In a busy winter and spring for Dartmouth club sports programs, five teams have either competed, or are preparing to compete, in national tournaments, including men's volleyball, men's rugby, fencing, figure skating and cycling. Both the men's and women's ultimate frisbee teams could join that list with strong performances in Regional competition later in May.
After entering the NIRSA National Championship Tournament as the 30th-ranked squad out of 48 teams in Division II, the men's club volleyball team finished No. 25 after three days of competition.
"I was very pleased with our team's performance in the tournament because we are a very emotional team, with a lot of ups and downs," co-captain David Ansdell '06 said. "But we played at an even keel for most of the tournament, which allowed us to do very well throughout the first half."
On the first day of competition, which took place from April 13-15, Dartmouth defeated SUNY Geneseo and Georgetown easily before falling to Augustana to finish second place in the pool. The Big Green opened the second day of competition with a win over Siena, placing the team in the Championship pool.
"We only had one practice with the entire starting team before we got to the tournament," Ansdell said. "I was amazed at how well and how quickly the team seemed to come together."
However, two successive losses on Friday afternoon to Ohio Northern and Baldwin Wallace dropped Dartmouth to the Silver Bracket, the middle division of the tournament, for the final day of single elimination. On Saturday, the Big Green fell to Ithaca College in the first round of single elimination and ended the 2006 campaign early.
"Our team could have done better on the final day," Ansdell said. "Obviously no one wants to get bumped out in the first round of single elimination, but we had our chance to win that game. We were up 24-19 and just couldn't score a point to end the game. We definitely lost that one as an entire team."
Despite the disappointing end, the Dartmouth captain was happy that the team managed to exceed its original ranking.
"It was nice to beat our seed," Ansdell said. "That usually happens since we get low rankings every year because our league is pretty much insulated from the rest of the country."
The ultimate frisbee teams haven't been nearly as removed from national competition after spending spring break barnstorming.
The men's squad, the Pain Train, had an up and down season. The Train ran right over some of the top college teams, upsetting No. 3 University of British Columbia and No. 12 University of California, Santa Barbara. The men did some extracurricular work as well, beating a highly touted Boston club team this season as well.
At other times, however, the team has played down to inferior competition.
"Other weeks we look like a different team and lose to weak Regionals rivals," team captain Adam Sigelman '05 said.
The Regional tournament is slated for next weekend, and will be played at Sachem Field. The 16-team event will send its top two finishers to the UPA College Championships on May 26-28. The men like their chances.
"We have high hopes, as we have many guys returning from injuries that kept them sidelined during the regular season," Sigelman said. "In practice, we've been looking better than ever."
The women's squad, Princess Layout, has put together an even better run than the men. The team won its Sectional tournament, and likely secured itself the top seed at Regionals. Though the team has been playing as though it has been together forever, its roster is filled with '08s and '09s.
In addition to the good draw, the women will face what might be a less challenging set of regional competitors than usual. Traditional rivals the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brown graduated a number of seniors from their programs last year, and have fielded weaker than usual teams.
"In discussions about our region, there are often suggestions that Wellesley or [Boston University] will be able to challenge us, which is not the case this year," captain Elizabeth Middleton '06 said.
The Tufts squad has proved to be a challenge, bumping off Princess in the semis of the University of Massachusetts tournament earlier this year. The team avenged the loss later in the season, and hopes to maintain its winning ways next weekend on its way to Nationals.
"This year we hope to improve on last year's 13th-place finish with our strong, young team," Middleton said.
The men's rugby team entered the USA Rugby Championship tournament with hopes of bringing home some hardware. However, the team suffered a 63-0 defeat at the hands of Penn State in the qualifying match for the Rugby Final Four. The team still returned home as one of the top eight rugby teams in the nation.
In the USA Rugby Championship Round of 16, the Big Green defeated No. 5 Ohio State University 40-20 at the U.S. Military Academy and advanced to the Elite Eight, where the team took on Penn State. The Dartmouth figure skating team won its third consecutive U.S. Intercollegiate Team Skating Championships title in San Jose, Calif. earlier this month. The best nine teams in the nation qualified and competed in the 2006 tournament and the Big Green's 96 points in the competition bested runner-up Boston University by 37 points.
In addition, the Dartmouth fencing team had a strong showing at the New England Collegiate Fencing Championship in February. The men's team finished eighth overall in men's sabre while the women's squad finished ninth in foil. Franklin Rea '08 took second place in men's sabre and had Dartmouth's best personal performance in the tournament.
After competing in the Eastern Championships at Cornell over the weekend, eight members of the Dartmouth cycling team are preparing to compete at the National Collegiate Championships in Lawrence, Kan. from May 10-14.
