DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN
The women win the basketball title.
For the fourth straight year and the eighth time in ten years, the women's basketball team won the Ivy title. The women, picked in preseason polls to finish anywhere from second to fourth, won the crown with a best-ever 22-4 overall record and an incredible 12-2 Ivy mark.
Why didn't the pundits think the Dartmouth women could make it four in a row? Few observers felt that Dartmouth could compensate for the loss of All-Everything Liz Walter '89, who skipped her senior season for a foreign study program (see the March issue). Walter had led the team in scoring and rebounding for two years, and many figured the Big Green would lose direction and a lot of games without her.
Coach Jacqueline Hullah's team proved them wrong. Balance and depth became the name of the game, as three players averaged more than 11 points per game and eight players saw more than 300 minutes of playing time. Juniors Sophia Neely and Patty Webb and sophomore Nicole Hager did most of the scoring, while the lone senior, Nancy Fitz, was the rebounding leader.
"When we play good defense, we win. It's that simple," Hullah says. Webb was among the nation's leaders in blocked shots, and the Green's tenacious defense kept it in the top ten of the NCAA's field-goal percentage defense standings.
Hullah lobbied intensely for selection to either the 48-team NCAA tourney or the eight-team Women's National Invitational Tournament, but Dartmouth was snubbed by both. "The Ivy League just hasn't received the respect that we feel it deserves," says Hullah. The N.I.T. selected teams that had a weaker record but stronger box office appeal than Dartmouth. The NCAA picks teams for post-season play by rating their regular-season foes, and the Ivy League, despite the strength of Dartmouth and Harvard, is not considered a tough conference.
The Dartmouth men, everyone's preseason choice for the Ivy basketball title, also proved the pollsters wrong. They came in second, one game behind Princeton—which went on to play within one point of Georgetown in the NCAAs.
All through the season, the Green was plainly dominant at home. Dartmouth went 11 -0 in Leede Arena and knocked off Princeton, 53-43, and Penn, 79-58, in the last two games of the season. The Leede crowd maintained the growing Dartmouth tradition of intimidating opponents, and nine of the 11 contests were sellouts, complete with ticket scalpers outside the doors. "I've been in a lot of arenas," Cormier says, "and Leede that last weekend of the season was as nice an atmosphere as I've ever been in." For the record, Jim Barton '89 ended up as Dartmouth's all-time leading scorer with 2,158 points. He finished as the second leading career scorer in Ivy League history behind Bill Bradley, his boyhood idol.
Women Win Hockey Tournament
The Big Green women's hockey team gave new meaning to the phrase "a strong finish." Coach George Crowe's squad won seven straight in February and took the College's firstever Ivy League Tournament crown. "Winning this was as exciting as any win I've coached," Crowe says, and that's high praise from a man who twice coached the Dartmouth men's team to the NCAA Final Four. The Big Green won the Ivy tourney by stunning top-seeded Harvard and then beating Cornell, the only Ivy foe Dartmouth had failed to best in the regular season.
Skiing Takes Eighth
After finishing in the top three at every race in eastern competition, the Big Green took its 16 best skiers to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for the NCAA skiing championship. They came home with an impressive eighthplace finish. On the Alpine team, Gregg Brockway '88 was the leader. He finished third in the giant slalom and earned All-America recognition. It was Brockway's first season skiing for the Green after competing with the U.S. Ski Team. The Nordic women fared well, with sensations Nina Kemppel '91 and Georgie Wilson '92 earning All-America honors. Kemppel finished sixth in freestyle and eighth in classic nordic at the NCAAs, while Wilson took tenth in freestyle.
Kurtz Retires
Dartmouth will be losing a pioneer in its women's sports program when squash coach Aggie Kurtz steps down on June 30. In 1972, the year the College went coed, Kurtz became thefirst woman appointed to the athleticstaff. Since that time, the nationallyranked squash player has coached fieldhockey, squash and lacrosse, taughtphysical education and served as anassistant athletic director.
Nicole Hager '91 was a driving force behind the women's basketball team's championship season.
£ Current as of April 10, 1989 j |':!i! _____ ■; ,;i g. Baseball if*. 6-7 overall. Pitching staff still g ; getting up to speed; hitting and t defense are both solid. Tough : league doubleheaders ahead. | lli-v Men's Lacrosse a? 4-2 overall. Steadily improving; ; |i league meatgrinder still to come. >>' J V - ' : ; ;j_-T ? ; Women's Lacrosse p-1 overall, 1-0 Ivy. Reeled off five; wins after losing opener;: took important Ivy win at Penn to r§h start league campaign, y . ' :: ' : : ' • • ' ; : - ; ' : , : :: : 1 ]&■>' : Men's Tennis :: ?|;: home again on new Memorial :. Field track; will be team to beat at-.. Heps on May 5-6. 5 Women's Track S 1-1 overall, 0-1 Ivy. Field and "i-; S? distance events continue to be strengths; top three at Heps a i'J:. strong possibility. | $> • ■ ■ : ■ - : : ;:'5S Rowing I Heavyweight men finished fourth ; g|" of a strong 13-team field at Augusta, Ga., Invitational. 3 : Lightweight men rolled over Tufts ; | and Williams; women's team 0-2, i with key races still to come. M
