After capturing the Ivy League championship last spring and ending the season with a 17-9-1 record, women's ice hockey looks to continue its momentum into this year's season.
Last spring the Big Green defeated the Princeton Tigers, 6-3 to win the Ivy crown for the second time in three years.
"I feel pretty confident that we are going to have a successful season," Co-Captain Gretchen Ulion '94 said. "Although we are small in number, we have a lot of talent and as long as we keep pushing ourselves in practices as well as in games, we should do well."
Ulion, who last year was the all-time leading scorer in Dartmouth women's hockey history and Ivy League Player of the Year, will lead this year's team along with co-captains and leading scorers, Kim Cohen '94 and Kim Reid '94.
"We have the main part of our scoring coming back," Coach George Crowe said. "We have good speed and some pretty good goal scorers. They are a very close team. They are a real unit, so I think that is a good point."
Ulion said the team joined together last year and overcame inexperience, which should help them this year. Last year's team had only one senior and eight freshmen.
"It took us awhile to mature as a team and really bring things together," Ulion said. "This year we have three senior captains and a strong group of returning players which will set the tone for this season."
Dedication and a strong work ethic will also assist the Big Green, Cohen said.
"The strength of the Dartmouth hockey team has always been that our team has outworked other teams, even if they have more raw talent," Cohen said. "I think the team has a positive attitude and a good work ethic, although, I think we can still get more intense and work harder than we have so far this season."
Although the competition in the Ivy League will be difficult, Crowe said the team has the potential to repeat as Ivy champions.
"It's going to be tough," he said. "It will be more difficult this year because all of the teams are a lot stronger. Our goal is to win the Ivy and to qualify for the [Eastern College Athletic Conference] playoff."
ECAC opponents Northeastern, Providence and the University of New Hampshire proved to be the Big Green's main obstacles last year.
The Big Green start their season this weekend by traveling to Minnesota to compete in the All-American Collegiate Tournament where they will face Brown, Princeton, Yale and four Minnesota teams -- the University of Minnesota, St. Cloud State University, University of Minnesota at Duluth and the Minnesota Thoroughbreds.
"Our goal is to try and win [the tournament] or at least make it to the finals," Crowe said. "We're still using this to get ready for the ECAC competition next week."
In the opening round on Friday, the Big Green demolished St. Cloud State, 11-2. Dartmouth held a 5-0 lead after the first period before St. Cloud notched two during the second. The Big Green closed out the scoring with six goals in the third period.
The Big Green recorded a 4-2 victory against the University of Minnesota-Duluth on Saturday and played for third place in the tournament during the final day of action on Sunday. The Big Green thrashed the Minnesota Thoroughbreds, 6-1 and out-shot their opponents, 49-21. Ulion recorded seven goals for the tournament.
The team will begin its Ivy and ECAC schedule at home Nov. 20 against Harvard University.
"It will be fun just getting some people out to the games," Crowe said. "We play at a very good level. The hockey in the East that we're playing is the top hockey in the country."
The Big Green will face a tough schedule which should help them improve as a team, Crowe said.
"I would say that we have the toughest schedule in the country because we play everyone twice," he said. "The better the competition you play though, the more you develop as players. It definitely helps. It's a good experience."
