The Dartmouth 02/24/2020

02.24.20

The Weekend Roundup p. 2-3

No. 18 women’s lacrosse off to 2-0 start after winning home opener p. 7

Men’s hockey approaches final weekend at sixth place in ECAC p. 8

Men’s basketball nears elimination after split weekend at home p. 4 NAINA BHALLA/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

SW 2

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2020

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

The weekend Roundup Compiled by Boyd Bragg and ethan strauss

softball

The softball team traveled to Charleston, SC to open up its season in the Charleston Classic. On Friday, Dartmouth started its season with a true test against the No. 25 Virginia Tech. The Big Green opened up the first inning strong by leading 2-0, but Virginia Tech answered in the second inning with four runs. The Hokies put the game away in the third inning by smacking seven hits and eight runs to extend their lead to 12-2.

In the second game of the doubleheader, Dartmouth earned its first victory of the season by shutting out the College of Charleston in a 2-0 victory. Brooke Plonka ’22 struck out 14 batters and allowed only four hits in a stellar performance. Abby Shipley ’21 knocked in two RBIs by driving in Micah Schroder ’20 and Calista Almer ’20 in the third inning.

In the second day of the Charleston Classic, Dartmouth once again went 1-1 by losing to the United States Military Academy and beating Ohio University. The Big Green lost 12-4 against Army after the Golden Knights went for a six-

run second inning. The Big Green earned two runs in the third to cut its deficit to four, but could not keep up with the batting power of Army in the fifth and sixth innings.

In the second game of the Big Green’s doubleheader, Dartmouth bested Ohio University 6-4. Schae Nelson ’21 went 2-3 with a home run, Schroder scored two runs and Shipley had two hits and an RBI. Pitchers Plonka and Madie Augusto ’22 combined for two strikeouts in the game.

The final game of the weekend for the Big Green was a thrilling 2-1 win in eight innings over North Carolina A&T State University. Brooke Plonka 22 and Madie Augusto ’22 combined for a no-hitter, with Plonka striking out five batters in 3.2 innings.

After an unearned run tied the game in the fifth inning, Loghan Thomas ’20 hit a walk-off double in the eighth inning to give the Big Green its third win of the weekend.

After going 3-2 on the weekend, Dartmouth will travel to Longwood, FL next weekend and play five more nonconference games in three days.

w squash The weekend, the women’s squash team finished second at the College Squash Association Kurtz Cup Championship in New Haven, CT. The team was seeded first in the tournament after finishing the regular season at No. 9 in the national rankings.

In the first round, the Big Green faced Bates College. The team fared well in the match, sweeping six of the matches. Caroline Mollenkopf ’22 held her opponent to just 11 points in the Big Green’s most convincing win of the day.

Eventually, the Big Green won the match 9-0 as Claire Aube ’23 and Emma MacTaggart ’22 finished in four games.

On Saturday, the team took down Brown University in the semifinals by a score of 8-1. Jesse Brownell ’23 recorded the team’s only sweep of

the day. Four of the Big Green’s victories went to five games, while the other three were won in four. Emma Supattapone ’23 won at the No. 2 position 11-8, 11-8, 9-11, 3-11, 11-6 and Claire Aube ’23 won at the No. 4 6-11, 11-7, 11-5, 6-11, 11-8.

On Sunday, the Kurtz Cup Championship concluded with the final between Dartmouth and the University of Virginia. The Cavaliers took home the title, winning 6-3. Brownell won her match easily, and Aube and Mollenkopf won their matches in five games. Those were the only wins the Big Green could muster, as Virginia won the Kurtz Cup. All that remains for the Big Green’s season is the CSA Individual Championships in Philadelphia, which start on March 6.

w hockey This weekend, the women’s ice hockey team closed out its season, losing to St. Lawrence University 3-2 on Friday and Clarkson University 2-1 on Saturday.

Against St. Lawrence, the Big Green fell behind early, allowing one goal in at the end of the first period and two more in the second. The Big Green fought back in the third, with Lotti Odnoga ’22 scoring during a power-play opportunity. A few minutes later, Currie Putrah ’23 added another goal to make it a one-score game. However, even with a 21-shot third period, the Big Green was unable

to complete the comeback win.

