, eventually getting outshot 46-16, but solid goaltending from Shannon Ropp ’19 and Christine Honor ’19 kept Dartmouth in the game.

The Big Green (5-20-2, 4-15-1 ECAC) will close out the regular season next weekend on the road against Yale University and Brown University.

men’s hockey The men’s hockey team picked up three points on the weekend for just the second time in Eastern College Athletic Conference play this season. The Big Green defeated No. 11 Clarkson University 1-0 on Friday and tied St. Lawrence University 2-2 on Saturday.

Friday’s victory was sparked by the phenomenal goaltending of Adrian Clark ’20, who saved all 29 shots he faced for his fourth shutout of the year.

Tied at zero goals apiece with under one minute to go in the third period, Drew O’Connor ’22 tipped in a centering pass from Clay Han ’20 to give the Big Green a signature victory of its season. The Big Green, which was outshot 29-24, improved its record to 5-0-0 in games when the team registered fewer shots than its opponent. Friday’s win also allowed the Big Green to avenge its 2-0 loss two weeks earlier to the Golden Knights.

The team was unable to get the weekend sweep

on Saturday, finishing its game with St. Lawrence tied 2-2. Cameron Roth ’19 scored his first goal of the season in the first period to even the score at one after the Saints got on the board first. The Big Green took the lead in the second period when Shane Sellar ’20 lit the lamp for his first goal in 15 games to give Dartmouth the 2-1 lead. St. Lawrence tied it up early in the third period, and neither team could find another goal in the remainder of regulation or overtime.

Dartmouth is now tied for seventh with Union College in the ECAC standings. The Big Green returns for its final two regular season games at Thompson Arena next weekend with matchups against Yale University and Brown University. The team will then conclude the regular season with two road games against Union and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute before beginning the ECAC tournament, which starts on Mar. 8.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2019

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

Men’s TENNIS The Big Green came in as the top seed in the Eastern College Athletic Conference indoor championship in Philadelphia this weekend, but suffered a tough 4-3 loss to the No. 5 seeded University of Pennsylvania on Saturday. The Big Green recovered the next day, however, with a 4-0 win against Princeton University to secure third place in the tournament.

Doubles victories from Dan Martin ’21 and John Speicher ’21 at the No. 3 spot and Charlie Broom ’20 and David Horneffer ’20 at No. 1 as well as a singles victory

by Martin gave the Big Green an

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Women’s basketball

early 2-0 lead against Penn. But Sid Chari ’22 would pick up the only other singles win for Dartmouth, with Peter Conklin ’21 falling in the decisive game after a close battle.

The next day, doubles victories from the Broom-Horneffer and Martin-Speicher pairs gave the Big Green an early lead, while Broom, Chari and Conklin each won their singles matches to give Dartmouth the victory.

The Big Green will return home next weekend with matches against the University of Memphis on Feb. 22 and Wichita State University and Boston University on Feb. 23.

Women’s GOLF T h e wo m e n’s g o l f t e a m kicked off its 2019 campaign at the Florida Atlantic University Winter Warmup in Boca Raton.

The Big Green finished in fifth place out of seven teams, falling behind Brown University by only one stroke, Oakland University by four strokes and FAU by nine.

Moon Cheong ’21 finished sixth overall at one over par with 73

strokes, while Maddie Nelson ’20, Catharine Roddy ’19 and Kristen Chen ’22 finished not far behind with six over par, eight over par, and nine over par efforts, respectively.

The Big Green have a month off before returning to Florida for the Morehead State University Spring Citrus Challenge on Mar. 17-19.

SKIING Dartmouth won the men’s and women’s slalom and the women’s 5-kilometer freestyle, but it wasn’t enough to overtake host Middlebury as the Panthers won their first Eastern Intercollegiate Skiing Association carnival in more than a decade.

The men’s Nordic team had its best finish of the season on Friday as Callan DeLine ’18 led most of the way in the mass start 15-kilometer classic, but Middlebury’s Sam Wood made a move at the end to win by just under two seconds. Gavin McEwen ’19 was the next-fastest skier in green and white, finishing 15th. Katharine Ogden ’21 won her second race of the season on Friday, nipping the University of Vermont’s Margie Freed by 3.5 seconds. Lydia Blanchet ’19 finished fourth, and Leah Brams ’20 and Lauren Jortberg ’20 were behind in seventh and eighth, respectively. Over on the Middlebury Snow Bowl’s Ross Trail, Alexa Dlouhy ’19 won the women’s slalom by a full second and a half. In second place was Tricia Mangan ’19, who finished in 1:45.24. Kalle Wagner ’21 was the fastest Dartmouth skier on the men’s side, finishing in fourth, 1.28 seconds off the pace set by Middlebury’s Erik Arvidsson.

Drew Duffy ’21 was right behind

Wagner in fifth, while three other Dartmouth men landed among the top 10.

The Big Green held a slim overall lead as racing began Saturday. Dartmouth skiers went 2-3-4 in the 5-kilometer freestyle behind the University of Vermont’s Lina Sutro. Ogden took second, 4.8 seconds off Sutro’s pace, followed by Blanchet and Jortberg. DeLine had another top 10 in the men’s 10-kilometer freestyle, and McEwen had one of his best races of the season, taking 11th. In the women’s giant slalom, Steph Currie ’20 made the podium, finishing .57 seconds off the pace to take third. And the three top Dartmouth skiers in the men’s giant slalom were among the top six, as Duffy finished third and David Domonoske ’20 and Kipling Weisel ’18 finished fourth and sixth, respectively.

The Panthers did just enough on Saturday to leapfrog the Big Green in the standings, 915-908.

