Women's water polo began its season with an intense early schedule, taking on National Collegiate Water Polo New England Division rivals over Carnival weekend and facing Ivy League foes this past weekend.
The women played four games at Yale on Sat., Feb. 12, handedly beating Columbia, Boston University and an improved Boston College squad before being tested against Yale, whom they overcame by a score of 7-2. Dartmouth then traveled to Middlebury on Sunday, and succeeded in dominating both Middlebury and Sienna.
The Big Green played its only home match of the season on Friday, vanquishing UVM 13-2 in front of a crowd of overwhelming support at the Karl Michael Pool.
They then traveled to the annual Ivy League Tournament on Saturday, falling to Brown's varsity squad in a decidedly lopsided 16-1 loss in which Lindsey Pryor '05 was the sole Dartmouth player to score. Later in the day, Big Green again locked horns with Yale, over whom they prevailed 13-11.
The early start this season of scrimmages and non-league tournaments accompanies a demanding practice schedule, including morning workouts. The unusually early start is due in part to major pool maintenance scheduled late in the season that will severely cut in on the team's practice time.
Coach Jim Wilson has arranged a high concentration of the team's friendly matches at that time to prepare the team for the National Tournament, where they finished second last year. The early start is also part of an effort to match the team up with tough competition that mirrors the high caliber teams the Big Green will face at Nationals.
The ladies are the strongest team in their division, where only Yale can compete with the dominant force of Big Green women.
"Only Yale presents a challenge to us in our division, so if we want to improve on our finish at Nationals and take the championship, we need to face the stronger teams in our friendly matches," Wilson said.
The team lost three seniors to graduation in 2004, including first-team All Nationals goalie Gillian Morshedi '04 and defensive powerhouse Laura "Wondo" Wondolowski '04.
Fortunately, wiry hole set Kelly Cameron '05 returns for a fifth year as she finishes her engineering degree at Thayer. The team picked up a strong outside shooter in Ally Owens '06, who joins the starting line as a transfer from Berkeley, as well as goalie MacAllister Henry '06 Tu.
Returning to the team as a swimmer crossover is Liz Allen '06, who is joined by co-captains Sam Klau '05 and Pryor. Secretary Molly Turner '05 rounds out the starting line, taking Wondo's place as the resident lefty.
In addition to Owens and Henry, the team picked up four freshman who show a lot of promise to lead the next generation of Big Green domination.
"We're really impressed with the new players' dedication here at the early points of the season," Pryor said. "We demand a lot and they're pulling through, which will really pay off towards the end of the season, when our pool time is limited and our focus is geared to competition."
Klau echoed that sentiment, declaring, "We're really excited about the coming season and an improved finish at nationals. Our new players, especially Owens, show a lot of potential and great personality. We're going for gold this year, baby!"
The team travels to UVM on Sunday before heading to the first official league tournament, the New England Regionals, at Yale the following weekend.
This year, the team will hold its annual training trip at the University of Hawaii, where they will have the opportunity to train with and scrimmage junior national teams from Japan, Canada, Brazil and New Zealand, as well as varsity squads from Indiana University and USC.
