Rain Tuesday morning led to the cancellation of the last softball game of the season -- a fitting end for a season marked by unexpected events.
The Big Green's spring season was plagued by injuries, had surprising wins and disappointing losses, all en route to a satisfying third place Ivy League finish and a 14-22 overall record.
The season started very slowly for the team. In early March, Dartmouth traveled south for pre-season games and hot weather only added to the tough competition. At the Buzz classic in Atlanta, Ga. the team went 1-3.
The Big Green women, and their spirit, traveled further south to Tampa, Fla. for the University of Southern Florida Speedline Invitational. Facing more tough competition, the team went 1-4, bringing its season record to 2-7. Over the nine games, the Big Green only managed to score 23 runs, with 13 coming in one game -- a problem that would hamper the team all season.
"Scoring runs was not easy for us this year but it wasn't for lack of effort," Angela Megaw '08 said. "We fought for every run scored. We ended innings with a lot of runners left on base."
Moving on to Orlando for the Rebel Games, Dartmouth finally saw a rise in its level of play and in the results it achieved. Over nine days, the Big Green went 5-3. The team won five games over an eight-game stretch only once more in the season, so the tournament was a definite success.
When regular season play began in April, Dartmouth had a 7-10 record and room for improvement. After dropping its first two regular season games to Fairfield University, Dartmouth started to pull its season together as its Ivy League schedule got underway.
In its opening conference doubleheader against Cornell, the Big Green won one game and lost the other by only one run in extra innings. For the seniors, it was the first time they had beaten Cornell in their collegiate careers. The Big Red would go on to take second in the Ivy League,
The win also started the team's second 5-3 streak of the season. Over the next seven games, Dartmouth took one game from Columbia and Brown, and swept a doubleheader against Yale.
The five wins over Ivy League opponents put Dartmouth in serious contention for the League title. In one weekend, the team had doubleheaders against last-place Penn and first-place Princeton, four games that the Big Green needed to win in order to stay in the Ivy race.
With the great opportunity in front of them, however, Dartmouth failed to rise to the occasion. In its first homestand of the entire season, the Lady Green lost all four games, relinquishing any chances of a first-place finish.
"I would say getting swept by Penn was the lowlight of the season," Megaw said. "We were the better team and should have handled them."
After the losses, the Big Green needed to sweep Harvard to knock the Crimson down in the standings and take third place. On Senior Day in the final two games of the season, Dartmouth edged Harvard in two very close games.
The contests also marked the end of the softball careers of Erika Owen '06, Jess Reiten '06 and Alicia Petryk '06 -- the only three seniors on a team filled with freshmen.
With so many players returning, next year has the potential to be a very successful one for the program. The Big Green will return its two starting pitchers, Megaw and Stephanie Trudeau '09, so pitching should remain at a consistently high level.
The Big Green's most productive hitters will also be back. Katie Chifcian '09 led the team with a .298 average and Kelly Fry '07 led the team in home runs (five) and RBIs (21).
The new team will bring its best effort to a newly structured Ivy League. Harvard, Yale, Brown and Dartmouth will be split up into one division, while Cornell, Princeton, Columbia and Penn will compose the other division.
With this year's Ivy champion Princeton and runner-up Cornell in the other division, Dartmouth has a very good chance at finishing at the top of its division and contending for the Ivy title.