Their win broke the decade-long grip of UVM and Dartmouth on eastern carnival crowns — before Saturday, no other EISA school had managed to capture an overall carnival win since the 2008 season.

With just one carnival remaining, Dartmouth has not had an overall team win since the season opener at St. Lawrence University.

ARYA KADAKIA/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

The Big Green lost 82-75 to Princeton and also lost leading scorer Cy Lippold ’19 to injury.

In its first weekend back at home following back-to-back weekends on the road, the Big Green (10-11, 3-5 Ivy) was swept by Ivy League-leading University of Pennsylvania (16-4, 6-1 Ivy) and Princeton University (13-9, 5-2 Ivy).

On Friday night, the Big Green kicked off the weekend against Penn. The Quakers, who were undefeated in Ivy play before Harvard University took them down on Saturday, pulled away in the second quarter after a tight first, making the second half into an uphill battle for the Big Green. The Green and White struggled to get into the lane against a much bigger Penn lineup, and could not compensate with three-pointers as they shot just 26.1 percent from behind the arc. Despite 19 points from Cy Lippold ’19, who also racked off seven straight in the third quarter, the Big Green could not recover from their deep

second quarter hole and lost the game 60-44.

On Saturday, the Big Green took on secondplace Princeton, who won the Ivy League Championship in 2018. After dominating in the first quarter, outscoring Princeton 20-6, tragedy struck. Not only did the Big Green lose its hold when Princeton Junior Bella Alarie scored 23 points in the second half, but Lippold, who is the Big Green’s leading scorer and a co-captain in her senior season, went down with a knee injury and had to be carried off the court. Despite showing a strong team effort in the second half, the Big Green could not regain its footing and lost to the Tigers 82-75.

The Big Green will play at home again next weekend, as it hosts Yale University and Brown University in Leede Arena to kick off the second round of Ivy League play.

Men’s SQUASH

The No. 8 men’s squash traveled to New Haven, Connecticut this weekend for the national team squash championships, falling 7-2 to No. 1 Harvard University in the opening round of the A division Potter Cup and then losing 7-2 to No. 5 Yale University in the consolation bracket.

Against Harvard, Matt Giegerich ’19 won his match in three games and Jack Bell ’22 overcame

a loss in his first game to win his match in four, but six Big Green players were swept in three games. The next day, Bell and Tucker Martino ’22 both won their matches in the eight and nine positions. Max Finkelstein ’22, Brandon De Otaduy ’20 and Toby Harding ’21 were able to push their matches into five games, but were each defeated 11-9 in their final games.

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THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2019

Women’s hockey stuns No. 4 Clarkson in 3-2 overtime win B y Evan Morgan

The Dartmouth Senior Staff

In a week that honored the Big Green’s seniors, it was a first-year who earned Dartmouth its biggest win in years. After trailing No. 4 Clarkson University by two goals after the first period, the Big Green forced overtime and Chloe Puddifant ’22 wristed in a rebound with 9.4 seconds left in overtime to deal a stunning defeat to the defending national champion Golden Knights.

The Big Green played St. Lawrence University to a 0-0 tie the next day, cementing this weekend as the best two-day stretch of the season.

For a 5-20-2 Dartmouth team that has been unable to string together wins, the weekend was something of a breakthrough.

“Our defensive play was spectacular,” head coach Laura Schuler said. “It’s reflective of where we are as a team and where we’re continuing to go.”

Clarkson controlled the opening minutes of Friday’s game. Less than four minutes into the first period, Christine Honor ’19 slid right to protect against a shot from a hardcharging Loren Gable. A quick pass in front of the goal left the net wide open for an easy score. Three minutes later, T.T. Cianfarano took the puck at the blue line and weaved past Brooke Schroeder ’22, finishing with a backhand to make the score

2-0.

Dartmouth came roaring back in the latter half of the second period.

The Big Green power play, ninth-best in the Eastern College Athletic Conference, opened the scoring at 14:19. Christina Rombaut ’20 launched a powerful shot that deflected off a Clarkson defender.

After several rebounds, the puck found its way back to Rombaut, who buried it through a crowd of skaters.

Five minutes later, Tess Bracken ’19 entered a scrum in front of the Clarkson net and poked the puck past Clarkson’s Kassidy Sauve to even the score at 2-2.

Honor closed the door on Clarkson in the third period. With the Golden Knights busy in the Big Green’s defensive zone, Honor made 15 saves for a total of 31 through three periods. She held up in overtime too, rebuffing several Clarkson chances to allow Dartmouth the last-second opportunity.

Just 15 seconds remained when Kat Dajia ’21 chipped the puck to the Clarkson blue line. Puddifant stick-lifted the puck past the Clarkson defender to set up a shot for winger Jen Costa ’21. The puck bounced off Sauve’s pads and straight to Puddifant, who went low glove-side to win the game.

“It just shows how much hard work matters, and it’s not all about talent,” Puddifant said.

Dartmouth and St. Lawrence

NATALIE DAMERON/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

The women’s hockey team scored a major upset on Friday, defeating defending-national champion Clarkson in OT.

played 65 scoreless minutes the following afternoon’s Senior Day. Shannon Ropp ’19 got the start, stopping three pucks in 2:37 of action before yielding to Honor. Honor had another outstanding night, stopping 43 pucks amid consistent pressure from the Saints, who were in the box seemingly all night long. Kate Landers ’19 came closest to scoring

with a one-timer near the halfway mark of the third period, but it went into the glove of the St. Lawrence goalie.

After five scoreless minutes of overtime, the Big Green’s six seniors remained on the ice for a postgame ceremony, taking pictures with their families in front of a loud contingent of students.

