While Dartmouth's football team proved to us all that you don't need an Ivy League crown to call a season successful, the league title certainly helped women's soccer.
Best of luck to all the teams for the rest of the year. Go Big Green. Football
After a four-point loss to the University of Pennsylvania in the first game of the season, the Big Green did what it had to in their quest for a fourth-consecutive Ivy League title. Although the team started with a 1-3 record, Dartmouth went on to win every Ivy contest to finish 6-1 Ivy, 7-3 overall.
Unfortunately, Penn also won the rest of its Ivy contests, which denied a Dartmouth bid to keep the Ivy trophy in Hanover.
The Big Green won four games coming from behind in the fourth quarter -- against Cornell, Harvard, Columbia and Princeton. The 28-22 victory against the Tigers showcased the incredible talents of Jay Fiedler '94 against All-American Keith Elias, but it will be the performance of the Big Green that everyone will remember.
With a 22-8 advantage at the start of the fourth quarter, the Tigers looked like they had a chance for an Ivy Title, due to Cornell's 14-0 advantage over Penn in Philadelphia.
But looks can be deceiving.
Penn eventually defeated Cornell, 17-14, which closed its undefeated season and earned the Quakers the Ivy League title.
In Hanover, Fiedler finished the day with 284 yards on 16 of 32 passing, and broke the Ivy League record for career total yardage. John Hyland '94 broke the Dartmouth record for receiving yards in a season . Both players were named to the All-Ivy first team.
During his three-year career, Fiedler made a clean sweep of all Dartmouth's passing records. Although Elias was named the Ivy League Player of the Year, Fiedler was one of the main reasons Dartmouth had the success it did. As Coach John Lyons said after the Princeton game, "We're not going to find another one like him for a very long time." Women's Soccer
With a 12-3-1 overall record, there wasn't much women's soccer didn't do. The 12 wins were the most in school history. The 7-0 Ivy record was impressive, but that the Big Green shut out each Ivy opponent is even more astonishing.
The Big Green's performance during the season, along with the Ivy Title, earned Dartmouth a bid to the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament.
Dartmouth met the University of Connecticut in the first round in Amherst, Mass., and faced one of the very few roadblocks during the amazing season, losing 3-1 to end the record-setting season.
But with only two players graduating, there is no reason why the Big Green won't set even more records next fall. Men's Soccer
The Big Green were ranked among the top 20 in the nation at the beginning of the season. Many expected 1993 to be the year when Dartmouth would win its third Ivy crown in four years.
Then the losses started to pile up.
It's not that the Big Green were out-played during any of their league losses. Dartmouth simply couldn't get the ball in the net and lost a series of heart-breakers by one goal, finishing the season 9-6 overall, 2-5 Ivy.
The Big Green will be without the talents of seniors Geoff Zawtocki, Bepi Raviola and co-Captain John Faubert, but return eight starters and numerous letter winners, including All-Ivy first team players Asa Marokus '95, Methembe Ndlovu '97 and co-Captain Ian Saward '95. Cross Country
Dartmouth ended its season at the NCAA Cross Country Championship Nov. 22 in Bethlehem, Penn., where the Big Green men finished 13th out of 22 teams and the women finished 18th.
At the Heptagonal Championships in Van Cortlandt Park at Columbia, the men finished a disappointing third, only one point behind second-place Brown while the women finished second overall behind powerhouse Cornell.
Heps saw Dartmouth place two women and two men in the top five of that race, and the Big Green competed at George Mason University in Virginia two weeks later to qualify for Nationals. This year marked only the third time in history that the Big Green qualified both the men's and women's squads for Nationals and the first time since 1989. Field Hockey
Although a 6-8-1 record, 2-3-1 Ivy doesn't seem impressive, the fact is that the Big Green field hockey team will soon become a league force and this year was one step closer to an Ivy League title.
Of the team's eight losses, only one was by more than one goal -- a 5-0 loss to the national powerhouse University of Massachusetts.
One of the reason's for Dartmouth's success this year was Coach Julie Dayton's immediate impact during her first year as head coach. Despite a five-game losing streak at the beginning of the season, the Big Green went 5-3-1 over their last nine games and finished the season with a four-game undefeated streak. Crew
Although the main focus in crew is on the spring season, the Big Green men's lightweight, men's heavyweight and women's squads competed at many events this fall, finishing with some success at most of their races.
The women saw their best performances in many years this fall, which bodes well for the spring. Both the heavyweights and the lightweights had some mixed results during the season, but look ahead to the spring and hope lessons can be learned from racing this fall. Golf
At the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships, women's golf finished eighth overall. Sara Vogler '96 was the Big Green's top finisher with an 11th place showing.
The men's squad competed at the New England Championships to close out its season, but finished a disappointing 15th, mainly due to tough weather conditions. Tennis
Despite a slow start to the fall season, men's tennis ended with a strong performance at the Rolex Tournament in Princeton, N.J., advancing three players to the round of 16. With the results this fall, the team is confident it will defend its 1993 Ivy crown.
The women depended on a strong core of outstanding freshmen to come through during matches against Rutgers and Boston College, introducing the '97s to a new level of tennis. Doubles proved to be the strength of this young team, and the Big Green hope to unseat Harvard from its number-one perch this spring. Volleyball
A 4-18 overall, 0-10 Ivy record isn't easy to explain. Coaching difficulties marred the season, but the Big Green has tries to remain optimistic. One of the bright spots to the season came during the St. Michael's tournament where the team finished first, defeating two teams in the process.
