After a successful weekend on the road against league foes Brown University and Yale University, the Women's basketball team heads home to Leede Arena for crucial weekend engagements against Columbia University and Cornell University.
Last weekend's success was highlighted by a hard-fought 59-55 defeat of two-time defending Ivy League champion Brown on Friday. Sally Annis '97 emerged as a star for the Big Green, as she poured in a career-high 23 points against Brown, followed by 22 points against Yale the following night.
Dartmouth handed the Bears their first home loss of the season. The win propelled Dartmouth to the top of the standings in the Ivy League.
After a tough loss to Yale last Saturday, the Big Green stand at 9-8 overall, 4-1 in the Ivy League.
Heading into this weekend's carnival action, Ilsa Webeck '94 remains among the league leaders in rebounding (3rd: 9.6 rebounds per game), field goal percentage (5th: 44 percent) and blocked shots (2nd: 2.1 blocks per game).
"Obviously we hope to make a clean sweep this weekend, but Cornell and Columbia have made a good showing this year so these games are going to be good ones," Webeck said.
Guard Betsy Gilmore '94 leads the league in steals, averaging four per game and is second in assists, averaging just under five per game.
As a team, the women are second in the league in field goal proficiency (41 percent) and are second in the league in defensive field goal percentage, allowing a their opponents a stingy 38 percent mark from the field.
Preseason polls placed the Big Green as far down as fifth in the league. Heading into this weekend's action, Dartmouth is in prime contention for the Ivy Title and the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament that comes with the distinction.
"Our loss this weekend really opened our eyes to the fact that this Ivy race has really just begun. The climb to the top has started with a fight at the bottom," Webeck said.
On Friday night, the Big Green will face Columbia, who has stumbled along at a .500 clip throughout their 1993-94 campaign.
Last year, Dartmouth trounced the Lions in both contests, 72-36 and 69-58.
Cornell comes to Leede Arena on Saturday after splitting last year's season series with Dartmouth.
The Big Red have been having problems of late, hovering among the lower echelon of teams in the league.
With nine contests including this week's action remaining on the schedule, the Big Green look optimistically toward winning their 10th Ivy League title and returning to past prominence under head coach Chris Wielgus. Wielgus guided Dartmouth to four straight Ivy League titles from 1980-83 before joining the coaching ranks of the United States Women's Basketball team.
