I came across some pretty impressive statistics while perusing the Dartmouth Sports web site the other day.
This year, six Dartmouth varsity teams won a division or conference title. Men's soccer, women's basketball and baseball all took home Ivy League crowns, skiing went undefeated en route to a third-straight conference title, women's hockey claimed its postseason tournament and softball won its first-ever division title. On top of that, numerous Big Green squads were nationally ranked at some point during their respective seasons.
That's great stuff for Dartmouth sports. So which one of these Big Green teams had the most impressive or compelling championship season?
Knapp's siding with baseball, and that's not a bad pick at all. Most outside observers saw Dartmouth as the clear-cut favorite in the Ivy League, and believed an Ivy title was the Big Green's to lose. The team responded to those expectations by crushing its conference competition, and made a resounding statement by routing Cornell in the deciding game of the championship series to take the League crown.
You could also make a strong case for skiing's continued dominance, or the compelling stories of women's basketball and men's soccer securing NCAA bids at the last possible moments of their respective seasons.
But if I had to pick, I would say women's hockey had the most impressive run at a championship during the this year of Dartmouth sports.
The Big Green roared out of the gate to begin its season, going 7-2-1 overall in its first 10 games and attaining a No. 3 national ranking prior to a pair of contests at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. The team then hit a bit of a skid, losing three of its next five contests, but closed out the regular season with a 16-8-4 overall record, a 13-5-4 mark in conference play, and a No. 8 national ranking.
Only one team was able to beat Dartmouth twice during conference play in the regular season: St. Lawrence University. The Saints dispatched the Big Green 3-0 in Canton, N.Y., early in the season, and then bested Dartmouth, 4-3, in the final game of the regular season in Hanover despite a late surge from the Big Green. At least on paper, St. Lawrence was Dartmouth's kryptonite.
The drama between these two clubs grew during the ECAC postseason tournament, which determines the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Dartmouth drew a No. 4 seed and a first-round matchup against Colgate, while St. Lawrence got the No. 2 seed. If both teams won in the opening round, they would see each other in the semifinals.
The Big Green stumbled in the first game of the best-of-three series against Colgate, losing 7-6 in overtime, but strung together two straight wins to eliminate the Raiders. That set up the ultimate grudge match in the semifinals -- Dartmouth versus St. Lawrence, two top-10 teams playing in an all-or-nothing single-elimination game with a chance at a bid to the NCAA tournament ultimately on the line.
What did the Big Green do against the one team it could not seem to figure out all year? Dartmouth not only beat St. Lawrence, but ran the Saints out of the rink. The Big Green put up three first-period goals, and ended up netting two more tallies in the third period to win 5-2. Five different players scored goals, and nine players had at least one point. A day later, Dartmouth demolished Clarkson, 6-1, in the championship game to clinch a third-straight berth to the NCAA tournament.
When Dartmouth encountered its biggest challenge, the Big Green responded by rising to the occasion and playing dominating hockey. Now that's a story.
