The men's lacrosse team will face its toughest challenge of the season against the Bears of Brown University this Saturday at 1 p.m. at Memorial Field.
The 12th-ranked Bears are sitting at .500 (5-5, 2-2 Ivy League), and coming off back-to-back victories over the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University last week.
The Big Green, meanwhile, are coming off a 15-11 loss to Yale at New Haven, Ct. last Wednesday. The loss dropped the team to 2-5 overall, 1-2 Ivy.
Last Saturday, however, the Big Green played well, holding off multiple rallies from Cornell University's Big Red to grab a 12-8 win.
Co-Captain Scott Hapgood '97 was named to the Ivy League Honor Roll for his three goals and two assists in that game and added three goals and four assists to his totals in Wednesday's game at Yale.
Seniors Brian Merritt and Scott Watts each had two goals and an assist in that game. Merritt leads the team in scoring with 32 points (20 goals, 12 assists) and is among the Ivy leaders in overall scoring. Hapgood trails him by only four points, at 28 (19 goals, nine assists).
Both players are now ranked in Dartmouth's top 10 career points leaders, with totals of 127 and 119 points, respectively.
In addition, Hapgood is ranked fourth in career goals, with 100. Merritt needs seven goals and five assists to be ranked as one of Dartmouth's top 10 career goalscorers and playmakers.
Given his prolific scoring so far this year, Coach Tim Nelson said "Merritt should be in the top 10 in goals and assists any day now."
The Bears have a potent, diversified offense, with seven players over 10 points, and 12 others with points so far this season.
Brown's offense is led by midfielders Brett Frood and Jed Dewick, who have 25 and 21 points, respectively. Both Frood and Dewick had hat tricks in the Bears' victory over Penn last Saturday.
Brown also has a really strong attack, as starters Rob Lyfe, Mike Satin and Josh Selig have combined for 57 points.
Brown's senior goalie Greg Cattrano, a second team All-American last year, has been terrific so far this year.
Cattrano stopped 25 shots against Syracuse University to propel the Bears past the second-ranked Orangemen in a 20-12 upset victory on March 29, and was named Ivy League Player of the Week for his efforts.
Nelson said the key to a Dartmouth victory is ball control, both to create scoring opportunities for themselves and to keep the ball away from Brown's talented offense.
"We need to be efficient on offense," he said. "We can't afford to play a lot of defense against Brown."
Nelson said the team is concentrating on getting ready for this important Ivy match-up.
"We've gotten better and better," he said. "We had a good practice yesterday and we're going to go out and play our game."