On Saturday, the Big Green came out strong against Clarkson, with Georgia Kraus ’23 scoring the first goal of the game. The team fought to preserve the lead, but the Golden Knights countered with consecutive goals in the second and third periods. The game was senior night for the team’s four seniors Bailee Brekke ’20, Charlie Plumb ’20, Christina Rombaut ’20 and Sydney Hill ’20.

The Big Green finished the season at 7-19-3, sitting at 10th in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference standings.

w swimming & diving Zachary ZacharyBenjamin Benjamin’19 ’19

Debora Hyemin Han ’20 Editor-in-Chief Editor-in-Chief Editor-in-Chief

Hanting Hanting Guo Guo ’19 ’19

Aidan Sheinberg ’20 Publisher Publisher Publisher

Ioana IoanaSolomon Solomon’19 ’19

02.24.20 Vol.CLXXV CLXXVI No. 4.30.18 4.23.18 Vol. Vol. CLXXV No. No. 27 21142

Amanda AmandaZhou Zhou ’19 Alex Fredman ’20 ’19 Executive Editors Executive Editors Executive Editor

Addison Dick ’22 Mark Cui ’19 Justin Kramer ’21 Justin Kramer ’21 Samantha Hussey Lili Stern ’22 ’20 Associate Sports Editor Sports Editors Sports Editors Divya Divya Kopalle Kopalle ’21 ’21 Naina Bhalla ’22 Michael Michael Lin Lin ’21 ’21 Lorraine Liu ’22 Photography Photography Editors Editors Photography Editors Jaclyn Jaclyn Eagle Eagle ’19 ’19 Grant Pinkston ’23 Templating Templating Editor Editor Templating Editor

This weekend, the Dartmouth women’s swimming and diving team finished seventh at the Ivy League Championship in Providence, RI. On day one of the meet, the Big Green team of Christina Cianciolo ’23, Mia Leko ’22, Summer Martin ’21 and Ashley Post ’22, finished fourth in the 800 free relay, breaking a school record set last season. On Thursday, Leko finished 12th in the 500 free, and Post, Zoe Wortzman ’22 and Katherine Cane ’21 finished 10th through 12th in the B final of 50 free. The Big Green capped off the first two days with a third-place finish in the 200 free relay.

The following day, the Big Green racked up an additional 22 and 54 points in the 400 IM and 200

free, respectively. In the 200 free, Leko finished sixth and Post finished eighth. To close out the day, the Big Green picked up points in the 100 breast, 100 back and 400 medley relay. To close out the competition, Susannah Laster ’22 placed 11th in the 200 back, and Sophie Smith ’20 finished 11th in the 100 free. Leko also won third place in the 200 butterfly. The Big Green team composed of Leko, Post, Smith and Wortzman finished fourth in the 400 free relay, breaking a 2013 school record.

The Big Green will have a few weeks off before March 12, when the College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America National Invitational Championship kicks off in Cleveland on the campus of Cleveland State University.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2020

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

m basketball

The men’s basketball team split games at home to the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University this weekend. Trevon Ary-Turner ’22 and Chris Knight ’21 carried the Big Green to victory on Friday against Penn in a 66-59 victory.

Ary-Turner had 16 points and Knight added 16 of his own to even the season series against the Quakers. The team led 28-27 at half and opened up its lead with 13 minutes remaining in the second half. It was the third straight win for the Big Green, its longest streak this season in Ivy League play.

On Saturday, Dartmouth fell short against Princeton despite a late comeback effort. The Big Green trailed by as many as 17 points in the first

m lacrosse Men’s lacrosse improved to 2-0 after the program’s first ever win against Bryant University on Saturday. The home victory was due to the Big Green’s fourth quarter performance, as the team edged out Bryant by scoring six unanswered goals to win 11-8. After trailing 8-5 with 10 minutes left, Mitchell Myers ’23 won key faceoffs to give the Big Green opportunities to score. The scoring was led by Matt Paul ’21 and Ben Martin ’20, who had three goals each, while George Prince ’21 had two goals. In net, Daniel Hincks ’22 made 10 saves.

