Sports at Dartmouth are not something the average student takes lightly. To be a Big Green athlete means dedication, hard work, and a great deal of sacrifice, and Dartmouth's fans know it. The men and women decked in green and white have historically been some of the proudest and best representatives of the College.
Through the years, the Big Green have been known to produce some pretty enormous feats on the field, on the water and in the air, and the 1995-96 season was no different. Here is just the short short list of four of the greatest accomplishments and hair-raising nail-biters of the 1995-96 Big Green athletic year, with an outlook of how these same teams should perform in their upcoming seasons.
Field Hockey
November 12, 1995 Down 2-0 earlier in the game, the Dartmouth field hockey team had already fought back once in the freezing and windy conditions against Yale, as the 1995 ECAC title lay on the line. Now it was sudden death overtime, and Dartmouth needed to pull through just one more time.
With 5:33 left in the first overtime, Weze Shorts '99 received a crossing pass as the Bulldog goalie sprang out of the box to cut it off. Amidst a mad scramble in front of the net, Shorts lost her balance, but while slipping to the ground, she smacked the ball into the cage.
The goal marked the beginning of a joyous celebration on the field, and the end of a difficult and triumphant season. For the first time in history, the Dartmouth field hockey team reigned as ECAC Champions.
With the 1995 ECAC championship and a new school record for wins (13) under their belts, the women's field hockey team may be hard-pressed to repeat and improve on such an historic year. Added to the challenge is the loss of six talented players who just graduated, including star goaltender Lauren Demski '96.
But don't count this team out.
Dartmouth returns 11 players to the team next year, including three of the their five leading scorers. The Big Green will also return with much of the core of their midfield and defensive lines, and will only be lacking experience between the posts. Kendra Kosko '99 will have the inside lane at that position, as she tries to battle off bids for the slot from two rookie goalkeepers from the Class of '00.
The Big Green continue to throw together one of the toughest schedules in the nation, as the women will face five nationally-ranked colleges from the previous year. And the players still have a bone to pick the elusive Ivy League title that Dartmouth fell second to Princeton for in the running.
Football
November 18, 1995 -- With the game clock frozen at 26 seconds in the last game of the year, and the Big Green up 10-7, Princeton had just notched a first down on Dartmouth's own 17 yard-line. The public address system blurted out Pennsylvania's 31-10 lead over Cornell, and the Big Green and their fans could almost taste victory. A Big Green win would force an unprecedented four-way tie for the 1995 Ivy League crown.
On first and ten, Princeton quarterback Brock Harvey fired a sideline pass to the one yard line. But it was caught just inches out of bounds, and all of the west side home stands heaved a sigh of relief.
On second and ten, Harvey scrambled under heavy pressure, and while in the grasp on the 27, he tossed up a desperation floater to avoid a sack. Linebacker Mark Abel '97 dove for the wounded duck, which just bounced off the tip of his fingers. And this time, the east side stands swelled with one deep breath.
After a penalty, it was third down and 15, with 15 ticks left.
Harvey took the snap, dropped back, and scanned his three receivers, blanketed by green uniforms, rolling to the right side of the end zone.
With nothing there and the pocket eroding, Harvey kept around a gaping whole on the left end and scampered to the one yard line, where defensive back Marlin Twitty '98 laid a monstrous hit, knocking him out of bounds to save a touchdown.
The clock froze at four seconds as Princeton called a time out, and the Tigers opted for a field goal attempt and potential 10-10 stalemate.
The whistle blew, all 6,021 fans went deathly silent, and as the clock ticked down to one, freshman Tiger kicker Alex Sierk booted the football just inside the right goal post, clinching the greatest injustice in all of football, the tie. And Dartmouth's chances for a share of its league-leading seventeenth Ivy League Football trophy would have to wait one more year.
After the heartbreaking tie to Princeton, Dartmouth co-Captain linebacker Taran Lent '96 summed up the team's entire season. "There's not one of us that didn't leave his heart out there on the field," he said.
And that was the motto behind this year's Big Green football machine, which seemed to surprise everyone except themselves with their 7-2-1 overall record and near miss of the League's coveted crown.
Dartmouth, picked to finish last in the Ivy League this season, was supposed to be weak on defense while possessing a fragile backfield, the experts said.
But along with the help of defensive end Scott Hapgood '97, all-Ivy defensive linebackers Zack Walz '98 and Mark Abel '97 had breakthrough years to solidify the defense, while running back Greg Smith '97 and his core of offensive linemen, including all-Ivy tackle Brian Larsen '97, ignited a dominating rushing attack.
