Dartmouth's impressive 9-2 victory over Harvard in the JP Morgan Chase ECAC Championship last spring must have convinced the uber-critical pollsters. Last Monday, ECAC commissioner Phil Buttafuoco made the announcement that the Big Green is the pre-season favorite to capture its second consecutive conference title.
Head coach Mark Hudak was pleased with the early prediction, saying, "It's nice that the team has been recognized for their past accomplishments and that the league's coaches also recognize we have a very talented and deep group this year."
Hudak was the assistant coach for the Big Green last season and took the reins when former head coach Judy Oberting '91 resigned for family reasons. Oberting, leaves large shoes to fill behind the bench. During Oberting's tenure as head coach, the Big Green won two Ivy League titles, two ECAC Championships and appeared in two NCAA Frozen Fours.
Dartmouth also hired Rob Morgan to be the new assistant coach. Morgan was formerly the head coach of North Country Community College in Saranac Lake, NY, and joins the Big Green after leading his old team to a 15-4-1 record last season.
When asked about the upcoming season and the coaching changes, Dartmouth tri-captain Lydia Wheatley '03 responded, "[The coaching changes] will obviously make things a little different than previous years, but I am sure the team is capable of handling anything."
Wheatley, who returns to the Big Green lineup after missing all but two games last year, and joins Sarah Clark '04 and Meagan Walton '05 as the Big Green's tri-captains this season. They will lead a capable team that returns 16 letter winners from the previous season.
"Definitely, being ranked number one in the ECAC puts the target on our backs as a team to beat, but for the past few seasons we have had a successful program and we are striving for another successful season." Walton said about the pre-season polls.
Joining the Big Green at the top of the conference is the arch rival Harvard Crimson, who will return Olympians Julie Chu and Angela Ruggerio from last year's ECAC regular season champion squad. St. Lawrence was ranked third in the pre-season polls, followed by Princeton and Brown to round out the top five in the conference. Yale, Colgate, Cornell, and Vermont follow Brown, while Union, making its Division I debut this season, rounds out the poll in tenth place.
Despite losing six valuable seniors to graduation last year, including all-American defender Correne Bredin '02 and former Patty Kazmaier Award finalist Carly Haggard '03, the Big Green returns four of its top five goal-scorers, and a sophomore class, led by preseason all-conference selection Cherie Piper '06, that was one of the most productive scoring groups in Dartmouth history last season. Also joining the team are junior defenseman Kirstin Anderson from Bowdoin and a group of talented freshman class that rounds out a deep team.
When asked about the new look of the team and his ideas about constructing a game plan, Hudak replied, "We will continue to be a very aggressive team in both the offensive and defensive zones."
"I expect us to continue to attack the opponents in all areas of the ice on defense. On the offensive side of the puck I also expect us to continue to be creative and unrelenting in attacking the opponents' net."
The top-ranked Big Green will see its first action of the season in a home game against the Friars of Providence, a team that dealt Dartmouth one of its eight losses last season, a 5-2 defeat at Thompson Arena. The Big Green will attempt to exact revenge in front of its home crowd and start the 2003-04 season in style when the puck drops at 7 p.m. on Friday night, October 31.
