Despite wins over Harvard and Princeton which secured the Big Green's third consecutive Ivy title, Dartmouth only rose to ninth in the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association Poll released yesterday. Princeton dropped from fourth to sixth by virtue of their 8-7 loss to the Big Green.
While the Tigers still stand three spots ahead of the Big Green, Dartmouth has a golden opportunity to prove themselves this weekend with their dates against North Carolina and Duke.
The NCAA will invite 12 teams to participate in the Tournament in May and even with Dartmouth traveling to Tobacco Road, the Big Green seem poised to grab one of those slots and possibly host a home game if they can knock off either squad. Dartmouth will take on seventh-ranked North Carolina on Thursday and fourth-ranked Duke on Saturday.
The team will carry both the Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week for the Ivy League south with them in the persons of Kate Graw '00 and Melissa Frazier '00.
Graw had a career-high six goals against the Harvard Crimson on Wednesday before scoring two goals and tallying an assist in the decisive contest against the Tigers.
Meanwhile, Frazier collected three assists against Harvard and assisted on the game-winning goal to Liz Merritt '01 against Princeton. More importantly, she shut Princeton's dangerous attacker Cristi Samaras to help keep Princeton to only seven goals.
While Dartmouth will take on two national powers this weekend, Princeton has already played most of their games with national implications. They lost to the very same Duke Blue Devils, 11-8, earlier this season and will have a chance to take on top-ranked and undefeated Maryland tomorrow. Princeton closes their season with a game against the fourth place team in the Ancient Eight, the Brown Bears.
Dartmouth's only losses this season have come against teams currently ranked in the top 3 as they lost to that Maryland Terrapin squad, 14-4 in March before losing to Penn State by two goals on the road just nine days ago. Dartmouth's encounter with Maryland was their first game of the season.
Besides those two losses, Dartmouth only possesses their top-10 win against Princeton and their 13-9 beating of 11th-ranked Yale Bulldogs, who are also fighting for their collective postseason lives.
Meanwhile, Princeton has wins over second-ranked Virginia as well as Penn State.
It appears that the voters in the national polls have spoken. If Dartmouth wants to solidify their position in the national rankings and potentially fight for a home game in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, they are going to have to prove it this weekend against Duke and North Carolina.