“They have set some pretty high standards for the girls to follow in their footsteps, and I think it’s just going to elevate our program moving forward,” Schuler said of the seniors.

With a senior class that saw its share of losses over the past four years — the team was 23-79-8 — Schuler seemed glad to send out the class of 2019 with a big win.

Disciplined men’s hockey is among nation’s least-penalized teams B y Addison Dick

The Dartmouth Staff

Tied in a scoreless game against No. 11 Clarkson University with under one minute to go in the third period, Drew O’Connor ’22 tipped in a centering pass from Clay Han ’20 to give the men’s hockey team a signature win. The game was a bit of an anomaly for the Big Green: the team committed six penalties on the night, tied for the most times the team has gone to the penalty box since November. This season, the Big Green is sixth among Division I teams with fewer than nine penalty minutes per game.

Forward Alex Jasiek ’19 believes the low number of penalty minutes is a result of good habits in practice.

“I think the coaches preach consistently staying out of the box because we know we are able to play with anyone in the country 5-on-5,” he said.

Assistant captain Carl Hesler ‘18 noted that the coaches put “no undisciplined penalties” on a checklist of things to do before every game.

The team attempts to play a physical brand of hockey while playing cleanly. Hesler said staying out the

box has helped the team recently.

O’Connor said the team’s discipline starts with the coaching staff and the desire to play even strength hockey.

“It’s very important for us to be able to play our style of game and wear teams down, and to be able to do that, we cannot be killing penalties all game,” O’Connor said. “Our players know that our best chance to win games is when we are either on the power play or playing 5 v. 5.”

The Big Green’s ability to stay out of the box is particularly helpful due to the team’s penalty kill struggles this year. The team ranks among the bottom 10 in Division I in penalty kill percentage, allowing 16 goals in 69 short-handed situations.

In its season opener against Harvard, the Big Green committed a season-high eight minor penalties.

The Crimson took advantage, scoring on five of seven power plays.

Despite the short-handed struggles, Dartmouth won that game 7-6 in overtime.

Jasiek said the Big Green’s penalty kill is better than the numbers suggest.

“Obviously our first game against Harvard [University] was not ideal, but I think when we do go down a

man, we have gotten much stronger three power play shots on goal. in that aspect of the game and we Dartmouth goaltender Adrian Clark trust our kill to save us,” he said. ’20 stopped all three of those shots In the first three games this season, and all 29 shots he faced on Friday the Big Green in the Big Green’s c o m m i t t e d “We all move our fourth shutout this 19 penalties season. a n d f a c e d feet really well and The following 4 9 p e n a l t y stay out of the afternight against minutes. In St. Lawrence whistle scrums, contrast, in its University, the Big previous four which helps our game Green committed games before immensely. We all four penalties, this weekend, including a game the t e a m realize that a penalty misconduct c o m m i t t e d can potentially hurt boarding penalty eight penalties

by John Ernsting our team, so we tend and faced ’19 in the first 1 6 p e n a l t y to play smarter than period. minutes.

Despite the most other teams.”

O’Connor uptick in penalty has felt the minutes this improvement -ALEX JASIEK ’19 weekend, Jasiek as the season thinks the team has progressed. is well-disciplined “Scoring overall. goals and being “ We h ave a better on our power plays is an area couple of hiccups here and there, we can improve [on] as well,” he said. just like every team, but we know While the Big Green committed six our best chance to win is by staying penalties against Clarkson on Friday, even with the other team, so we all the penalty kill was outstanding, preach to each other to do that,” he allowing the Golden Knights only said.

After the game misconduct, the Big Green was faced with an ensuing five-minute penalty kill.

Once again, the team’s penalty kill looked strong, allowing just two shots and no goals. The team finished the weekend seven-for-seven in penalty kills, and the St. Lawrence game ended in a 2-2 after overtime.

Jasiek is not surprised that the Big Green is among the least-penalized of all 60 Division I teams.

“We all move our feet really well and stay out of the after-whistle scrums, which helps our game immensely,” he said. “We all realize that a penalty can potentially hurt our team, so we tend to play smarter than most other teams.”

Following the three-point weekend, Dartmouth is tied for seventh with Union College in the Eastern College Athletic Conference standings. The Big Green will look to return to its disciplined ways next weekend with two home games against Yale University and Brown University. The team will then conclude the regular season with two road games against Union and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute before beginning the ECAC tournament, which starts on the second weekend of March.

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THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2019

Ivy leaders Penn and Princeton take down women’s basketball B y Lili Stern

The Dartmouth Staff

Dartmouth women’s basketball dropped both games at home this weekend against the two teams that sit atop the Ivy League standings: the University of Pennsylvania (16-4, 6-1 Ivy) and Princeton University (13-9, 5-2 Ivy). The Big Green drop to 10-11 overall, and 3-5 in conference play.

The Big Green’s tough weekend started on Friday night against Penn, which held a perfect 6-0 Ivy record before losing to Harvard University on Saturday. After hanging with the Quakers in the first quarter, leaving it down 13-12, the Big Green lost its footing in the second. The visitors’ dominant quarter was highlighted by a 13-point unanswered run, from which the Green and White was never able to recover.

“You take a dip against the best team in the league, and it’s hard to pull yourself out of that,” said head coach Belle Koclanes.

The Big Green played a much better second half, as the Quakers only recorded two more points than the Big Green after the intermission. Part of the reason why Dartmouth, and the rest of the Ivy League, struggle so much with Penn is because of their size. While Penn’s starting guards both stand at 5-foot-10, Dartmouth’s stand 5-foot-2 and 5-foot-5. The Big Green had a hard time penetrating the Quakers’ stout 2-3 zone, as reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Year Eleah Parker, standing 6-foot-4 with muscle to boot, holds down the bottom of the zone, closing off the basket from driving small guards.

