The Dartmouth women's hockey team will take home ice this weekend against a pair of Ivy League rivals, Yale and Princeton. The Big Green faced its last Ivy League opponent on Nov. 16, 2002, two and a half months ago, and came away with a 6-2 thumping of the Cornell Big Red.
Coming into this weekend, the Big Green holds a 6-2-0 record in the ECAC and a 2-1-0 record in the Ivy Leagues, good for third place in each category. The team will face eight conference opponents in the next ten games, seven of which will be against Ivy squads.
The Big Green has played extremely well outside of the ECAC and on its home ice. In fact, Dartmouth will try to extend its seven-game home winning streak this Friday night against the Bulldogs from Yale.
Opponents that have fallen in Thompson Arena in the past seven games include the fifth-ranked Wildcats of UNH and the third-ranked Gophers from Minnesota.
During the convincing sweep of Connecticut last weekend, Dartmouth players and the coach established many milestones. Coach Judy Oberting '91 collected her 100th and 101st victories, becoming just the second head coach in Dartmouth history to have 100 wins.
The class of 2003 also wrote itself into the record books by becoming the winningest class in school history with 85 victories. The solid senior class still has 10 more regular season games to set a new mark for future classes.
Helping out both causes was captain Carly Haggard '03, who scored five goals in two games to take over second place all-time on the Dartmouth career goals list.
When asked if there were any other milestones the team would like to achieve this season, Haggard smiled and confidently replied, "NCAA Championship."
The road to the Frozen Four continues against a pair of solid teams this weekend.
The Yale Bulldogs currently hold a 5-12-2 overall record.
Firstyear star Natalie Babony leads the team in scoring with 22 points (9 goals, 13 assists) while freshman goalie Sarah Love has a 3.00 GAA.
Dartmouth matches up well against the Bulldogs as Haggard continues to lead the team in scoring with 35 points. Goalie Amy Ferguson '03 has been sensational as well, giving up only 2.50 goals a game.
Ferguson, with her next win, will be the winningest goalie in Dartmouth history.
Princeton will present more of a challenge for Dartmouth on Saturday. The Tigers are fresh off of their victory over McGill University. The 3-1 triumph came against McGill goaltender Kim St. Pierre, who led Team Canada to an Olympic gold medal last year.
The Tigers boast an 11-5-2 overall record, with wins coming against Providence and St. Lawrence, team that have beaten Dartmouth earlier in the season.
Tigers goaltender Megan Van Beusekom has a stingy .924 save percentage, including a 30-save game against Harvard, the number one team in the country. She is well protected by a tough defense that only surrenders 2.03 goals a game.
In comparison, while Dartmouth allows more goals per game than Princeton, the Big Green outscores the Tigers 4.68 to 2.75 per game. If Dartmouth is to win Saturday afternoon's contest, look for its four solid offensive lines to find the back of the net often.
Scoring quickly has been a minor problem for the Big Green. Last weekend against the Huskies, Dartmouth failed to score in the first period of the first game while allowing Connecticut to score first in the second contest. While a strong finish is the strength of the team, the Big Green needs to play solid for the entire game.
"We need to play sixty minutes no matter who or where we play," coach Oberting said.
The Big Green will look for early offense starting this Friday night at 7 p.m. against the Yale Bulldogs and versus the Princeton Tigers at 4 p.m. Saturday.
This weekend marks Dartmouth's celebration of women in sports. Come out to support the women's hockey team and join the festivities.
After this weekend, the Big Green will have its most important weekend of play when they travel to Harvard and Brown on Feb. 7 and 8, respectively.
