Spring break, as for some other Dartmouth teams, proved disappointing for the men's and women's rugby clubs. The teams, traveling to California and France, respectively, put out a full-force effort but were unable to capitalize as they would have hoped.
The women's team traveled to France over break to gain experience playing some tough teams. The team lost all four matches, two in Paris and two in Toulouse, that they played.
"We were playing some tough club side teams. We really didn't expect to win," Sara Strammiello '98 said. "We learned a lot in each game, though."
According to Strammiello, the season looks promising for the Big Green women's team.
"We have a lot of good freshmen that developed their skills over the tour. We're getting in shape and focusing on the Ivies," she said.
The team's biggest event this season is the Ivy League tournament. The team hopes to capitalize on the experience it received from its spring trip to be successful.
In its trip to California, the men's team played five games, losing all but one.
"The guys were definitely disappointed with how we did. They expected to do better," Rugby Club President Doug Asano '96 said. "We basically did that in the East [in the fall]. We killed all the teams,"
"It's hard. Everyone out there is in mid-season already," Andrew Obenshain '96 said of his team's frustration. Dartmouth, however, was playing its first games Fall term.
"We hadn't practiced together for four months and the teams we were playing are varsity teams that recruit players and give scholarships. We go out there to learn a lot and to get better," Asano said.
Of the five games the Big Green played, they had the greatest success at the University of California at Berkeley Tournament.
The tournament came soon after the b-side squad lost in a close game to the Stanford University Business School. The team recovered from the loss and prevailed over Chico State in the first round of the tournament.
This moved the Dartmouth squad into the finals where host Berkeley defeated the Big Green.
In two subsequent match-ups, Dartmouth lost to both the University of California at Davis and the Olympic Club b-side.
Despite its troubles out West, the team is still optimistic about its future for the season.
"We're ready to start," Obenshain said. "We're a good ways ahead of teams out here."
The team hopes that this headstart will allow it to repeat the success it had last season when it went undefeated in the Premier League of New England.
The league was created after the 1993 season in response to the superiority of the teams involved over the teams they were currently playing. The league consists of eight teams, including Harvard, Brown and the University of Massachusetts as well as others that are on a more equal level.
During the spring, however, there is no league play and the clubs branch out to compete against squads they do not normally play.
Dartmouth will play most of the other schools in the Ivy League this spring rather than the Premier League teams.
First up for Dartmouth is the Ivy League tournament the first weekend in April. Then the Big Green will hit the Cherry Blossom tournament, a national event, in Washington, D.C. the following weekend.
After that, the seniors say good-bye to their teammates, letting the juniors take control of the squad.
"We're still a very strong team. We're losing five key players but we have a lot of depth to replace them. The '97s are a very strong class as are the '98s," Obenshain said.
"If we build on the success from the fall we should be able to win the Ivy League tournament," Asano said. "We've beaten every Ivy League opponent at some point this year."