“Quite frankly, we’re outmatched

by them just from a size standpoint,” Koclanes said. “We knew we needed to create high percentage shots outside of the post area and we needed to knock them down, and we needed more than [Quinones] and [Lippold] to do it.”

Cy Lippold ’19 led the Big Green with 19 points, the home team’s only player to score in double digits. Isalys Quinones ’19 tacked on another seven, along with five rebounds. During the third quarter, Lippold scored seven straight points to cut her team’s deficit from 22 to 15. However, it was not enough — the Big Green lost 60-44.

On Saturday, Dartmouth welcomed the defending Ivy League champion Princeton Tigers, and their head coach Courtney Banghart ’00, to Leede Arena. The Big Green knew they matched up better with Princeton than with Penn both in terms of size and speed, according to Koclanes, and in the first quarter, that came through.

Koclanes started Kealy Brown ’19 in place of Annie McKenna ’20, and Brown opened the game with a solid five-point quarter, to go along with Elle Louie ’21’s six points, Quinones’ five points and Lippold’s four. The score at the end of the first period was 20-6, advantage Big Green.

After reigning Ivy League Player of the year Bella Alarie was held to just four points in the first quarter, she returned to the court with an explosive 23-point second, highlighted by a 13-2 Princeton run in which Alarie scored all 13.

“For their second quarter run, it was transition defense and Bella Alarie that hurt us,” Koclanes said. “She’s carrying their team in every facet: offensively, defensively, guard play, post play, you

ARYA KADIKA/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

The women’s basketball team fell to the defending Ivy League champion Princeton Tigers on Saturday night.

name it. She’s a remarkable player, so we knew she was gonna get her points.”

However, the toughest moment of the second quarter for Dartmouth fans was not one of Alarie’s made shots, but one of her misses; as Alarie went in for an open layup, Lippold, standing 14 inches shorter than the towering Alarie, who stands 6-foot-4, surged to try to block her shot and came down shrieking as she twisted her knee.

While there is no word of an official diagnosis yet, according to Koclanes, it isn’t looking good for the rest of the senior and team captain’s season.

However, after Lippold went down, the Big Green displayed a true team effort to stay in the game. Koclanes dipped far into the bench, with 11 different players touching the floor. Two players recorded career-highs, with Brown scoring 14 and Katie Douglas ’22 scoring 11. Quinones led the effort in her co-captain’s absence, coming up with a 15-point fourth quarter en route to a 22-point performance. According to Quinones, it was Lippold’s injury that motivated the Big Green to keep fighting.

“It was just play for Cy,” Quinones

said. “If that had happened to anyone on our team, it would’ve been the same message. We all try to play together but sometimes it takes a little extra push to get us to really focus on that. So it was really just try to bring out Cy’s energy on the court, and emulate all the leadership she brings.”

Next weekend, the Big Green will look to sweep Brown University and Yale University at home after splitting with a win over the Bears and a loss to the Bulldogs two weeks ago. These games will mark the beginning of the second round of Ivy League matchups.

No. 9 women’s squash prepares for nationals next weekend B y Kaitlyn Lees The Dartmouth

The women’s squash team started the season with the goal of breaking into the top eight in the country and came very close, finishing in a tie at No. 9 with a 5-7 record. That ranking places the Big Green in the second flight of the national championship next weekend, the Kurtz Cup, where the team looks to improve upon last season’s runner-up finish.

The season started with a tough 5-4 loss in November to Drexel University, which bested Dartmouth last year as well in the final of the Kurtz Cup. Anne Blasberg ’20 said that although upsetting, the loss motivated the team to work harder going forward for the rest of the season, and head coach Hansi Wiens viewed the team’s training trip to Las Vegas over winter break as an important factor in the team’s improvement. Practices two times a day allowed them to both improve their squash skills and become closer as a team.

Both Blasberg and Emma Roberts ’19 agreed that this year’s team has a particularly close bond that has enabled them to perform well as a team.

After changes in the ladder, the team bounced back with strong wins against Brown University and Cornell University. Dartmouth’s depth at the bottom of the ladder as well as a close team dynamic helped the Big Green defeat Cornell 5-4 for its first Ivy League win of the season.

In squash, each match, whether the No.1 seed or the No. 9 seed, carries the same weight, and Blasberg said that the team has found success due to consistency across the board.

“We have a really deep bottom of our ladder,” Blasberg said. “In a lot of our matches, that’s kind of where it comes down to giving us that edge.”

The team also pulled off a close 5-4 victory against an improved Brown program, in addition to close losses to Drexel and the University of Pennsylvania.

“We had a lot of close matches

with teams that in past years haven’t been as close,” Blasberg said. “So that was exciting to see, and it was a good sign for the next few years because we have a pretty young team right now.”

Roberts has consistently played at the No. 9 position this season and has had a distinct contribution to the team’s success.

“She is truly a testament that winning at number 1 and number 9 carries the exact same weight, and she’s someone who every match we can rely on to get a point for our team,” Blasberg said.

Roberts said that while some upperclassmen might find it awkward to play lower on the ladder, the support and respect of her team motivates her more to go out and win the key point available from her position. Julie Potter ’20, also an upperclassman, has likewise been a strong and consistent factor playing at No. 7 and No. 8 with an 8-4 record.

“Squash is an individual sport while it’s [also] a team sport,” Roberts said. “And that can make

team dynamics a little challenging, in that sometimes at practice you’re competing against your own teammates for very clear, distinct ranking positions.”

