Women's Lax settles for co-championship

Don't ask Mary Page Michel '87 about the exhilaration of being captain of a champion lacrosse team. For her, winning has had as many frustrations as rewards.

Michel and her Dartmouth teammates put together an eight-game winning streak this year, the longest in school history, and were ranked as high as eighth nationally. The Big Green marched through the Ivy season undefeated and, for the second year in a row, got ready to face Harvard, also undefeated, in the final game of the season for the Ivy League championship.

But, as Michel has learned before, the timing just wasn't right. The title game, scheduled for April 29, was delayed by a freak snowstorm, and by the time the game could be rescheduled a measles epidemic had hit Dartmouth, forcing the cancellation of most athletic events, including the Ivy League women's lacrosse championship.

"I just wish we had known at the beginning whether we were going to play or not," said Michel. "We practiced three times, thinking we were going to play; it's tough getting pumped up all those times for what you think will be a championship game. It was frustrating."

Michel was elected captain of the women's lacrosse team last spring when it wasn't known whether she could ever play lacrosse again. A severe knee injury had put her out early in the 1986 season and she missed nine games before returning for the Harvard game, the one that clinched Dartmouth's first Ivy championship.

A month earlier, Michel had been looking forward to a good junior season and a shot at the Ivy title. As first home attack, Michel had pumped in five goals and added four assists as the Big Green went 3-1 in its first four games. But as the team prepared for its Ivy opener with Princeton, Michel went down in a clump on the field without anyone having touched her.

"April 1," said Michel. "April Fool's Day. Some joke."

The anterior cruciate ligament had been torn in her knee and required an operation to repair. A week after the surgery was performed, Michel was on the sidelines, cheering the Big Green to its 10-9 win over Harvard. "My heart was there on the field," she said. After thumpings by Virginia and Northwestern on the spring trip, the Big Green found what was missing. Eight straight wins placed them among the top teams in the nation, and only two late-season losses to the-University of Massachusetts, one in the ECAC tournament, marred their final 10-4 record.

But, of course, when the team looks back on this season, neither wins nor losses will be what is remembered.

"We had a great season," said Michel; "and we can walk away very happy. For me, I was really looking forward to this year and it was definitely worthwhile to do all the work. We'll remember it as being cochamps. But it sure would have been nice to play that final game."

The Will to Win: Not even a knee injury could keep captain Mary Page Michel '87, left, from helping the women's lacrosse team vie for the championship, but measles put a sudden end to the quest.