With Rebecca Dirksen '00 and Allison Taff '00 having graduated, Dartmouth's women's tennis team knew it had its work cut out for it to duplicate the success of the 1999-2000 squad. A torn rotator cuff injury to Carolyn Roth '01 made the prospects look more cloudy.
Into this picture walked five freshmen who would change the complexion of the team and give it a huge talent boost.
The group of Catherine Crandall, Arden Fredeking, Katie Lopez, Christine Miller and Kelsey Surbaugh infused the team with spirit and ability and made the loss of two of the program's winningest players an easier process to deal with.
The fall season saw the frosh and less experienced players like Lisa Francazio '03 and Michael Rozas '02 get a lot of seasoning in individual tournaments at Penn and Harvard and a season opening loss against UMass.
The team also played in the dedication tournament for the new Alexis Boss Tennis Center here at Dartmouth.
The winter season saw continued improvement in the Fab Five, and the team had some success in its early endeavors out of the Ivy League. The Big Green closed out Winter term on a three match winning streak, but lost Miller to a bad ankle sprain.
The promise of spring time success filled the team on its trip to California during spring break. The team went 2-2 on the trip, and came back even at 5-5 with only two more non-league games remaining before starting their Ivy hunt.
The Big Green lost tough matches to BU and BC before opening their Ivy season. The pressure of Ivy matches seemed to have no effect on the young players, who helped Dartmouth win its opening match against Columbia.
Following the win, the team appeared to lose focus a little, and began a three match losing streak in which they won only seven out of 27 individual matches in singles and doubles. The streak ended the Big Green's hope for an Ivy title, but it didn't kill their spirit.
Dartmouth came right back this past weekend with a victory over Brown in their final home match of the season. Even a loss to Yale on Sunday could not dull the pleasure of winning the Brown match.
"To win my last match, with my friends, my coaches, and my team supporting me was by far the most memorable on-court experience I've had playing tennis at Dartmouth. It was absolutely amazing," said Smalley.
The Big Green now face a season ending match against Harvard tomorrow. The Crimson have won four of the last six Ivy titles and haven't finished lower than second since 1993.
However, though Harvard will prove a difficult opponent for Dartmouth beat to close out the season, this year's Crimson squad will finish third behind league champion Penn and Yale.
This will conclude the first season for the freshmen, and it has not been a season without adversity for them.
"The freshmen have been put in difficult positions in their first year. Yet, they have stepped up to the challenge and the results have shown through because of that," said Smalley.
Smalley and Roth have had difficult senior seasons. Roth only made it back for two matches and never really regained her form. Smalley, hampered by nagging injuries to her legs was never without braces or bandages which often limited her movement. Yet the team's captain has remained ever positive and is an endless source of energy for the younger players.
"The injuries have made matches much more difficult. But, if anything, it has helped me become a stonger mental player and use my mind when my body can't necessarily motivate me to play at my best. I think that it has forced me to grow as a player," said Smalley.
The match will be held in Cambridge at 3 p.m. and will mark not only the end of two Dartmouth tennis careers, but also the first homecoming of Crandall, who is from Cambridge, in Ivy tennis competition. A victory by the Big Green will pull them into a fourth place tie with Princeton and would be the team's first back-to-back top four Ivy finish since three in a row from 1993-95.