Meanwhile, sophomores Brynn Bank ’21, Ellie Gozigian ’21 and Sandra Reiss ’21 have had strong transitions to playing slightly higher on the ladder between the third through fifth spots.

As for the five first-years on the team this year, Roberts said, “They found their stride really quickly in the best way possible. They’ve made a huge impact not only in terms of our ladder rankings, but also the dynamic of the team.”

In preparation for nationals, the Big Green did not compete this weekend to focus on recovery after several long weekends of travel. In order to make a strong showing, it’s important that the team stays healthy and on top of school work leading up this weekend. Keeping energy up at practices is also a priority, according to Roberts, as the women normally practice with the men’s team, who

travelled to New Haven for men’s nationals this weekend.

Going into the tournament, Dartmouth is tied at the No. 9 ranking with the University of Virginia. Virginia is a relatively new varsity program in the college squash world. If the two face off in the finals, it may be a challenge for the Big Green, as these two teams did not play each other in the regular season.

Brown and Cornell will also be playing in the Kurtz Cup, setting up potential rematches for the Big Green. Wiens said that the competition is usually close enough that it’s hard to know in advance how things will turn out.

“It’s all on the weekend, on the day, how you play,” Wiens said. “It’ll be very interesting and exciting to see.”

Dartmouth has a history of strong showings at nationals, with three Kurtz Cup victories in the last six years, and looks to return to the winner’s circle after a loss to Drexel in the finals last year.

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The Accidental Fan with Sabena Allen ’20

The Accidental Fan: What is a sport?

Neither dance nor football is easy.

Both take extreme skill and stamina.

But while football is inarguably a sport, I wonder if dance can be classified as such. The 2007 movie “The Game Plan” intimates that dance is even more difficult than football. The lead female character, a ballet teacher, is getting ready to teach Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s character, an NFL football player, how to dance. She proceeds to take him through a crazy workout that has him gasping for air and in desperate

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THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

need of water. As he tries to shrug off his exhaustion, she says, “If ballet were easy, they’d call it football.”

I danced from the time I was about 3 until I finished high school. Whenever someone asks me if I did a sport in high school, I say, “No, but I did dance.”

This is mostly because it fulfills the “physical activity” requirement implicit in that question. No, I didn’t play a sport, but yes, I engaged in an activity that required physical strength and discipline. In fact, dance counted as a P.E. credit at my high school. This speaks to the athleticism required of dancers. My dance company did conditioning frequently, and many of the dances we performed were exhausting to run through. Not only do dancers require endurance, but they must also train their muscles to lift their legs high in kicks, to leap off of the ground and to stay perfectly aligned. Dance requires athletic feats as well as the physical strength and ability to make them look effortless.

But why does that matter? Isn’t that just part of the performance? That is what dance really is. However, perhaps we need to consider the technique and endurance required of dancers as similar to that of athletes. After all, some sports require far less endurance than dance or football.

Take golf, for example. As someone who has played golf, I can personally speak to the skill part. Golf takes an incredible level of precision and control, which is not something to take lightly. As far as physical exertion goes, however, I think players would have to walk the course (which some people do) in order to burn any calories.

Nevertheless, I’ve definitely been sore after golf, mostly due to holding my muscles in strange positions, and because somehow the skin on my thumb is always getting rubbed off! So, in regard to pure physical endurance, golf falls behind dance. However, they both require extreme technique and skill, which is consistent with people’s cultural understanding of what a sport is.

That raises the question: what does golf have that dance doesn’t?

Well, golf is competitive. Dance is not inherently so, and can be a form of art, storytelling and entertainment.

But dance can also be competitive.

There is a whole industry of dance competitions. Dancers travel around and hold competitions at different high schools, and dance schools from all over that area travel there to compete.

Competitors can either perform solo or in a group or team. Some studios are very focused on competition, but others

are not at all. Dancers may compete, but the activity does not demand that they do. This makes things fuzzy.

Let’s look at another example. I would consider cheerleading to be a sport, though I think the perspectives on this vary. There are cheerleading competitions, so in that regard, it is similar to dance and to golf. Of course, it also requires skill and athletic prowess.

But when cheerleaders are supporting their team at a game, is that no longer a sport? They are still performing many of the same stunts that they do in competition. Does the activity change when the competitive aspect is removed as long as it has the other components?

It is interesting to consider this in relation to golf. People often play golf alone. Sometimes, this is to make up or play ahead of time for a league, which involves competition amongst league members. However, sometimes people play golf alone just to practice or for fun. In most sports, practicing may not involve playing the actual game, like playing catch with a football or baseball. On the other hand, in tennis, one might practice with two players and maintain the competitive nature, as the sport only involves two or four players. However, in golf, if you play alone, you are playing the full game.

You could add other people and still

go through the same motions. But who are you competing with? One could argue that in going out alone to play a round of golf, one is competing against oneself. So, in dance and cheerleading, it could be said that even if there is no “competition,” one is still competing against one’s own previous achievements and trying to push oneself further than before. There is a driving force in dance, both in rehearsal and in performance, to have a perfect run-through of the choreography.

That is itself a competition. Even if competition is seen as a necessity in regard to classifying an activity as a sport, dance can fulfill this requirement whether or not the dancers are actually performing in a competition.

Regardless of whether or not people consider dance to be a sport, dancers are certainly athletes and should be recognized as such. In fact, a dancer is a blend of artist and athlete. As Monique says in “The Game Plan,” “You see, ballerinas can leap as high as you can, but when they go down, they land in plié and they hold and hold.” So perhaps people can think of dance as requiring both the physical endurance of long distance running or soccer with the precision of golf, the grace of figure skating, the flexibility of gymnastics and the expression of theater.

