In their first competition since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, seven Dartmouth athletic teams will return to action this weekend. It has been 407 days since a Big Green team last competed, and although Ivy League competition this spring has been canceled, the conference has permitted Dartmouth teams to compete in non-Ivy competitions within 100 miles of Hanover.
On Saturday, softball will play a doubleheader at home against the University of Massachusetts Amherst, men’s and women’s tennis will host Colby-Sawyer College and men’s and women’s track will compete against teams from the America East conference at the University of New Hampshire. On Sunday, the men’s and women’s lacrosse teams will host Tufts University.
None of the seven Dartmouth teams competing will be at full strength — due to restrictions on how many students can access on-campus facilities, not all team members are eligible to compete. All events hosted by Dartmouth will be closed to the public, but the athletics department is planning to stream games live.
It has been over 13 months since any Big Green team last competed — the Ivy League was the first Division I conference to cancel all spring varsity athletic events last March at the onset of the pandemic, and it was also the first in the nation to cancel both fall and winter sports.
The Dartmouth women’s lacrosse team was ranked seventh in the country and defeated No. 5 University of Florida last March, and the men’s lacrosse team had its best start since 2006 when it won its first three games last spring. The softball team finished fourth in the Ivy League in 2019 and was off to a 4-6 start in 2020 before the season was halted. The men’s tennis team was ranked 25th in the nation with a 9-3 record, and the women’s tennis team won four of its last five matches before the season was suspended. The men’s and women’s track and field teams last competed at the Ivy League Indoor Heptagonal Championships meet, finishing in sixth and last place, respectively.
All seven teams in action this weekend are expected to continue competing throughout the spring, and the heavyweight rowing team could join later in the term, Provost Joseph Helble said in a “Community Conversations” livestream last week. There have been no announced competition plans for the other spring sports teams, which include baseball, equestrian, golf, lightweight rowing, rugby and sailing.