The Big Green, which has already matched its season win total from last season, will try to continue its impressive start when it goes on the road to face the University of Massachusetts Lowell on Saturday.

half but closed the 31-14 score to a nine-point deficit at halftime. In the second half, the Big Green chipped away at the Tigers’ lead to eventually cut the game to 61-60 with 1:31 to go. Knight had another brilliant performance, recording 27 points and 13 rebounds. Aaryn Rai ’21 contributed 17 points and four rebounds in 33 minutes of play.

On a last-second drive, Knight missed a potential game-winning layup, and the Tigers edged out the win.

Now holding a 10-15 record and a 3-7 record in Ivy play, the Big Green will go on the road next weekend to face Cornell University and Columbia University.

w lacrosse

No. 18 women’s lacrosse cruised to a commanding 16-8 win against Boston University in the team’s home opener on Saturday. The win was led by Katie Bourque ’20, who put up five goals and seven points in a career-high effort. This win follows an impressive victory against the No. 13 University of Massachusetts, putting the Big Green at 2-0 for the season.

Sophia Turchetta ’20 contributed to the win with a hat trick, while three other players put up two goals.

Kiera Vrindten ’20 had four saves for the Big Green off of BU’s 12 shots on goal. Dartmouth was able to successfully force turnovers in the game while only losing the ball 11 times. The Big Green opened up the game on a 4-0 run and kept the lead throughout the entire game.

Dartmouth will face Brown University in Providence next Saturday in its first Ivy League test of the year.

baseball The baseball team opened up its season by being shutout against Indiana State University in Port Charlotte, FL, losing 1-0 in its first game of the Snowbird Classic. Dartmouth held the game even until the seventh inning when Indiana State drilled a home run. Austen Michel ’20 returned to play after missing nearly his entire junior year with an injury.

Jack Metzger ’23 got the call to pitch the final four outs in his debut.

On Saturday, Dartmouth split a doubleheader against Chicago State University. The Big Green won the first game 6-2 with the help of Ubaldo Lopez ’21, who went 3-4 with two doubles, a run and an RBI. Pitcher Trystan Sarcone ’22 allowed one run in four

innings to earn his first collegiate victory. In the second game of the doubleheader, the Big Green was shut out in a 3-0 defeat. Pitcher Jonah Jenkins ’21 held the game even in the first five innings, but allowed the Cougars to score once in the sixth inning and twice in the seventh inning.

The Big Green concluded its weekend with a 8-1 win over the University of Nebraska Omaha. Justin Murray ’22 pitched seven shutout innings, and Kolton Freeman ’23 as well as Kade Kretzschmar ’22 drove in two runs.

Dartmouth (2-2) will travel to Charlottesville, Virginia to face the University of Virginia for a threegame series next weekend.

SW 3

w basketball

The women’s basketball team struggled on the road this past weekend against the University of Pennsylvania and No. 25 Princeton University. The team suffered two blowout losses, first against Penn 6731, then to Princeton, 87-55. The Big Green was able to keep the game close in the opening minutes against Penn but fell back and allowed Penn to run away with the lead. Dartmouth struggled on the offensive end, putting up four and five points in the second and fourth quarters respectively. The Big Green shot 19.7 percent from the

floor and turned the ball over 18 times.

On Saturday, the Big Green traveled to Princeton to face the No. 25 Tigers. The team was highly competitive in the first half, trailing by only two points at halftime. The second half, however, was a different story. The Big Green allowed the Princeton offense to explode and was outscored by 30 points.

Dartmouth (8-15, 2-8 Ivy) will try to avenge its two losses this past weekend as it will host Cornell University and Columbia University next weekend.

m hockey The men’s hockey team went 1-1 on the road this weekend, defeating St. Lawrence University 5-2 and losing to No. 5 Clarkson University 4-0.

The Big Green’s performance against St. Lawrence was highlighted

by Drew O’Connor ’22’s two-goal game. Dartmouth started the night off with defenseman Brendan Demler ’21 netting his first goal of the season. The Big Green dominated the first period with a 20-2 shot advantage but entered the second period tied at 1-1.

Next, O’Connor scored his first of the night and Tanner Palocsik ’23 quickly added another. O’Connor and Will Graber ’20 would add

goals, securing the win for the Big Green.

