Since 1979, every four-year women's basketball player at Dartmouth has won an Ivy League title. Impressive as the statistic is, the stakes are higher than ever, with senior co-captains Jamie Librizzi and Sam Burnham looking for their share of history in the next six days.
This weekend the Dartmouth women travel to the Palestra, Philadelphia's college basketball mecca, to take on first-place Pennsylvania. If Dartmouth wins, the Big Green will be tied for first with two crucial games versus Princeton and Harvard remaining. If they lose, the season is over.
"What we have in the next few days is a chance to win an Ivy title," said forward Krista Perry '06. "That's been our goal the entire year, and it's still within reach. In the next week, we need to get better. The key is to toughen up our defense and especially our rebounding, as Penn's rebounding killed us last time."
Dartmouth lost to Penn a month ago when the teams were still tied for the league lead. Both had 3-0 records, but Dartmouth shot an abysmal 30 percent from the field on the night and let four Penn players score in double figures. Penn won the game 71-58.
Since then, the Big Green has tightened its defense and sharpened its offense -- Dartmouth leads the Ivy League in defensive rebounding and is second in scoring, at 71 points per game. In order to beat Penn, Dartmouth will have to contain senior forward Jewel Clark, who lit up Princeton for 28 points on Tuesday.
Said Librizzi, "We've been trying out some new defenses in order to shake things up against them. They have one prolific scorer, Clark, who we need to try to contain and a strong inside presence which hurt us last game," referring to sophomore Jennifer Fleisher who is second in the league in rebounding with 9.5 boards per game.
If Dartmouth can keep Fleisher off the boards and hold Clark to her season average of 19 points, the Big Green offense will speak for itself.
"When we play solid team defense and only allow them one shot, it leads to our running and getting buckets in transition and maintaining a rhythm to our offense," Perry said.
Dartmouth's powerhouse offense has carried the Big Green through the season, led by center Elise Morrison '07 and shooting guard Jeannie Cullen '06, who are averaging a combined 35 points per game. Point guard Angie Soriaga '06 averages over four assists per contest and boasts the best assist-to-turnover ratio in the league.
But numbers aside, Friday's match-up comes down to guts. Penn will be gunning for the Big Green, needing only one win in two games to clinch a share of the title.
"In a game like this, as important as it is, we need everyone to step up," said Librizzi. The key is going into the game with the mindset of doing 'whatever it takes' to win. They are a tough team but we need to go into the game with confidence and believe we can win it."
For Librizzi and Burnham, an Ivy League title has never been closer. Explained Burnham, "It's hard to describe how excited I am. Not everybody gets to a place like this in her career. I've never felt this confident in my team to pull out an Ivy League win. It's all I've been able to focus on this week -- my last six days of my career are my most important six days of my career. I can't wait to head down to the Palestra for the last time."
After Penn, Dartmouth will play at Princeton Saturday night and return home to face Harvard on Tuesday, March 9. With 120 minutes of basketball left in the season, the next six days will determine whether the Big Green can celebrate the culmination of the seniors' four years ending in an Ivy League championship.
