"It was great ending our winter season on two wins, especially after two disheartening 4-3 losses," said co-captain Katie Jaxheimer '06. "It puts our team in a much more positive frame of mind as we look to facing strong Floridian teams over spring break."
Dartmouth (4-4) set the tone early by sweeping all three doubles matches, something the team has not accomplished since its first match of the winter against Army. Lindsay Winingham '07 and Megan Zebroski '08 cruised to an 8-1 victory at the No. 1 spot. Jaxheimer and her fellow senior co-captain Ann Scott '06 had a tougher time with their match before they prevailed 8-6 at No. 2 doubles. The Big Green completed the sweep at No. 3 doubles, with an 8-2 win by the pair of Natalie O'Rourke '08 and Jamie Caplan '09.
"Lately we've struggled to secure the doubles point, and today I think we realized how much of a difference it really makes, not only in terms of the score but also in terms of being pumped up for singles," said Caplan. "After we won the doubles point, we had a lot of energy and confidence that we were able to take into singles."
The No. 1 singles spot has been giving the Big Green women trouble all winter -- they have only been able to pick up one win there in the past six matches -- and the trend continued against Stony Brook. Anne-Catherine Valle handled Winingham in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3.
But after that loss Dartmouth rolled off five straight singles wins, highlighted by Jaxheimer's first singles victory of the winter at No. 5, 6-0, 3-6, 7-5. Catja Carrell '08 also picked up her first win in another tough three-setter at No. 4, 6-2, 6-7, 6-4.
Due to the doubleheader there was a big shake-up in the lineup for the second match against UConn to give some of the players a chance to experience different positions before the end of the winter season.
Once again the Big Green swept the Huskies in all three doubles matches. O'Rourke and Carrel were inserted into the lineup at No. 2 doubles and won 8-5.
When the singles play rolled around the women in green had the highly coveted doubles points on their side, but things were uncertain because only two of the typical starters were in the lineup, and even they were in drastically different spots.
Caplan, who typically plays at the No. 5 position, was bumped up to No. 1 singles for the first time in her young career. However, she played as though it was her natural spot, cruising to an easy 6-0, 6-1 win. The victory improves her singles win streak to four matches.
Scott, the other typical starter in the lineup, took the court at the No. 2 spot. Even though she dropped the first set, she was able to bounce back for the win 3-6, 6-0, 6-3.
O'Rourke (7-6, 2-6, 7-6) and Jaxheimer (6-2, 6-3) also picked up victories at the No. 5 and No. 6 positions, respectively.
"The doubleheader was a neat format to play, since it gave us the opportunity to be flexible with our lineup," said Jaxheimer. "Hopefully it added to everyone's confidence as our team performed well in situations that each of us might not be used to playing in."
Saturday's matches concluded the Big Green's winter season. The team will take the next three weeks off before the start of the spring season on March 20, when Dartmouth faces Florida Atlantic at Patch Reef Park in Boca Raton, Fla.