Against Clarkson, Dartmouth was able to hold the Golden Knights to a single goal in the first two periods. However, Clarkson was soon able to tally another three goals to secure the win. The game was the first time this season that the Big Green has been held scoreless.

The Big Green, sitting at 12-11-4 and sixth in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference standings, will stay home next weekend to face Union College and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The game against RPI will be one of the Big Green’s biggest tests so far and could have postseason implications.

w tennis

The women’s tennis team played two matches at home this weekend, defeating the University of Massachusetts 4-1 and falling to Michigan State University on Sunday.

Against UMass, the Big Green started out behind, dropping the doubles point as No. 1 doubles Abigail Chiu ’21 and Chidimma Okpara ’23 and No. 3 doubles Catherine Cable ’20 and Emily Zhou ’23 both lost 7-5.

That would be the Minutewomen’s sole point of the night, as Dartmouth would start singles with four straight victories. Jennifer Gadalov ’23 tied

the match, winning 6-3, 6-1 at the No. 6 position. Chuyang Guan ’20 and Ashley Hess ’23 soon followed, winning 6-4, 6-2 and 6-2, 6-3 respectively. Jingyi Peng ’22 clinched the victory winning 6-3, 6-1 at the No. 2 spot.

On Sunday, the Big Green fell 4-2 to the Spartans of Michigan State, losing the doubles point and only winning two singles matches.

Next weekend, the Big Green will travel to Boston University on Saturday before a break in the schedule until mid-March.

SW 4

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2020

Men’s basketball nears elimination after split weekend at home B y DEVAN FINK

The Dartmouth Staff

After sweeping its first Ivy League back-to-back in five years last weekend, the Dartmouth men’s basketball team (10-15, 3-7 Ivy) was mere inches away from doing so again.

A resounding 66-59 victory versus the University of Pennsylvania (1310, 5-5 Ivy) on Friday extended the Big Green’s winning streak to three, but a heartbreaking 65-62 loss to Princeton University (1211, 7-3 Ivy) on Saturday all-buteliminated Dartmouth from Ivy League Tournament contention.

“Unfortunately, we can’t change anything about what we did this weekend,” said Aaryn Rai ’21.

In both contests, the offense continued to score efficiently. Against Penn, in particular, the Big Green never took its foot off the gas. The Quakers only had two leads the entire game — going in front 17-16 with 7:20 to go in the first half, and taking a 29-28 lead on the first play of the second.

Three players finished the night with double-digit point totals, including Trevon Ary-Turner ’22, who scored a Dartmouth career-high 16 points on five-of-seven shooting from the field, including two 3-pointers.

Ary-Turner’s contributions off the bench represented a rarity for the Big Green, who have struggled to benefit from consistent scoring beyond the starting five.

Granted, both Rai and Chris Knight ’21 had excellent nights on Friday as well, scoring 18 and 16 points, respectively. James Foye ’20, too, had plenty of opportunities to score, finishing third on the team in field goal attempts, but went just two-of-nine with five points. In all, 62.5 percent of Dartmouth’s field goals on Friday night were taken by the team’s three major contributors, a continuation of what has been an increased emphasis to get the ball in its efficient scorers’ hands more often.

Rai, for one, single-handedly kept Penn from making any comeback attempt in the second half, scoring each of Dartmouth’s first 11 points

to open the frame. Then, Ary-Turner iced the game later in the half with a 3-pointer to extend Dartmouth’s lead to 10 with just 1:44 to go. For each potential Quaker comeback spark, Dartmouth had an answer.

On Saturday, it was nearly the opposite: Princeton had all the answers. Midway through the first half, the Tigers built a 17-point lead, and it appeared as if a rout would be in order. The Dartmouth defense was not stopping anything — from the opening tip, when Princeton’s Ethan Wright made a layup just three seconds in, it appeared as if the Big Green was always on its heels.

“Whenever you get down, you look up at the scoreboard and you think, ‘Chip away,’” Foye said. “When you’ve been around basketball a long time, you realize that there are swings. The biggest thing is just not panicking when you’re down.”

Dartmouth did chip away, and entered halftime down just nine, 33-24. The Tigers quickly pushed that back up to 14 thanks to uncharacteristically efficient 3-point shooting from Jaelin Llewellyn, who entered Saturday’s game shooting just 25.2 percent from beyond the arc. He got hot early, and finished the game five-of-seven from 3-point range, a career-high. The entire night, it appeared as if Princeton could limit any Big Green momentum with 3s.

