Captain Ashley Gleason '09, in her final year with the team, said words cannot explain her feelings of excitement over the win.
"I don't even know. We're just very, very excited, very pumped for next weekend," she said.
After being swept at home on Saturday by the Crimson (26-15, 12-8 Ivy), the Big Green (22-20, 13-7 Ivy) stormed back to sweep Harvard in Cambridge 2-0 and 5-2 to finish off the series. The wins were just enough for the Big Green to squeak out the Ivy League North Division by a game and earn a date with South Division champion Cornell (40-10, 17-3 Ivy) for the Ivy title.
"We've always been very resilient this year, and we left what happened yesterday at our field and brought a ton of energy today and left everything we had on that field today, and I think that's what helped us defeat Harvard today," Gleason said.
Entering the weekend, the Big Green was in good position to win the North Division for the first time since the Ivy League instituted divisions in 2007. Dartmouth, which had led the division for the majority of the season, held a one-game lead over Harvard heading into the weekend for back-to-back doubleheaders Saturday in Hanover and Sunday in Cambridge.
The Big Green needed two wins in the four games to clinch the division, while Harvard needed to win three of four.
The match-up between the Big Green and the Crimson was slated to be close, as each team had gone 6-6 in their past 12 games.
Things did not go well for the Big Green on Saturday, however, as the Crimson came into Hanover and beat Dartmouth in both games. The Saturday sweep put the Big Green in a precarious situation, requiring Dartmouth to sweep the Crimson in Cambridge in order to win the division.
In the first game Sunday, Hillary Barker '12 showed that the Big Green was not going to go down easily, as she pitched a complete-game shut-out. Alyssa Parker '10 hit a two-run RBI single in the top of the fourth inning to give Dartmouth the 2-0 win.
It all came down to the winner-take-all second game. With everything on the line, the Big Green scored two in the second, two in the third and one in the sixth to take the game, 5-2.
After allowing 13 runs on Saturday, the Dartmouth pitching squad contained the Crimson to two on Sunday.
"All three of our pitchers got ahead in every count and helped us stay in the game," Gleason said. "They got the key outs when they needed to, and it was just a great day all around for them."
In both games on Saturday, the Big Green held a lead going into the sixth inning, but, in both cases, the Crimson came back to earn the win.
In the first game on Saturday, the Big Green led 2-1 going into the top of the sixth inning. Three straight Dartmouth errors started the inning, and then Harvard's Ellen Macadam hit a 1-2 pitch over the left-field wall for a grand-slam. Harvard went on to win the game 7-3.
In the second game on Saturday, a three-run home-run by Christy Autin '10 in the bottom of the fourth inning put the Big Green up 3-0, but the Crimson came back again, scoring three in the sixth and two more in the seventh to win, 6-3.
The softball team concludes its regular season schedule against Boston College at 4 p.m. on Tuesday at Chestnut Hill, Mass., before taking on Cornell in the Ivy League championships next weekend. Earlier this season, the Big Green split a doubleheader with Cornell, winning the first game 7-5 before falling to the Big Red 2-10 in the second match-up.