After losing their first two games, the Big Green caught fire for the rest of the year, taking the next seven wins, including a crushing 35-14 Homecoming celebration at the expense of Colgate. With only seven starters lost to graduation and 41 Dartmouth men hungry for those spots, the prognosticators would do well not to underestimate the Big Green again in '96.
Men's Basketball
February 9, 1996 It had been 48 games since the Quakers of Pennsylvania had lost to an opponent in the Ivy League. One win shy of tying UCLA's national record for consecutive division wins, the Quakers rolled into Big Green country with history on their mind. But the Dartmouth basketball team had other ideas, and through two halves the Big Green stayed with the Quakers, then took the lead, with seconds to play.
"Ira, Ira, Ira," screamed a sold- out crowd as Penn's Ira Bowman got set to attempt the front end of a one-and-one opportunity. With 0:03 left in the game and the Quakers down by one to the men in Green, the game's fate was in the talented shooting guard's hands.
The noise was deafening as Bowman let his game-tying attempt fly from the line, but it banged off the back rim. Brian Gilpin '97 and Sea Lonergan '97 leapt above four Penn defenders and simultaneously swatted the ball back towards mid court as time expired, and the crowd erupted onto the court to congratulate their Big Green heroes and friends.
For the first time in almost four years, the Quakers ate the cold oats of defeat. The never-ending streak had ended. Dartmouth 54, Pennsylvania 53.
The heart-stopping come-from-behind victory not only broke the Quaker's 48-game conference win streak, but also hoisted the Big Green into the crow's nest atop the Ivy League standings.
The hoopsters followed that big win with some disappointing road losses to Princeton and Pennsylvania in the closing weeks of the season. But with clutch wins over Yale and Columbia, the Big Green finished third in the Ivies with a 16-10 overall record, 9-5 in the league. All in all, it was the squad's best league performance during coach David Faucher's tenure at the helm.
Next winter, the hardcourts will see four of this year's five starters return as seniors. With the offensive firepower of two-time leading scorer in the Ivy League, Lonergan, and the clutch three-point shooting of P.J. Halas '98, not to mention the force on the boards from seven-foot tall big man Gilpin and 6' 9" power forward Asa Palmer '98, Dartmouth will be a tough squad to beat.
Women's Ice Hockey
March 2, 1996 With less than a minute to go and the Huskies up 2-1, the end of the Women's Ice Hockey season seemed dangerously near.
Coach George Crowe, in a last ditch attempt to even the game, pulled goalie Sarah Tueting '98, giving the Big Green a woman-up opportunity. With just seconds remaining on the clock, Amy Coelho '97 fired at Northeastern goalie Shannon Meyers. Meyers could not pull in the rebound and, with 0:21 left in the final period, Hood collected the puck and used her backhand shot to tie up the game, 2-2, and putting it into its first overtime.
With the season on the line, both teams gave it their all, firing shot after shot, a total of 22, in the 20-minute span.
But neither goalie would yield, thus ushering in the second overtime.
Ten minutes passed, and then Emilie Schnitman '98 flew down the right side, ripping a slap shot towards the Northeastern goal. Meyers kicked aside the save, but, 88 minutes and 59 seconds from the clang of the first dropped puck, Hood was once again in position for the rebound.
The regulation period hero came through one more time, sending a screaming waist-level shot from the left circle that beat Meyers and gave the nerve-wracking 3-2 sudden-death win to the Big Green, propelling them into the semifinals of the ECAC's.
Coming off a sensational 1994-95 season which ended with an Ivy championship, the women's hockey team was all set to do it again. But this time, despite posting big wins over Princeton and Yale, the Big Green had to settle for second behind a fast and high-scoring squad from Cornell.
The second place finish aside, perhaps the finest performances for the women's team came in the postseason, where they matched their best performance ever with an advance to the ECAC semifinals.
In the quarterfinals, it took a late third period game-tying goal and a sizzling double overtime to top the Huskies of Northeastern. Then, in a valiant battle in the semifinals, the women rallied to a 1-1 tie before falling to the number two ranked UNH Wildcats in overtime.
Dartmouth coach George Crowe was named ECAC/KOHO Co-Coach of the Year for leading his team to a new team record for the most wins in a season.
The team returns to Thompson Arena next winter with star goalie Sarah Teuting '98, who was named to the ECAC second team this season. First team All-Ivy player Amy Coelho '97 will once again pin down the stonewall defense, while center star Sara Hood '98 looks to ignite the frontline scoring.
Excerpts taken from articles by Eric Kowack, Erika Tower, and Jonathan Lee.