In the last 9:05, Princeton made four important shots beyond the arc that kept its lead from completely falling apart.

“3s can be big,” Foye said. “I think it can be big for the other side — I don’t know that it changes our mindset — but it certainly gives them confidence. When you’re on the road and shots aren’t falling, it’s tough to play. They hit a couple big shots.”

Down nine with just 7:25 to go, the Big Green entered comeback mode, as it has all season. Knight took over, finishing the game with a tie for his career-high with 27 points on 13-of-19 shooting from the field.

He added 13 rebounds, which also tied his career-high. In the last two home weekends, Knight has played some of the best basketball of his

NAINA BHALLA/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

After beating Penn on Friday, the Big Green could not complete a second-half comeback and fell to Princeton.

college career, averaging 20.75 points and eight rebounds, while shooting 72.3 percent from the field.

He has also limited his fouls and turnovers, averaging just 1.5 and 2.3, respectively, in this stretch.

“Just belief,” Dartmouth head coach David McLaughlin said about Knight’s recent hot stretch.

“He has to believe that he can do this consistently. We know we want to play through him. He believes in himself, his teammates believe in him, his coaching staff believes in him, I believe in him. It’s just overall belief.”

Knight scored 17 of his 27 points in the second half, and when he had to go to the bench around the sevenminute mark to get a breather — “I do get tired,” he quipped — Rai picked up right where he left off, scoring six straight points, including a steal and fast-break layup that energized the Leede Arena crowd.

“I thought it was awesome,” McLaughlin said. “It wasn’t an, ‘Okay, let’s watch Dartmouth compete.’ It was more of a, ‘Let’s go watch Dartmouth beat Princeton.’

We’re making this community and this college believe that we can win consistently. That’s what we need here.”

Dartmouth cut Princeton’s lead to a single point on three separate occasions — 53-52 with 5:10 remaining, 61-60 with 1:31 remaining and 63-62 with 18 seconds remaining — but the shot to complete the comeback never fell.

The loss leaves Dartmouth at 3-7 in Ivy League play, still three games behind Brown University (13-10, 6-4 Ivy) for the crucial fourth slot in the conference standings.

Mathematically, there are still scenarios in which Dartmouth can make the tournament, according to college basketball statistician Luke Benz, but the team will need to win every single game left and get significant help from the rest of the conference.

“It’s going to be real tough,” Knight said. “We’re just going to go out there and play and see if miracles can happen.”

Even still, McLaughlin and his

players are keeping positive in spite of needing the near-impossible to go right.

“We’re going to have to have a great week of prep, and just take it game by game,” Foye said. “Crazy things can happen in this league, and we just have to put our head down.

Winning is motivation enough, but if we win enough and something crazy happens, that’s even greater.”

The team wraps up its road schedule next weekend with a traverse of New York, as the Big Green heads to Ithaca on Friday for a date with Cornell University (6-17, 3-7 Ivy) and then to the Big Apple on Saturday for a contest with Columbia University (6-20, 1-9 Ivy). The Big Green should have a good opportunity to win both games — KenPom gives the team a 49 percent chance to win against the Big Red and a 51 percent chance against the Lions.

“The outlook is Monday,” McLaughlin said. “As a coach, as a player, you can’t go more forward than that. You just have to win the day on Monday.”

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2020

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

SW 5

NAINA BHALLA/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Chris Knight had another strong weekend, scoring 16 points against Penn and 27 against Princeton.

NAINA BHALLA/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Aaryn Rai scored 18 points against Penn on Friday night.

SW 6

From the Bleachers with Baily Deeter ’22

From the Bleachers: XFL is Promising, But Not Enough to Give Up the Big League Chew The NFL season has unfortunately come to a close, which has left me with just about nothing to talk about during the last few weeks. I tend to think I’m less fun in the offseason, whereas most would probably just say that I’m less annoying. Nonetheless, with no college or NFL games to look forward to until September, I, along with many other middle-aged dads, find myself in desperate need of a new hobby.

I could try to find a new TV show, but I know I’ll eventually go back to my habit of watching old Family Guy episodes, so there isn’t much of a point.