Women’s Nordic ski team features depth of talent across classes B y Anna May Mott The Dartmouth

This year, the Dartmouth women’s Nordic ski team has benefited from its extraordinary depth — a depth that now makes an already complicated choice all the more difficult for coach Cami Thompson Graves.

Starting with the competition at Middlebury College this past weekend, the team can now only take six skiers to each carnival. But with eight Big Green skiers in Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association’s top 20, and seven of those eight making it onto the podium so far this season, it’s safe to say there are more than six athletes deserving of a spot on the carnival teams.

“I’m the first to admit that that’s the part of the job I like the least,” Graves said, “And often when I make those choices, somebody does something to prove me wrong.”

Last weekend’s carnival team had at least one representative of each class year: Lydia Blanchet ’19 and Taryn Hunt-Smith ’19, Leah Brams ’20 and Lauren Jortberg ’20, Katharine Ogden ’21, and Molly Gellert ’22. Though Middlebury won overall, with their combined team score beating the Big Green’s by seven points, Dartmouth came out ahead in the women’s Nordic events. The team’s depth was on full display as Blanchet and Ogden both took the podium, and all six skiers finished in the top 10 in the women’s 5k event.

The seniors have been among the fastest skiers on the team since joining, and this season all three have had

podium finishes. Blanchet in particular showed a powerhouse performance this year, appearing in the top ten in every carnival race she’s participated in.

She took first place at the University of New Hamsphire carnival’s sprint event, an event featuring an entirely Green podium, with Ogden and Hunt-Smith taking second and third, respectively. Coming off a ninth place finish in the 15k the previous day, Blanchet said she went into the sprints not feeling very good. She was disappointed with her performance in the qualifiers, but her mentality changed after that.

“I was trying to come out of the gate and sort of control the pace a little bit to make sure that no one tried to break away on the hill,” Blanchet said. “I got out in front, skied up the hill and looked behind and had a gap on the field.”

Despite this and other stellar performances earlier in the season, Blanchet said the past weekend was when she really started to feel confident in her racing again.

“I think oftentimes I sort of race my way into the season,” Blanchet said. “At this point in the season … I’ve got some races under my belt and I’m starting to really feel my fitness.”

As for the ’20s, Jortberg and Brams have both had podium finishes and both traveled to Middlebury last weekend. Jortberg has been particularly strong. Like Blanchet, she’s finished in the top 10 in all but the St. Lawrence University Carnival (in which she didn’t compete). She’s third overall in EISA’s rankings, and she took second at the

University of Vermont Carnival and third at Dartmouth’s winter carnival.

Katharine Ogden is a standout among the ’21s, and more than proved her speed last year when she won the classic and freestyle NCAA championship. This season she’s appeared on the podium at the UNH, Dartmouth and Middlebury carnivals.

She missed the UVM weekend due to illness, but recovered in time to take second place in Dartmouth Winter Carnival’s 10k event.

Even with the three classes ahead of them saturated with skiing talent, the team’s ’22s have still managed to make an impact, with Gellert, Rena Schwartz ’22 and Callie Young ’22 all snagging top 10 finishes.

Gellert in particular has gotten a solid foothold on the team. Of particular note for her was UVM’s winter carnival, where she earned a spot on the podium with a third place finish in the women’s 5k event.

It was a good day overall at UVM for the Dartmouth women’s Nordic team, and eight Big Green skiers appeared in the top 11. Throughout the race, athletes are updated on their splits, or rather, how many seconds off they are from the racer in front of them. That day, Gellert kept getting splits off her own teammate Emily Hyde ’19, who finished second that day. Encouraged by her teammate’s success, Gellert was driven to produce her best performance so far this season in terms of placement.

“I felt good, I was having a good race, and then another girl on our team was having a really good day, and so it just kind of helped me,” Gellert said.

“Sometimes things just fall together.”

It was intimidating for Gellert at first, coming into a team as deep as Dartmouth’s, and she expected fierce competition, particularly later in the season when carnival teams shrunk.

“I definitely thought coming in it would be a little bit more cut-throat, the competition would sort of start to get to our dynamic,” Gellert said.

But the reality, she said, proved a little different.

“I’m just really happy when I can place among the top of the Dartmouth girls.” Gellert said. “It’s never like, ‘Oh I have to beat her, oh this, this and this.’

If someone gets a spot over me, she deserved it.”

Having seen how the dynamics change in the later parts of the season over the course of her four years on the team, Blanchet explained that the Nordic skiers excel at balancing healthy competition and teamwork.

“Everyone’s still so supportive of each other,” Blanchet said. “Everyone does a really good job of recognizing that you just go out and ski the best race you can, and your teammates go out and ski the best race they can, and however it ends up at the end of the day is just how it is.”

As for how the Big Green manages to attract the depth that creates such strong competition, a hint may come from what led Gellert to choose Dartmouth. Blanchet, Gellert and Hunt-Smith are all from Anchorage, Alaska, and Gellert and Blanchet even attended the same high school.

“I looked up to those girls so much in high school,” Gellert said. “And

when I saw that they were going to Dartmouth … I started looking more into the school and the program.”

What she saw was a Nordic ski team with a long history of success, a coach with 30 years of experience, and a school with a stellar academic program and enough flexibility built in to accommodate a dedicated athlete.

Dartmouth offers a unique opportunity to skiers who don’t want to set aside their academics in pursuit of high level athletics, and the result is evident in a women’s Nordic team with four years of solid talent.

