The Dartmouth women's softball team is coming off its best season ever, a season which produced 32 victories and nearly doubled its number of all-time Ivy League victories.
That team lost only two seniors and brought in a five-person freshman class to bolster a team with aspirations to an Ivy title.
With all of this, the Big Green opened its season with a very difficult west coast swing which leaves them at 5-9 after their semifinal loss Sunday to Rider at the George Mason tournament.
The upside of the trip was that it closed with Dartmouth winning three of its last five games.
It all began on March 16th in Moraga, CA, where the Green began the St. Mary's tournament by falling 9-6 to the Thundering Herd of Marshall. Dartmouth feel behind quicklt, 7-0, pulled themselves back into the game with a five-run rally spread over the fourth and fifth innings, and saw their rally fall short in a 9-6 defeat.
Southern Utah provided the next challenge for the Big Green, and they triumphed handing Dartmouth a 4-0 defeat that saw pitching ace Christine Quattrocchi '03 hurl a complete game in the loss.
In the back half of the double header, Dartmouth broke a 3-3 tie in the 10th inning to grab a 6-3 victory over host St. Mary's. Danica Giugliano '04 picked up her first victory in putting the Big Green in the win column for the first time in the spring.
In the third day of the tournament, Dartmouth again triumphed over St. Mary's 4-3, after a three-run flurry in the second inning. The Big Green then fell in the Tournament Championship to Marshall, 3-0, managing only four hits.
Rightfielder Adrienne Draper '04 and 2B Lisa Caruso '04 were named to the all-tournament team.
The next stop for the team was a double header with the Bulldogs of Fresno State. The day was not very successful as the Big Green lost 10-2 and 8-0 to drop the team's record to 2-5 before leaving the Gold Rush State.
Sarah Damon '02 paced the team in the front end, going 3-3 from the plate including a triple and an RBI-single in the fourth inning.
The Big Green's bats went silent in the back half, as the visitors managed only six hits against the seventh-ranked Bulldogs.
The Big Green left the west coast and traveled to Maryland to take on Towson University in a doubleheader.
Dartmouth's bat managed only two runs total for the second game day in a row, as the Big Green lost 4-0 and 7-2. In addition Dartmouth put up only three hits in the first game, two by Carrie Hoverman '01.
Quattrocchi fell to 0-5 on the season in the first game eclipsing her loss total of the entire 2000 season. Last year Quattrocchi had an amazing freshman campaign, going 22-4 with a 1.05 E.R.A. in leading the Big Green to a 32-16 record.
In the nightcap, Dartmouth got jumped on for seven runs in two innings, as Giugliano was hit hard. Caruso came in and slammed the door, but the damage was done and Dartmouth couldn't but together any serious comeback effort.
Staying in the mid-Atlantic, Dartmouth had its best success in the George Mason tournament. They opened up with a 7-5 victory over Rider University to snap their four-game skid.
Dartmouth jumped on top early grabbing a 4-1 advantage on Hoverman's first career home run, and RBI doubles Cherie Comeau '02 and Chiara Grabhill '01. After falling behind 5-4 in the sixth, the bats woke up again and another two-run shot by Hoverman put the Green ahead to stay and Comeau added another RBI double to secure the lead.
Brittany Copenhaver '04 notched her first career victory with 1 1/3 innings of hitless relief including two strikeouts.
On Saturday, the Green exploded for 14 hits en route to a 16-3 thrashing of the Purple Eagles of Niagara. Dartmouth fell in the nightcap, however, 5-3 to St. Peters (NJ).
The Niagara game saw the Dartmouth offense light it up for a school record four home runs, two by Jenny Harsey '01 and one each by Hoverman and Sarah Damon '02.
The offensive assault overshadowed another strong performance by Quattrocchi on the mound that gave the first win of the season to the sophomore. Quattrocchi fanned eight in a complete-game four-hitter.
In the late game, the Big Green came back from a 2-1 deficit with two home runs in the fifth inning one by Harsey, her third of the day, and the other by Draper. St. Peter's made a late inning comeback to grab the victory.
The final day of the tournament saw Dartmouth make it to the semifinals by virtue of a 5-1 victory over Iona, only to be suffer a 10-1 clubbing at the hands of Rider.
Quattrochi pitched another great game striking out nine against Iona for the win and Harsey hit her fourth bomb of the weekend. The Big Green completed the scoring with a double steal in the fifth courtesy of Draper and Comeau.
Dartmouth scored in the first inning against Rider only to have 10 runs thrown back at them on three dingers and 11 hits.
Despite the poor record, the team's potential showed through with the strong pitching of Quattrocchi and Caruso combined with the explosive offense that produced 16 runs against Niagara.
The '04 class seems to be making a big impact, and combining their firepower with some of last season's top performers like Damon, Kristin King '02 and Carrie Sekela '01, should leave Dartmouth as one of the strongest offensive clubs around.
Dartmouth will make a stop at Providence on Thursday for a double header before continuing on to the Colgate Tournament with Albany and Niagara.
