The women's hockey team made a solid start to the 1995-96 season this past weekend, going 2-1 at the All-American Tournament. The Big Green captured decisive victories over both Augsberg University and Ivy League rival Princeton, but fell to Harvard.
The tournament, held in Minnesota, ended with a third-place finish for the Big Green, behind first-place University of New Hampshire and second-place Harvard.
On Thursday, Dartmouth took on Augsberg University. Dartmouth crushed its opponent, sending Augsberg away with a 15-0 loss.
"We played really well [against Augsberg] even though we didn't need to," Coach George Crowe said. "It wasn't an individual effort. We moved the puck, had rotations in the corner. They did everything I wanted them to do."
The win was truly a team effort. Scoring was spread over 10 different players led by co-Captains Sarah Howald '96 and Michelle Erickson '96. Howald had a hat trick plus a playmaker, while Erickson put in two goals.
Defender Amy Coelho '97 gave two each of goals and assists and defenseman Wendy Soutsos '99 added two goals.
"The team played it well," Crowe said. "They could easily have had 20 or 30 goals."
Howald said, "Playing Augsberg was like taking a step back. They were really bad. It was tough to come off that game and play decent teams."
This difficulty displayed itself in Dartmouth's next game, against Harvard. Dartmouth could not recompose itself in meeting this Ivy League team and dropped the game 2-0.
"We were really looking past [the Harvard game]," Howald said. "We thought we'd be playing UNH in the finals. That was our problem. We were definitely a better team. They just beat us to the puck."
Erickson said, "I don't think we put enough thought into the game, and we were just assuming we would win. But it's a good time to lose, because it doesn't count in our Ivy standings and also because now we won't let it happen again-- we've learned our lesson."
According to Crowe, another aspect that contributed to Dartmouth's trouble with the Harvard game was the length of the game. Dartmouth usually plays three 20 minute periods. At the tournament, there were three 15 minute periods, cutting a full 15 minutes off the usual time.
Such time cuts make skating four lines, as Dartmouth does, difficult. Harvard, on the other hand, skated only nine or 10 players throughout the game, leaving most of its players sitting on the bench.
"The game's too short," Crowe said. "You're losing a whole quarter of the game."
The one win and one loss up to this point put Dartmouth in a battle against Princeton to determine the third place winner. Emotions are always high when playing Princeton, the co-winners of the Ivy Title with Dartmouth last season, and Dartmouth's ability to pull off a win capped off the weekend.
"Princeton lost a lot of players [since last year] but they are still better than Harvard," Howald said. "It was a good win."
Dartmouth came out strong against this rival, putting in two goals in the first period. Pinard took a pass from Coelho to score nine and a half minutes into the game.
Howald repeated the performance with junior Malaika Little's help just 29 seconds later to leave the Tigers looking at a 0-2 deficit at the end of the first period.
Princeton's Mandy Pfeiffer retaliated in the second period with a goal against Dartmouth keeper Sarah Tueting '98. Pfeiffer was assisted by Amy Macklin.
Dartmouth forward Sarah Hood '98 knocked in one more goal for good measure in the third period to ensure the win. Erickson assisted this goal, leaving the final score at 3-1 for Dartmouth.
"It was a pretty successful weekend," Crowe said. "It served its purpose for us -- to get out, get the team together and play some games."
UNH went on to beat Harvard in the finals, 4-0, and returned to New England as champion of the All-American Tournament.
In a coaches' poll released last week, UNH ranked number one in the ECAC Women's Hockey League. The team received nine out of 12 votes for first place. Dartmouth ranked at sixth place just two points behind Princeton who sits in fifth place. Harvard ranked eighth.
Dartmouth continues season play this weekend, playing UNH on Saturday and Colby on Sunday at home in Leede Arena. Both games begin at 3:00 p.m.