For the rest of the season, at least in the eastern circuit, UVM is proving unsurprisingly to be Dartmouth’s biggest competition. Its men’s Nordic team is especially strong, but the Catamounts have solid talent on the women’s side too. Since carnival victories are based on a combined score of men’s and women’s alpine and Nordic performances, there are many moving pieces that contribute to a win. UVM has bested the Big Green at the St. Lawrence, Dartmouth and UVM carnivals. But when the scores are broken down just to the women’s Nordic performances, Dartmouth came out on top at both at home and at UVM. Going forward, the team is looking to stay healthy and keep producing the success it has been having all year, especially as the pace of school picks up and the pressures of student and athlete overlap. Given the extraordinary depth, Graves has more than enough strong choices for carnival and NCAA teams.

The Redshirt Senior with Evan Griffith ’18

The Redshirt Senior: The Evan Grif fith Completely Accurate All-Division I First Team The college basketball season is about two-thirds of the way through, and we’re that much closer to the Madness. It’s a great Saturday for me as I write this column since Syracuse doesn’t play, so my heart rate will stay at a reasonable level. In the spirit of relaxation, I now have the extra two hours vacated by the Syracuse game to take a look around the

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league and explore who the best players in the country are. I’ll start with point guard and move down the numbers to fill in every position in what I consider to be the Evan Griffith Completely Accurate AllDivision I First Team.

T he starting point guard position goes to a player who, for a while, was the only consistent piece in his team’s starting rotation.

That player is Purdue University’s Carsen Edwards. Edwards is the only returning starter on a Purdue team that lost four seniors after a Sweet Sixteen run last year. Former Dartmouth player Evan Boudreaux was expected to come in and contribute some upperclassman leadership on a young team, but he’s lost playing time and currently only plays 27 percent of the team’s minutes. As Purdue found its stride and won 11 of its 14 conference games, Carsen Edwards has been the rock at the point guard position this team needed. Edwards leads the team in points per game with 24.4 (which is really needed because only one other player averages above 10) and assists per game with 3.2. One of his best performances actually came at a loss against the University of Texas, in which

Edwards made seven 3-pointers to go along with 40 points, in addition to four rebounds and three assists.

Edwards has never made it past the Sweet Sixteen during his college career, but he may be able to do it this year with the way his team is playing.

I’m cheating a little bit with this next pick for the best shooting guard in the country. One of Duke University’s all-star freshmen is the Canada-born RJ Barrett. ESPN lists him as a forward, which makes sense since Barrett weighs in at 6-foot-7 and 202 lbs. However, Barrett leads the team in points per game and is in fact the smallest player on the starting roster other than Tre Jones, whom ESPN lists as a guard and who takes the ball up the court more than Barrett does.

So Barrett is a really big shooting guard, and with an average of 22.7 points per game while shooting 44.8 percent from the field, he certainly plays like one. Barrett and Zion Williamson, whom we’ll talk about later, both have the size and shooting ability to be selected in the high picks of the NBA Draft, and I expect Barrett to stay in the top five.

There are many, many good forwards in the NCAA this season, including the University of Kansas’ Dedric Lawson and the front court player on AP’s No. 1 University of Tennessee, Grant Williams. I’m going to reward defense with my pick for the best

small forward in the country, Texas Tech University’s Jarrett Culver. Like with Purdue, Texas Tech underwent a lot of turnover after the team’s Elite Eight run last season. Culver, a 6-foot-5, 195-pound sophomore, leads Texas Tech in points per game with 17.7, rebounds per game with 6.3 and assists per game with 3.7. It’s his aggressive defense that makes Culver stand out. Culver, along with two other players on the Red Raiders, average at least one steal per game. This certainly attributes to Texas Tech currently leading the country in adjusted defensive efficiency, only allowing 84 points per 100 possessions.

The power forward position is taken up by the other player on Duke’s one-and-done ride and ESPN’s talking point of the year, Zion Williamson. Williamson is a physical specimen at 6-foot-7 and 285 pounds, but it’s hard to get across just how massive he is just by writing numbers on paper.

Williamson, who leads his team in rebounds and steals per game and is second on the Blue Devils in points per game behind RJ Barrett, is comparable to Charles Barkley, who during his first season in the NBA was listed at 6-foot-6 and 282 pounds. The difference is that, according to Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, “He’s like Charles Barkley was, except he shoots better than Charles did.

And he’s not as fat.” If Williamson

entered the NBA right now, he’d be the second heaviest player in the league behind Boban Marjanovic, who weighs in at 7-foot-3, 290 pounds. Williamson is without a doubt a physical force, but the fact that he is able to continually disrupt an opposing team’s play while averaging 20 points per game is something special.

The best center in the league goes to the University of Wisconsin’s Ethan Happ, who is the only true senior among these five players.

Happ, who’s built like a true five measuring 6 feet 10 inches and 237 pounds, is currently averaging a double-double with 18.4 points and 10.5 rebounds per game. I’m of the opinion that if Zion hadn’t gone to Duke and was instead in the NBA right now, as he should be, everyone in the country would be talking about Happ as the best player in college basketball. He can score, rebound and guard opposing teams’ best players, such as when he held star freshman Iggy Brazdeikis to zero points in Wisconsin’s win over previously undefeated Michigan.

So, there’s my list: Edwards, Barrett, Culver, Williamson and Happ. If I had to pick some honorable mentions, including Lawson and Williams, I’d include Michig an State Univer sity’s Cassius Winston and Gonzaga University’s Brandon Clarke.

Look out for all these names come March.

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SPORTS

Contributions from younger players anchor men’s basketball

a class of three recruits, including Evan Boudreaux and Michael Stones.

