Right off the heels of winning its first ECAC tournament in program history, the Dartmouth men’s hockey team now shifts its focus to the NCAA Division I men’s hockey championship tournament.
The Big Green (23-7-4), who will be making their first appearance in the tournament since 1980, will take on Wisconsin (21-12-2) in the regional semifinals Thursday at 5 p.m. at the DCU Center in Worcester, Mass.
Dartmouth enters Thursday’s contest on a hot streak, having won four straight games en route to its conference championship. As for the Badgers, they have not played since March 11, when they lost in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament by a score of 7-1 to Ohio State.
Statistically, both squads have similar offensive firepower. Wisconsin has the No. 7-ranked scoring offense in the nation, averaging 3.71 goals per game. While the Big Green are No. 9 in scoring offense, averaging 3.65 goals per game.
Where things shift a bit in Dartmouth’s favor, on paper at least, is defensively. It holds the No. 4 spot in the country for scoring defense, allowing just 2.06 goals per game. The Badgers are 39th in that metric, allowing 3.09 goals per game.
On top of the challenge of cracking the Dartmouth defense, the Badgers will have to solve goaltender Emmett Croteau. The Big Green’s junior netminder gave up just three goals in four wins in the ECAC tournament, where he was named the most valuable player. Croteau made 99 saves on 102 shots over the two weekends.
Despite that, the Badgers do present a tough challenge for the Big Green. Wisconsin won three of four games combined against Penn State and Michigan, which are ranked ninth and first, respectively, in the NPI. Michigan is the tournament’s top overall seed.
The power in the college hockey has shifted west, none of the traditional powers in the Boston area qualified for the tournament. Dartmouth finished the season ranked at No. 6 the NPI, the ranking system the NCAA uses to select and seed teams for the tournament. The Big Green were the highest ranked team in New England, one spot ahead of Providence College of Hockey East.
The winner of the Dartmouth-Wisconsin matchup will face the winner of Michigan State and UConn on Saturday in the regional final at the DCU Center, at a time to be announced. Dartmouth announced on Monday that it has sold out of its allotment of tickets for the Worcester Regional. As of midday on Tuesday, there were still tickets available on the arena’s website.
More awards for men’s hockey
Members of the newly crowned ECAC champs picked up some more hardware for the season they have had. Before winning the conference tournament over the weekend, the Big Green’s Hayden Stavroff was named the ECAC Player of the Year.
Stavroff, the nation’s leading goal scorer, is the first Dartmouth player to earn the honor since the award’s inception.
Additionally, Head Coach Reid Cashman was named the conference’s Coach of the Year. It is his second time winning the award in the last three seasons.
Equestrian wins ECAC championship
In another first for a Dartmouth program, the Big Green won the Eastern College Athletic Conference championship over the weekend in Charleston, S.C.
On Friday, Dartmouth defeated Sacred Heart 6-3 with wins on the flat from Kileigh Van Ness, Grace Russo, and Lucinda Exner, along with fence wins from Russo, Cassidy Exner, and Camilla Jerng to advance to Saturday’s final.
In the final, the Big Green picked up a 7-3 win over Centenary. Van Ness, Cassidy Exner, and Jerng had the flat wins, while Russo, Van Ness, Exner, and Jerng got the fence wins to clinch the championship.
For their efforts, Russo, Van Ness, Exner, and Jerng were named to the All-Tournament Fences team, while Van Ness and Jerng made the All-Tournament Flat team. Additionally, Head Coach Tenley Walsh has been named the conference’s Coach of the Year.
Up next for the Big Green is the National Championship, which begins on April 17 in Florida.
Sailing has solid weekend
At the Szambecki Team Race in Norfolk, Va., over the weekend, the Big Green finished fifth out of 10 and was 8-5 overall.
As for the Blaire Herron Memorial Women’s Team Race in Washington, Dartmouth was 6-4 overall, which helped propel it to third place out of eight teams.
Finally, at the Seahawk Team Race in St. Mary’s City, Md., the Big Green finished fourth out of six with an overall record of 5-10.