I could take up running, but then my mom would get excited and drag me along on some of her six-mile runs, which is a deal-breaker for me. I could begin journaling, but my handwriting is so poor that I wouldn’t even be able to read what I wrote.

So after the Super Bowl, I decided that I only had one option: becoming a diehard XFL fan. For those who are unfamiliar, the XFL is a new professional football league owned by wrestling promoter Vince McMahon.

It aims to entertain bored football fans like myself during the long offseason, and so far, it’s off to a decent start.

According to Yahoo Finance, the debut game on ABC had 3.3 million viewers, which was more than the Duke-North Carolina basketball game the previous day.

The concept of the XFL is intriguing, although it’s not the first

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

time that someone tried to come up with an offseason football league. So far, the results haven’t been promising.

In fact, McMahon tried this same idea in 2001, and the original XFL garnered a whopping 15 million viewers in its debut. But the league burned out by the end of the year, inflicting a $35 million dent in McMahon’s bank account.

Last year, the Alliance of American Football attempted the same strategy, and it started on a positive note with 2.9 million viewers for its debut. But the league couldn’t even finish its first season, disbanding with a couple weeks left. Now, the XFL does appear much more promising than the AAF. It had more viewers in its debut and has also seen viewership rise throughout games, indicating a better quality of product.

However, as much as I want to fully invest myself in an offseason football league as an excuse to stay off the treadmill, I simply haven’t gotten myself to buy in as much as I’d like to. As much as I want to wanted to win more money off my poor brother (who, per column policy, will be roasted at least once per article) this week by taking my beloved Houston Roughnecks against the spread, I just can’t get myself excited for the league.

For starters, there’s no chance that any NFL players would ever spend their offseason risking injury in an inferior league, so the quality of competition is lower. The top 1,696 football players are on NFL rosters, and an additional 320 find themselves on NFL practice squads, so pickings are rather slim for the XFL. If I had walked on to the Dartmouth football team, put on 75 pounds of muscle and cut a second off my 40 time, I might have had a shot at a tryout. But instead, my keyboard called, and I answered.

Life goes on.

While I appreciate the reminder that the likes of Sammie Coates and Cardale Jones are still alive, there aren’t many big names that attract your average viewer to the league.

I’ve never heard of most XFL players — and imagine most fans are in the same boat — which makes it difficult to resonate with the league. Unless Tom Brady decides he’s had enough of the Patriots and wants to take his talents to the St. Louis Battlehawks, the league is going to have to survive

with subpar talent.

The biggest problem in that department is at the quarterback position. Plenty of NFL teams lack a serviceable starting quarterback, so it’s easy to see how the XFL is left without sufficient talent at the position. Watching Matt McGloin stumble with the Oakland Raiders was a painful experience for NFL fans, and watching him stumble with the New York Guardians is equally cringe-worthy. In last week’s game, he completed eight of his 19 passes for 44 yards and two interceptions. While my 0.2 touchdown-to-interception ratio on my JV football team wasn’t exactly ideal, I don’t think I could’ve done much worse than the Penn State burnout.

Additionally, part of the NFL’s glory is the buildup of the entire offseason, making the regular season that much more rewarding after seven months of mowing the lawn and doing Sudoku puzzles. If Christmas were every day, it would never feel like Christmas. Sometimes watching basketball or baseball is a nice change of pace, especially when March Madness takes center stage in, well, March.

It’s true that XFL viewership numbers only dropped 30 percent from Week 1 to Week 2. However, I imagine those numbers will steadily decline as the season continues. Let’s not forget that husbands around the country can no longer use football as an excuse to get out of chores and Little League baseball games.

Their wives may let them save the attic cleaning for the spring to watch Patrick Mahomes, but very few would let their husband skip Johnny’s fifthgrade Spelling Bee to watch Landry Jones.

While I don’t foresee success for the XFL, I do admire its attempt. It gave me something to write about in this week’s column and has provided me with a good excuse to procrastinate on weekends, which is more than any other league has done for me.