Stones transferred to Palm Beach In the midst of one of its better Atlantic University after his freshman seasons in recent years, one might year, and Boudreaux graduated in guess that the Dartmouth men’s three years and transferred to Purdue basketball team would be senior-heavy. University with two years of eligibility Generally, when a team gets better remaining. and better each season, it’s because With only one senior, McLaughlin it doesn’t lose many key contributors has turned to his juniors to take a and its current players continue to leadership role. For what the team improve all the way through their lacks in quantity of seniors, it makes senior seasons. up for with quantity of juniors. Three After a disappointing 7-20 season of the team’s five regular starters last year that marked the team’s 19th (Brendan Barry ’20, James Foye ’20 straight year without a winning record, and Ian Sistare ’20) are juniors, with Dartmouth now stands at 11-13. Its Foye and Sistare serving as the other Ivy League record is a disappointing two captains. Ian Carter ’20 and Will 2-6 due to five losses by five points Emery ’20 are also key contributors or fewer in conference play, but as a to the team. whole, the team has made significant “They’re upperclassmen,” progress this season.

McLaughlin said. “They trained like Somehow, the team has done this it this summer and have acted like it with just one senior, captain Guilien since we got to practice in terms of Smith ’19, who has been injured for their approach. They got themselves almost the entire season. For almost into elite shape, which really set the the entire season, the Big Green has tone for the rest of the team.” been the only Ivy League team to not Foye is one of those juniors who start a single senior. trained hard in the offseason and has When healthy, Smith plays a taken on a much more significant huge role on role this season. the team. He “Our number one He only averaged av e r a g e d a 10.6 minutes per priority is that we stellar 12 points game and 1.5 per game as a want guys who love points per game sophomore, in his sophomore basketball.

If they love but he has only campaign, yet he started eight hoops and want to was chosen as a games in the get better, we have a captain and has past two seasons increased his due to injury. He good thing for them. scoring totals to missed a span The type of guys who 10.1 points per of two months game this season. can buy into our work in the middle “It’s something of this season culture are the type of that you grow and has still seen guys we want in this into,” Foye said. limited minutes “Having a big as he continues program, which has class helps a lot to ease his way been our main point because we’ve back into the come up together, of emphasis hitting the lineup. can lean on each While Smith recruiting trail.” other and have the hasn’t been same leadership able to make challenges. It’s -HEAD COACH DAVID as much of an been a big jump impact due to MCLAUGHLIN for me, but those his injuries, guys have been a h ead c oach big help.”

David McLaughlin indicated that In addition to a strong junior class, he’s done a phenomenal job fulfilling the team also has six sophomores. his duties as one of the team’s three This includes its leading scorer Chris captains.

Knight ’21, regular starter Aaryn “As a leader you have to be selfless, Rai ’21 and frequent starter Adrease and he’s been that,” McLaughlin Jackson ’21. The sophomore class said. “He has to put others in front was the first that McLaughlin, in his of himself, and that’s not easy to do third year as head coach, recruited through injuries.” with his staff. He had a set of specific Smith came to Dartmouth in qualities that he and his staff looked

By Baily Deeter

The Dartmouth Staff

ALEX FREDMAN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Captain Guilien Smith ’19 is the only senior on the men’s basketball roster this season.

for in evaluating new recruits.

“Our number one priority is that we want guys who love basketball,” McLaughlin said. “If they love hoops and want to get better, we have a good thing here for them. The type of guys who can buy into our work culture are the type of guys we want in this program, which has been our main point of emphasis hitting the recruiting trail.”

With those criteria in mind, McLaughlin brought in a freshman class consisting of Taurus Samuels ’22, Garrison Wade ’22 and Wes Slajchert ’22. All three have impressed this season, with Samuels flashing lots of potential as a superstar in the making.

In addition to all of those young players gaining a year of experience, the team will also gain another player to offset the loss of Smith. Guard Trevon Ary-Turner ’21, who transferred from Weber State University, will be eligible to play next year. He’s been practicing with the team throughout the season, meaning he’s already familiar with the offense and should be able to transition effectively.

“Whenever you have continuity, it helps in the offseason a lot because you don’t have to spend a ton of time going over basic concepts or putting in a whole new offense,” Foye said.

“You can spend time getting better at the little things.”

Needless to say, there’s a lot for the Big Green to look forward to.

“The future is really bright,” Foye

said. “Coach McLaughlin is building the Big Green into the conference something special.” tournament to compete for a spot in Given that the Big Green has been the NCAA Tournament. so competitive in most of its Ivy League “That’d be huge for us,” Samuels losses, all it needs to do is turn some said. of those close losses into wins with The Ivy League tournament a couple more has only been key plays down “Whenever you have around for the stretch. That three years, but continuity, it helps in makes the outlook the Big Green for the future more the offseason a lot historically promising but also because you don’t hasn’t been a reinforces how h u g e t h re at have to spend a ton of important the to win the rest of the season time going over basic conference is. McLaughlin, even before the while hopeful concepts or putting in tournament for the future, is a whole new offense. was around. fully focused on You can spend time With that said, accomplishing the making and team’s goals on a getting better at the winning the day-by-day basis. little things.” tournament “Instead of would be even talking about next more important year, we’re talking -JAMES FOYE ’20 for the program. about whether we “I’m got better today,” sure that would McLaughlin said. “That’s much more make our alumni very proud to be part process-oriented versus looking too far of [the program],” Samuels said. into the future.”

The Big Green will travel to Brown At 2-6 in Ivy League play, University and Yale University next Dartmouth is still in play to make the weekend for two more road games Ivy League tournament by finishing before returning home the following in the top four of the conference, weekend. Look for the team to although it would probably have to continue with its day-by-day approach win out or potentially win five of its as it aims to finish the 2018-19 season next six to accomplish this goal. With on a strong note before transitioning six Ivy League games remaining, a into what’s sure to be an exciting 2019strong finish to the season could vault 20 campaign.