The 1994-95 season was a year of records for Dartmouth sports, with several teams experiencing success they had never before achieved.
While some teams struggled, particularly the men's teams, this past year was perhaps the best year for women's sports since Dartmouth became coeducational in 1972.
Overall, the Big Green sports teams had seasons of ups and downs, joy and frustration, bitter disappointments and satisfying rewards.
Men's Football
The gridironers entered the 1994 campaign looking to continue the success the team enjoyed under the leadership of quarterback Jay Fiedler '94, who led the team to three Ivy League championships in his four years with the team.
With new QB Ren Riley '96 calling the shots, the Big Green opened up the season at 3-2, including a thrilling 14-13 come-from-behind victory over Yale on Homecoming Weekend. The squad even gave defending Ivy League champion, the University of Pennsylvania, a run for their money before a Quakers goal-line stand in the final second left Dartmouth with a 13-11 loss.
But soon injuries set in, as both Riley and backup Jerry Singleton '96 ended up going down with arm ailments. To make matters worse, star running back Pete Oberle '96 injured his knee in a road loss to Cornell and was finished for the season.
And as the injuries increased, so did the number of losses the team accumulated. The Big Green lost its last game to Princeton, to finish up at 4-6 overall and 2-5 in the Ivy League. It was the team's first losing record since 1987 and the first time in the history of the modern Ivy League that the Big Green finished in the cellar.
Women's Field Hockey
With nine members returning from its 1994 squad, including all its top offensive guns, the women's field hockey team was looking to improve upon its 6-8-1 sub-par performance in 1994.
And it did just that, posting a 10-6-1 overall record, its best since 1988, and falling just short of an ECAC title after a loss to Maine in the ECAC championship game. The Big Green finished with a 3-2-1 mark in the Ivy League.
For their efforts, Lauren Demski '96 and Sarah Devens '96 were named to the All-Ivy First Team. Demski was brilliant in goal, posting a staggering seven shutouts, while Devens, an offensive-minded power forward, led the Big Green in scoring.
With most of their core returning, the Big Green will be one of the favorites to make the four-team ECAC tournament again in 1996.
Men's Soccer
The men's soccer team played a tough schedule during the 1994 season, with all four of its losses coming against nationally-ranked opponents.
Unfortunately for the Big Green, their final 8-4-3 record was not enough to get them into the NCAA tournament.
The team ripped off six straight wins before falling to Princeton on the last day of the regular season, a loss which may have cost it an at-large berth into the NCAA post-season field.
The squad will miss the contributions of nine graduating seniors next year, including goalkeepers Jeff Cucunato and Brian Wiese and leading scorer Chris Mitchell.
Women's Soccer
The women's soccer team entered the 1994 season as the defending Ivy League champions, a title it was determined to keep.
An early kneecap injury to goalkeeper Michelle Conroy '95 put more pressure on the Big Green defense, and the team also had to do without All-American Melissa McBean '97 because of a knee injury for the first half of the year.
Still, the squad played valiantly despite the injuries and finished with a 10-4-1 mark, earning a berth in the NCAA tournament. Unfortunately, the Big Green lost 2-1 to Brown, the 1994 Ivy League champions, in an NCAA regional semifinal.
Men's Hockey
The icemen had high hopes for the 1994-95 campaign. A talented freshman class and a hot start gave every reason to believe the Big Green would have a big year. The squad even stunned nationally-ranked Vermont 6-5 in overtime early in the season, coming back from a 5-3 deficit with less than three minutes to go in the third period.
But the team soon sank into a major slump, going winless for a stretch of 10 games in January and February before breaking out of the losing streak with back-to-back wins against RPI and Union.
The team even stunned Harvard in its own building, winning in Cambridge for the first time since 1980, and ended the season with a home sweep of Yale and Princeton. But the revival came too late as the team fell just short of a playoff berth and had to settle for an 11th place finish in the ECAC.
The bright spots of the year included the emergence of goalie Scott Baker '97 and a strong first season from newcomer David Whitworth '98.
Women's Hockey
With the loss of Gretchen Ulion '94, one of the best players in the history of Dartmouth women's hockey, and only one returning senior in Rachel Rochat, the women's hockey team was expected to finish in the middle of the pack in 1994-95. Instead, they won a share of the Ivy League crown.
It was a season of streaks for the women, who opened up 5-0-2 in their first seven contests before losing five of their next seven.
But then the Big Green surged to the finish line, losing only two of their last 13 games and clinched a share of the Ivy League crown with an 8-3 drubbing of Harvard to end the regular season.
But the squad lost a 5-3 grudge match to Ivy rival Princeton in the first round of the ECAC tournament, finishing its season with a 16-8-4 overall record, 7-1-2 in the Ivy League.
It was a remarkable campaign for a team supposed to be in a "rebuilding year." But experienced veterans like Rochat and Sarah Howald '96 along with newcomers like Michelyne Pinard '98 and Sarah Hood '98 made the 1994-95 Big Green an instant success.
With the emergence of Sarah Tueting '98 as an elite goalie in the ECAC, the Big Green should be set between the pipes for the next three years.
Men's Basketball
The men's basketball team, which never rebounded from a 1-13 start in 1993-94, was looking for respect in the 1994-95 campaign. And respect is exactly what they got, finishing at 13-13, 10-4 in the Ivy League. The basketball team had not done as well since 1959.
After playing nine of its first 10 games on the road, the Big Green stood at 3-7 before experiencing a renaissance and charging to a .500 overall finish.
In January, Dartmouth beat Princeton for the first time in six years, winning 64-56, and the squad even gave Ivy League powerhouse Penn a tough fight before falling 85-70.
