An Irish Connection and a Quaker Shutout
The Irish connection makes the women's field hockey team a shade greener than the other Big Green varsity squads. Mary Corrigan, now in her eighth season as head coach of the field hockey team, was born in Dublin, Ireland, and is a former member of the Irish touring field hockey team. Fran O'Donoghue, a junior from Kingston, Massachusetts, was born in Ireland's County Waterford. Deirdre Coyle, a freshman from Newton, Massachusetts, was also born in Dublin. And there's another trans-Atlantic, although not Irish, connection: Tory Parrott, a sophomore from Seattle, Washington, played field hockey in England while attending boarding school there.
Corrigan and O'Donoghue first met four years ago. O'Donoghue was a high school student attending a field hockey camp in Vermont. Corrigan was director of the camp. Their families' ties, however, go back about 80 years. "I had heard my parents talk of a Paddy O'Donoghue, but it never occurred to me that Frances was his granddaughter," said Corrigan. "My grandfather Corrigan owned a pub, and he was helped out by Fran's grandfather, who owned hotels in Dublin." There's also a family link between Corrigan and Coyle. "My aunt taught her mother in Dublin," said Corrigan. Corrigan said that she supposes that the Irish connection is largely coincidental, although she keeps it alive by taking the team to Ireland every three years. "It may help recruiting-wise," she said of the trip. "We're hoping to go next September. In the meantime, we're trying to find people with Irish connections to help us out."
O'Donoghue, who moved to this country when she was three, and Parrott are expected to share the goal-keeping responsibilities during the early part of the season. Coyle will be goalkeeper for the junior varsity squad. O'Donoghue and Parrott combined their goalkeeping skills to blank the University of Pennsylvania, 4-0, in the Ivy League opener at Red Rolfe Field September 18. The victory was a key one for the Big Green squad, which has its eye on the Ivy League championship this season. Since winning the Ivy title in 1979, Dartmouth has been on the brink of capturing the championship in two successive seasons. Last year the Big Green lost to Pennsylvania, 2-1, at Philadelphia. That defeat was one of two league losses. "We should be strong this fall. We have high hopes that we'll win the championship this year," said Corrigan.
Dartmouth got off to a slow start last season, dropping four of its first six contests. But the young team with seven freshmen gained experience as the season progressed. The highlight of the season was winning the E.A.I.A.W. Region I Championship by defeating Harvard, 2-0, and Providence, 1-0. The championship qualified the team for the A.I.A.W. National Championship, held in California. It was the second time that the Big Green has qualified for the championship. No other Ivy school has ever qualified for national play. Dartmouth was defeated, 2-0, in the nationals by Penn State, the eventual champion.
Corrigan lost only one player, Nancy Grindlay, from last year's team. Standouts on this fall's team are expected to be Katey McCormack, Carol Trask, and Francie Blynn. McCormack was voted the team's most valuable player for her performance during the 1981 season. She joined the varsity with little prior experience, changing her position from sweeper to center back and assuming full responsibility as penalty corner marksman by scoring seven goals. McCormack, now a junior, also had two assists last year, making her the team's leading scorer. McCormack, a first team All-Ivy selection last year, had a goal and an assist in the opening Ivy contest against Pennsylvania. Carol Trask, a junior who plays left wing, has been the team's leading scorer for the past two years. She is not a flashy player, but she knows where the goal is and is an expert on rebounds. Against Pennsylvania, Trask knocked in a rebound shot following a McCormack blast on goal and scored again later in the game. Trask was the only freshman to start the first game of her freshman year, and she has held a starting position ever since. She has scored 14 goals and 15 points during her collegiate career. Francie Blynn is a senior co-captain of the team, a three-year varsity starter for the Green who was named to the second All-Ivy team as a junior. She plays halfback and has been the team's most consistent performer for the past two seasons. Blynn also plays varsity lacrosse. The team's other co-captain is senior Joanne Taplin, an aggressive forward who won the first Dorothy Hall Leavitt Award for her play.
The Memorial Field scoreboard told the story: Pennsylvania 21, Dartmouth 0. The Big Green had been shutout by a team that one national magazine had called the third worst in the nation. Coming into the season and Ivy League opener, the Quakers had lost 24 straight games on the road. Last year Pennsylvania beat Cornell in the season opener and then lost its final nine games. Dartmouth, the defending Ivy League co-champion, was expecting a victory and a 1-0 league record prior to three non-league encounters against Holy Cross, Colgate, and William & Mary. Big Green fans had expected to see an explosive offense, since Dartmouth's offensive unit was virtually unchanged from last year's Ivy title team. The Green's defensive unit was questionable because of graduation losses. Pennsylvania's senior quarterback Gary Vura picked the defense apart by completing a school record 23 of 32 passes for 254 yards and all three touchdowns. Vura completed only 51 passes during the entire 1981 season. Dartmouth didn't come close to scoring in the season opener.
The Dartmouth football players sat on the floor in Davis Varsity House. There was silence. Upstairs College President David McLaughlin and Athletic Director Seaver Peters paid their customary postgame visits to Head Coach Joe Yukica.
"If I had to pinpoint two things, I think they're stronger and are a better football team up front," said Yukica of the Pennsylvania team. "That and their quarterback's play today would be one and two." Yukica was asked how the loss would affect the team for the rest of the season. "It's not easy," said Yukica. "It's one of the real tough things a football team has to do. It's a game; it's a loss and it's an Ivy loss, obviously. We just have to go ahead and correct all the things. There's no question that it makes it not easy on anyone's part. What do we do? We try to do better the things we didn't do well. That's what we've got to do. We've got to take those areas one for one on both sides of the bail and we've got to improve them. We've got a long way to go in the league race, and there's a lot to be decided yet. As I mentioned earlier, there's no team in our league now that's out of the woods."
Yukica feels the league is better balanced this year. Yale, the other defending Ivy League co-champion, was also defeated in its opener. The Elis lost to Brown, 2821. "I think we're going to have that right through the year. I don't think anyone in our league is in a position to count on anything week to week. Penn and Columbia were the two last place teams last year, but they returned nine starters on offense and seven on defense. When you have that number of people with experience and you turn around and play well, there's a lot of carryover from that number of starters. Our defense had to fight hard for everything today, but you've got to get help on both sides of the ball. The offense has to do it (too)," Yukica said.
Coach Mary Corrigan has her eye on the IvyLeague championship this year.
