Club Sports
By Cecily Kaya
Published on Monday, October 16, 2006
The Dartmouth women's rugby team dominated Williams College at Brophy Field this past Saturday in a 45-0 shutout.
Kirsten Ahrendt '07 scored the first try on a breakaway run and converted the ball. Freshman Carolina Cima '10 scored twice for the Big Green with Ahrendt recording both tries. Dartmouth controlled the game from the start and kept Williams down, ending the first half at 21-0.
The rout was "a battle of the forwards, with lots of wheeled scrums, good lineouts, good hands in the backline and a good integration of backs and forwards," Mallory McQueen '09 said.
The sound victory bolstered the team's chances of entering the playoffs this year.
However, to ensure a trip to the postseason, the squad still needs to take down the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in its match next week. The men's water polo team also brought victory home to Hanover. Two weekends ago the Big Green swept the Eastern Region teams of the North Atlantic Division. In one tournament the team went from being unranked to 18th in the country.
The contest against Middlebury, Dartmouth's biggest rival, was the most exciting game of the weekend. With the help of four goals by Mike Bazylewicz (DMS) and consistent goal tending by Kyle Finnegan '09, the Big Green earned their first win against the Panthers in two seasons.
The men carried their winning streak on to Bowdoin College the next weekend, where they faced off against Bowdoin, the University of Vermont, Bates College and Middlebury, and again found victory as they swept the field and took first place in the tournament.
"Our success this season is due to having only graduated one starter last season, and how deep the team has become with the addition of several new freshmen and sophomores," said Porter Diehl '09.
The team's makeup is rather eclectic. Because of the program's club status, graduate students are eligible for the squad, so the team melds underclassman enthusiasm with graduate student talent, some of whom played for varsity programs at their various alma maters.
The men in green are working toward the NAD championship tournament on Oct. 27 and 28 where they will again battle against the Eastern region teams in order to compete for the national title.