The team finished in a second-place tie in the Ivy League. Sea Lonergan '97 was a consensus First Team All-Ivy selection and Brian Gilpin '97 also made himself a household name among Ivy League basketball fans. Gilpin set the single-season Dartmouth mark for blocks with 92 in the 1994-95 season.
Women's Basketball
The women's basketball team was perhaps the biggest success story of the Dartmouth 1994-95 sports season.
The hoopsters compiled a 12-2 Ivy League record, won the Ivy title, made the NCAA tournament, and almost orchestrated the most stunning upset in the history of women's basketball.
With the leadership of such veterans as Ilsa Webeck '94, First Team All-Ivy member Betsy Gilmore '94, Brandi Jones '95 and Laurie Stucker '95, the squad surged to an 11-2 Ivy mark, leaving them in a dead heat with Harvard entering the last game of the regular season.
With the Ivy League title and an NCAA bid on the line, the Big Green annihilated Harvard on its own home floor, 72-48.
Dartmouth got the NCAA bid, was seeded 14th in its region and was slated to play heavily-favored Virginia in the first round on their home floor in Charlottesville, Va.
While most wrote off Dartmouth, the Big Green gave the powerhouse Cavaliers the scare of a lifetime, and actually led the hometown favorites with under 10 minutes to go.
Virginia barely held off the charge, finally beating the pesky Big Green 71-68.
Men's Lacrosse
The men's lacrosse team hoped to build on its respectability following a surprisingly successful season in 1994
After opening the season at 7-1, it looked like the laxers were well on their way.
But a 21-9 flogging at the hands of Brown brought the Big Green down to earth.
Although the team finished with an overall 9-4 mark, the Big Green's 2-4 Ivy League record left them in fifth-place in the Ivies.
While the Dartmouth laxers are not yet a national powerhouse, to their credit, they did spend most of the season ranked among the top 20 in the nation, making their 9-4 overall record quite respectable.
Furthermore, the team can point to the individual successes of Brian Merritt '97 and an All-Ivy second teamer, and John Schneider '96, who received an All-Ivy honorable mention.
Women's Lacrosse
The women's lacrosse team, one of the best in the nation the past few years, set its sights in 1995 on something it had never before achieved -- a national title. While the laxers did not get the title, they did get closer than they ever had before in what was a very successful season.
After ripping off five wins, including a 10-9 nailbiter against defending national champion Princeton, to start the season, the Big Green lost to Penn State before settling down and winning another seven straight. The regular season ended with a bit of a disappointment, as the third-ranked Big Green fell to the number-one team in the nation, Maryland, by a score of 12-4.
Still the laxers had long since clinched the Ivy League title, going undefeated in the Ivies, and their impressive 12-2 mark, along with their earlier defeat of Princeton, earned them a first-round bye in the NCAA tournament. This automatically placed the Big Green in the Final Four, the first time they had ever made the national semifinals.
But in the Final Four, Princeton avenged its earlier loss at the hands of the Big Green by defeating Dartmouth 13-8.
Despite this bitter defeat, the women laxers had posted their best season ever, and Lauren Holleran '95, one of the best players in the nation, was named the Ivy League Player of the Year.
Men's Baseball
Coming off of a 16-21 record in 1994, the Dartmouth baseball team was hoping an experienced lineup and a young pitching staff could propel them to a Red Rolfe division championship. While the Big Green fell just short of this goal, they did finish the year at 19-17, and their 12-8 Ivy League mark was their best record in the Ivies since 1987.
With a young core of pitchers including Scott Simon '97, Peter Sellers '98, Eric Walania '98 and Travis Farrell '98, and Mike Tallman '95 anchoring the rotation, the Big Green used a late season surge to challenge Yale for the Red Rolfe title.
The Big Green were in the middle of the pack midway through the season, but won six of its last eight Ivy contests to put pressure on Yale. The team concluded the season with a four-game sweep of Harvard.
Yale just barely held on but still Dartmouth had a very successful season, one of its best in the last few years.
Women's Softball
In their first season as a fully-funded varsity team, the Big Green were out to show the rest of the league that even though they were not as experienced as the other teams, they were not about to be pushed around.
The 1995 campaign was a positive one for the women's softball team. True, they got pushed around, losing more than 30 games in the year, but they also did their share of pushing back.
Led by co-Captains Kim Worboys '95, Ericka Lee '95 and Jennifer Pitts '95, the squad upset quite a few Ivy League opponents, and the Big Green's 4-8 Ivy mark left them tied for fourth in the Ivies.
The team's first Ivy win was sweet, because it came against Brown, who in 1994 refused to play the Big Green because of their club status. That made the 6-4 victory over the Bears in April all the more special.
Men's and Women's Track and Field
The spring NCAA Championships ended a strong indoor and outdoor campaigns for Dartmouth's two track teams.
Juniors Maribel Sanchez and Kristin Manwaring earned All-America honors at the Championships. Sanchez, already a winter All-American, finished third in the 5,000 meters in the 16:27. The third place finish is the highest ever finish for a Dartmouth woman at the NCAA's.
Manwaring finished seventh in the 1,500. Her time of 4:20.52 broke the Dartmouth College record.
Sanchez's and Manwaring's efforts capped a season where the Big Green had their highest ever placing at the ECAC's Champioships.
Sam Wilbur '94 led the men. Wilbur finished third in the 3,000 meter steeplechase in personal best 8:38.91.
Wilbur was the highest finishing American. This was the fifth time Wilbur received All-American honors.
