Football Season Closes with Eye on the Future Young Women's Hockey
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Dec. 8, 2009 • Vol. 54 No. 4 A NEWSLETTER OF THE DARTMOUTH ATHLETIC SPONSOR PROGRAM Football Season Closes with Eye on Young Women's Hockey Squad Making the Future Strides Early in Season Defense and special teams ruled the gridiron for caught a break when the Brown kicker slipped With a young team that features five sopho- the Nov. 14 matchup against Quinnipiac. the last two Dartmouth games, but it wasn't quite while kicking the point after, but he somehow was mores and seven newcomers, the Dartmouth Dartmouth was coming off the win over enough for the Big Green to secure one more vic- able to guide the ball through the uprights for a women's hockey team has had some grow- Princeton and struggled often on Sat- tory on which it could hang its hat. Even without 14-7 lead. ing pains this season. However, with urday. The Bobcats came away with that third Ivy win which would have put Dart- The Big Green could not match the Bears in the more games comes more experience. their first ever win against the Big mouth in a tie for fourth place in the Ivy standings overtime, unfortunately, failing to convert a 4th- Freshmen Camille Dumais (Bea- Green in eight tries. (they settled for a tie for sixth) the future of Big and-1 to end the game. Dartmouth's bid to move consfield, Que.) and Sasha Nanji "Some of the challenges the Green football is bright with virtually the entire into a tie for third place in the league fell agoniz- (Markham, Ont.) are the case in team must go through at the starting lineup returning for 2010. ingly short. point with young players stepping beginning of the season with "That was a tremendous defensive effort against up when needed. Dumais ranks such a young team is consis- Brown 14, Dartmouth 7 (OT) a very explosive offense," stated head coach Bud- third in ECAC Hockey among tency," said Cunningham. While the weather dampened the day with an dy Teevens. "While the rain was a factor, our guys freshmen with 11 points, but has "With a young team there incessant rain that ran the gamut from sprinkle to did a great job of pursuing and containing to pre- played in the fewest number Jenna Cunningham is a lot to learn and it just downpour, the Big Green defense took full advan- vent any big plays. We put ourselves into position of games. takes time to figure everything out tage of the conditions to post one of its best ef- to win the game, but came up short in the end." She leads and because of that, consistency tends to forts during Buddy Teevens' second tenure as the Dar tmouth be hard to achieve. But also by having a Dartmouth head coach. Host Brown led the con- Princeton 23, Dartmouth 11 with eight assists. young team the eagerness to be consis- ference in total yards in Ivy League play for the Senior Day at Memorial Field began as another Nanji is not far be- tent and get better is there, which is go- season at nearly 400 per game. Yet the Big Green defensive struggle as Dartmouth yielded just two hind Dumais ing to pay off in the long run." field goals during the first 30 minutes. But the was blanking the Bears in their own backyard at as she is seventh in the conference among rook- Dartmouth left Thompson Princeton defense outdid its host by shutting out the half, 7-0. ies with eight points and is actually fourth overall Arena behind the following week- Neither side began the game with much offen- the Green in the first two quarters, forcing punts amid defensemen in ECAC Hockey. Sophomore end and took out its frustration on sive success, as the first combined seven posses- on each of the six Dartmouth drives. Kelly Foley (Boston, Mass.) might not have the Brown and Yale. The Big Green se- sions -- four for Brown, three for Dartmouth -- In the second half, it was the defense and spe- glaring goals, but has been behind the scenes, cured its first two-game winning steak of the sea- led to a total of just two first downs. A Big Green cial teams that helped the Big Green get back on working hard and has two strikes and seven as- son, outscoring its two Ivy rivals, 11-4. fumble on their first play from scrimmage gave the comeback trail. Princeton got the ball first Brown a short field, and two plays later found it- but advanced just 14 yards before lining up for a sists for nine points. Senior co-captain Sarah Parsons (Dover, Mass.) self with a first-and-goal at the four. punt. The snap sailed