Unfortunately for McMahon and company, diehard NFL fans need to step away from America’s Game and delve into new endeavors; football season has run its course. It’s time for middle-aged dads to trade in Red Zone and Bud Light for Big League Chew and Johnny’s T-Ball quarterfinals.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2020

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2020

SW 7

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

No. 18 women’s lacrosse off to 2-0 start after winning home opener B y KAITLYN LEES

The Dartmouth Staff

The No. 18 Big Green women’s lacrosse team continued its strong start to the season with a 16-8 win over Boston University Saturday afternoon at Scully-Fahey Field.

Dartmouth put the pressure on the Terriers early and was able to keep it up the whole game. The 2019 Ivy League champions return to action next weekend at Brown University in its first conference game of the season.

After a quiet seven minutes, Claire Marshall ’21 put the first goal on the board for the Big Green. This started an offensive run for Dartmouth, which found itself up 4-0 a few minutes later with goals from Sophie Turchetta ’20, Katie Bourque ’20 and Ellie Carson ’20. BU scored the first time at the 18:11 mark. Two more goals from the Terriers put them within one with a little over ten minutes left in the half.

“Right off the bat, we knew BU was going to be a scrappy team,” said Dartmouth head coach Alex Frank. “In that first half, every little play that we didn’t finish they came up with and capitalized, so we just had to keep battling hard to make sure we were finishing those plays.”

On defense, that meant focusing on picking up ground balls and on offense working to finish shots. The Terriers and Big Green traded goals to bring the score to 5-4. After the home team put one more up, the Terriers scored with a free position shot to remain within one. However, this was the closest BU would come to overtaking the Big Green for the rest of the game. After getting the ball back, Dartmouth scored twice within the last two minutes, with Mimi Lazore ’23 securing her first career goal.

The Big Green set the tone of the half early with three goals in the first eight minutes. Bourque, who has been an All-Ivy selection

twice, thought the team did well at slowing the game down on offense and finding openings. Despite a close exchange between the two teams in the first half, Dartmouth maintained its comfortable lead throughout the second. A goal from Marshall assisted by Lazore put the home team ahead by seven.

The Dartmouth defense was able to keep BU to just two goals during the second half. Meanwhile, the offense provided four more goals in the last 12 minutes. As the clock wound down, the Big Green ended the day with a 16-8 win against the Terriers.

Bourque said that playing the first home game of the season was a strong motivating factor in the team’s success. She added that she thought they worked really well as a team. Indeed, Dartmouth’s 16 goals came from seven different players.

The Dartmouth offense outshot the Terriers 35-18. This was eight more shots than the team took

in its last outing. The Big Green also racked up 14 drawn controls compared to 11 against UMass. The defense had 11 caused turnovers, up from seven against UMass, and only allowed Boston four free-position shots which they only converted once. Meanwhile, BU only had five caused turnovers and 15 overall.

Dartmouth also had 17 ground balls to BU’s 11. After the UMass game, Frank, in her first year as head coach of the Big Green, said the team focused on transitions and preventing turnovers. This week, the Big Green was able to cut its turnovers in half from twenty-two last week to eleven against BU. “It’s always good to see that when you focus on something and it’s able to be executed,” Frank said.

Turchetta said that the team worked on playing smart this week.

Bourque had one of her best games with five goals, seven points and seven drawn controls. Turchetta had three goals, while fellow senior Tori

Chenenchuk ’20 had four points and three assists. Marshall, Carson and Veta Mayer ’21 each secured two goals for the Big Green as well.

Goaltender Kiera Vrindten ’20 had four saves on the day. Dartmouth is now 7-2 against BU since 2010.

Last week, the Big Green triumphed over No. 13 University of Massachusetts 15-11 in its first game of the season. This gave them a significant boost in the national rankings. Turchetta thought the team played well against UMass, but there remained room for improvement.

Dartmouth now heads into conference play next weekend.

Despite the dominant win, Frank said the team has areas to improve on and will look at the game film to address them before the start of Ivy League play.

Dartmouth will head down to Providence, RI for its first conference game of the season against Brown University next weekend.

SW 8

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2020

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

SPORTS

Men’s hockey approaches final weekend at sixth place in ECAC B y OLIVIA MORTON The Dartmouth Staff

This past weekend, the Dartmouth men’s hockey team took to the road for its final set of away games in the regular season. Defeating St. Lawrence University 5-2 on Friday but falling 4-0 to No. 5 Clarkson University on Saturday, the Big Green came out of the weekend with two points, and is now ranked sixth in the Eastern College Athletic Conference.

