Women's Volleyball -- In her fourth year with the Big Green women's volleyball team, Kristen Shockley has been promoted to Associate Head Coach. Shockley has worked in Hanover since leaving DePauw University in 2002. She was the assistant coach for a Tigers team that went 59-12 over a two-season span. Shockley also had an impressive career as a two-sport athlete in college, playing both basketball and volleyball at Ohio Wesleyan University. She finished off her playing career with an NCAA Woman of the Year nomination in 2000.
In other volleyball news, Jess Thomas '09 was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week after propelling the Big Green to the Red Fox Classic tournament title. The freshman standout recorded 41 kills, 32 digs and eight blocks in three matches. Following her performance in Dartmouth's own invitiational last weekend, Thomas was also named the Big Green Sports Weekly's Female Athlete of the Week.
Women's Ice Hockey -- The Big Green women icers were chosen to finish second in the ECACHL by the league's coaches and third by the media upon the release of both major polls last week. Dartmouth has reached the NCAA's Frozen Four in four of the past five years, losing last season to Minnesota in the semifinal round.
St. Lawrence and Harvard alternated as the number one pick in each ranking, with the Crimson taking the media poll and the Saints claiming number one amongst the coaches.
Men's Ice Hockey -- Though opening night is still a week away, the odds of Lee Stempniak '05 getting to play in the National Hockey League in the 2005-06 season look promising. Wearing #65 for the St. Louis Blues in their exhibition games, Stempniak's name has remained on the team's ever dwindling roster through the first half of the preseason schedule. The former Big Green captain even notched an assist in a contest against the Nashville Predators.
Were he to suit up for the Blues this year, Stempniak would be the first Dartmouth alum to play in the NHL since the 1998-99 season when Scott Fraser '94 was on the ice for the New York Rangers.
His former teammates Hugh Jessiman '06 and Trevor Byrne '03 are less likely to begin the season competing for Lord Stanley's Cup.
It is expected Jessiman will make his professional debut with the American Hockey League's Hartford Wolfpack, a minor league affiliate of the Rangers. Byrne has already been sent to the Blues' AHL affiliate, the Peoria Rivermen.
Football -- After getting released by the Miami Dolphins following a coaching change, on Sunday former Big Green quarterback Jay Fiedler '94 saw time under center as a New York Jet.
In the first half of the Jets' contest against the Jacksonville Jaguars, starting QB Chad Pennington had to come out of the game with an aggravated shoulder injury and Fiedler stepped in to complete two of three passes.
Unfortunately for the 10-year veteran signal-caller, that's all he was able to play. No sooner had he come into relieve Pennington's ailing shoulder than Fiedler sustained a shoulder injury of his own, forcing Pennington to come back into the game.
On Tuesday, Jets coach Herman Edwardsa announced that 41-year old Vinny Testaverde had signed on the dotted line with the Jets and would be either a starter or a backup QB with Pennington projected to be out for the season. (For more on the Jets' predicament, see page nine.