over the punter's head and "I think their output was suspected in some was the catalyst in the two wins with seven points But Dartmouth produced the first of numerous bounded toward the end zone. Dartmouth's on- ways because we are a younger team," comment- on four goals and three assists, which earned her defensive stands, pushing the Bears back to the coming rush did not allow the Princeton punter ed senior co-captain Jenna Cunningham (Medi- ECAC Hockey Player of the Week honors. Cun- 10 before Brown tried a 27-yard field goal, only to recover and attempt a kick, so he just scooped cine Hat, Alta.) about the contributions from the ningham reached an individual milestone over to push it wide to the right. The emotional lift of up the ball and ran out of the back of the end zone younger players. that weekend with two goals against Yale. She be- keeping the Bears off the board did not pay im- for a safety. "We lost some core players last year, so coming came the 31st skater to make the 100-point career mediate dividends on offense, however, as the The ensuing free kick was returned close to mid- in the underclassmen knew how important their mark. Cunningham has shown that she is an all- Green went three-and-out field, and Patton went to work roles were going to be on the team. We are for- around player with 52 goals and 52 points in her on both of its next two pos- with two passes for a total of tunate that they have really stepped up and chal- three-plus seasons in a Big Green uniform. sessions. 33 yards to sophomore tight lenged themselves to be impact players. Overall, Dartmouth ended their four-game road slate in Brown had just as much end John Gallagher (Salem, our younger players have done a great job fulfill- November with a heartbreaking 3-2 loss to Har- trouble advancing the ball, Ore.). While Dartmouth had ing their roles." vard the night before Thanksgiving, then the Big twice being held to just to settle for a 40-yard field The season started with a tough road trip to Green escaped Gutterson Fieldhouse with a 4-3 three plays and a punt. The goal by Schmidt, momentum Cornell and Colgate, where the Big Green was win over Vermont. second pinned Dartmouth was on the Green's side. able to earn just one point with a 5-5 tie against Scoring has not been the problem for the Big back at its own six. Senior But momentum is a Colgate on the backend of the weekend. The Green early this season as the team leads ECAC Rob Mitchelson (Oklahoma fickle thing and can shift in toughest part was that Dartmouth had three-goal Hockey with 3.2 goals per game. However, the de- City, Okla.) broke free for a a heartbeat. Following an in- leads in the first and second period, but the Raid- fense has had some problems, allowing 2.6 goals 14-yard run to give the Big complete Princeton pass, the ers fired back with three scores in the final frame. a game. Dartmouth is 1-2-1 when giving up three Green its first first down and Tigers got runs of 14 and 46 The day before, it was Cornell that spoiled the Big or more goals with the first win coming in Burl- a little breathing room. They yards, the latter ending in the Green's season-opener with a 3-0 shutout win. ington. The Big Green has ended up outscoring a got a lot more than breath- end zone, giving Princeton an From there, it was back-to-back home week- lot of opponents. The team has won all five games ing room two plays later eight-point edge at 13-5. ends. Dartmouth started out hot on each Fri- by scoring four or more goals and has yet to lose when freshman Greg Patton Patton teamed up day night with wins over ranked opponents and when reaching four tallies. (College Park, Ga.) tossed a with Gallagher again on Dart- then stumbled the next afternoon. The Big Green Dartmouth has a tough match up coming in the simple, quick screen pass to mouth's next two plays. A 16- beat seventh-ranked St. Lawrence, who has since middle of December against third-ranked New sophomore Michael Reilly Shawn Abuhoff yard pass and a couple Patton dropped out of the top-10 and 10th-ranked Hampshire on Dec. 12, then it's the Catamounts runs put the Big Green in field (Denver, Colo.). Reilly broke Princeton on those Friday nights. The first Satur- again, but this time it's at Thompson Arena. free from the initial tackler, goal range, but Schmidt's kick day game was a tough match-up for Dartmouth With the young players getting the experience then raced 77 yards untouched for the touch- never came back from the left.