Friday night was a high-scoring day for the Big Green on all fronts. Five players had multi-point games, and forward Drew O’Connor ’22 scored twice to tie Harvard’s Jack Drury for the lead in goal-scoring in the ECAC. The scoring began just three minutes into the first period, with Brendan Demler ’21 scoring the first goal of the game and his first goal of the season to give the Big Green an early lead. St. Lawrence found the back of the net just five minutes later, and the score stuck at 1-1 for the remainder of the first period.

David Jankowski took the lead for the Saints on a shot netted during a power play 13 minutes into the second frame, but O’Connor and Tanner Palocsik ’23 quickly shut down any hope of the Saints maintaining that lead. Three minutes later, O’Connor scored his sixteenth goal of the season and Palocsik followed up just 60 seconds later to take back the lead for the Big Green.

“It was a big goal at the time,” Palocsik said. “I was just trying to get the puck on net. We had guys going to the net and at that point in the game where it’s tied you’re just trying to look for any bounce you can get, and fortunately I got to get one in there.”

The Saints would not find the back of the net for the remainder of the

game, and both Jeff Losurdo ’22 and Will Graber ’20 would score in the third frame for the Big Green. Graber’s goal came on an empty net with just nineteen seconds left in the contest, and when the clock expired, the score read 5-2 in Dartmouth’s favor.

“The St. Lawrence team was really hard to play against,” said head coach Bob Gaudet ’81. “They’re a big, strong, tough team, and they came out the next night and beat Harvard 6-3. They’re playing good hockey so it was a good win for us.”

On Saturday, the team traveled down the road to Potsdam to take on Clarkson for the second time this season. Currently ranked in second place in the ECAC, Clarkson lost 3-2 in Hanover earlier this season and came out strong and looking for vengeance.

“The next night we played really, really well coming out of the gate,” Gaudet said. “We very easily could have been up two or three nothing in the first period and it just didn’t go in for us.”

The first period ended scoreless for both sides; the first tally of the game came for the home team four minutes into the middle frame. The next three goals for the Golden Knights came in the third period, the final goal on an empty net.

“They’re a legitimate national championship caliber team and we beat them here, but this game obviously wasn’t a 4-0 game — we pulled the goalie to try and get something going late in the game,” Gaudet said. “They’re a good team, and I give them credit; they played hard, we played hard, and I would just like to see a couple of good bounces go our way.”

The Big Green had multiple opportunities but was unable to capitalize against the Golden Knights.

COURTESY OF DREW O’CONNOR

Drew O’Connor has 17 goals this season, tying him for the league lead in the ECAC.

One big chance came for Palocsik in the middle frame, but the puck just missed, hitting the upper crossbar.

During a third-period offensive surge, Quin Foreman ’21 called for a videoreview on a thought-to-be goal, but there was not enough video evidence to overturn the initial no-goal call by the referees.

“That was close — that was a bit of a dagger, because it would’ve made it 2-1 at the time, and I think shortly after they went up three nothing so if we could’ve gotten that goal it might have been a different outcome down the end of the line,” Palocsik said.

Looking ahead to next weekend, the Big Green play its final games of

the regular season in Thompson Arena against Union College and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Gaudet said he expects that, late in the season, those games are going to be tough matchups for the Big Green.

“Both teams are going to be tough physical games, so that’s what we’re going to work on in practice,” he said.

“The grind of the game this time of year, it’s such a physical battle so we just got to be prepared, have short, crisp practices, work on our good execution and our good habits and get ready to battle. I’m glad we’re at home — we get to play in front of our own fans, and this will be good prep for the playoffs, important games for

us.”

The game on Saturday night against RPI will honor the team’s nine seniors in their last game on home ice during their time at Dartmouth.

Both games will be a physical struggle, but the team is ready to battle both mentally and physically for what are critical four points looking ahead at the post-season.

“I think we need to come with the same kind of attitude and mentality that we did this past weekend,” said Palocsik. “It’s coming down to playoff time now, and the hardest working teams are gonna get the wins, so we just need to come with the attitude that we have to outwork these teams.”