This weekend, the Big Green will compete at the Marchiando Team Race in Cambridge, Mass., the Dellenbaugh Women’s Team Race in Providence, R.I., and the Jumbo Team Race in Medford, Mass.
Women’s tennis goes 2-1 in latest matches
The Big Green came out victorious, 7-0, in its first contest of the week in San Diego, Calif., against Colgate last Wednesday.
Josephine Lombardi, Lauren Han, Sam Grosjean, Peyton Capuano, Alexandra Orlins, and Michela Moore won in singles. The duos of Lombardi and Elise Wong and Capuano and Moore won their doubles matches.
Dartmouth could not carry its momentum into its second contest of the week on Friday at Long Beach State, falling, 4-2. Grosjean had the only singles win for the Big Green, while she and Orlins and Lombardi and Wong picked up doubles wins.
The Big Green closed the week with a 4-3 win on Sunday at UC San Diego. Moore, Lombardi, Audrey Feng, and Grosjean won in singles. Capuano and Moore had the Big Green’s doubles win.
Dartmouth is now 10-4 overall and had one more match on its West Coast swing at Cal State Fullerton on Tuesday at 4 p.m. The team then hosts Harvard on Sunday at 2 p.m.
Men’s lacrosse drops two in a row
The Big Green were competitive with No. 4 Harvard on the road on Friday in their Ivy League opener, but fell, 17-14.
After Thomas Power tied the game 12-12 in the fourth quarter, the Crimson outscored the Big Green 5-2 to close out the game.
Friday’s road loss was followed by another on Monday when the Big Green were beaten by unranked Virginia, 18-7. Alex Jessey scored twice for Dartmouth in the loss, while William Stahl, Emmett Paradine, Mitchell Monte, Stu Gates, and Quinn Stankovits each scored once.
The Big Green are now 4-4 overall and 0-1 in conference play. They host Penn on Saturday at 1 p.m.
Women’s lacrosse splits contests
Dartmouth headed down to Gainesville, Fla., on Saturday to take on No.4 Florida and dropped the matchup 13-10. Madeline Egan and Fiona Keeffe each scored three times in the loss.
The Big Green got back to winning, though, on Monday at Mercer, snapping a three-game losing streak with a 17-8 victory.
Charlotte Myers paced Dartmouth’s scoring with four goals, while Etta Coburn and Samantha Bennett each scored three times. Catherine Erb added two goals while Lauren Riley, Egan, Kate Riley, Ryan Hapgood, and Mia Puccio scored once.
The Big Green are now 6-3 overall and 1-1 in conference play. They visit Cornell on Saturday at noon.
Softball wins one of three against Penn
Dartmouth played three games against Penn in Philadelphia over the weekend and came away with one win.
The Big Green dropped both games in Saturday’s doubleheader, 11-0 and 9-4. But on Sunday, they came back and drubbed Penn 14-0.
Faby Serna was huge for Dartmouth in the win. She had a double, triple, and home run at the plate and knocked in six runs. On the bump, Charley Maddox threw a complete game shutout. She struck out two Quakers and allowed eight hits.
Dartmouth is now 3-11 overall and 1-2 in conference play. Next up is a doubleheader at Holy Cross on Tuesday at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. The Big Green then travels to Cambridge, Mass., this weekend for a doubleheader against Harvard on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. and another battle with the Crimson on Sunday at 12:30 p.m.
Baseball’s losing streak extends to seven
The Big Green took its first loss of last week on Wednesday, falling on the road to Bryant, 10-6. With the game tied 4-4, Bryant scored four runs in the sixth inning to win it.
Milo Suarez had three RBIs and three hits in the game, including a double, while AJ Demastrie had two RBIs and one hit for the Big Green in the loss.
Dartmouth followed that up by losing three straight games to Penn on the road to open up Ivy League play. The Big Green fell 8-3 in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader and 4-1 in the second game.
On Sunday, the Big Green lost 5-2, after jumping out to an early 2-0 lead.
Dartmouth is now 3-11 overall and 0-3 in conference play. It hosts a three-game series against Columbia on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. and 3 p.m., then on Sunday at noon.