Dartmouth (11-6, 2-4 Ivy) entered the CSA Championships seeded No. 8 in the Potter Division, comprised of the top eight teams in the nation. The Big Green went into the competition with hopes of climbing up the charts by winning at least one match.
The Big Green started off its weekend Friday night in the quarterfinal round of the tournament against No. 1-seeded Trinity. Dartmouth was decisively defeated by the ultimate winner of the tournament, 9-0, and did not take a single game.
With the win over Dartmouth, Trinity extended its winning streak to 163 matches, and ended the tournament to extend the streak to 165, the longest in intercollegiate sports. The overall victory also gave Trinity its ninth straight national title and 21st straight win of the year.
Dartmouth had already battled with Trinity earlier in the year on Saturday, Jan. 13, when the Bantams swept Dartmouth 9-0.
A mini version of Trinity's dominance over Dartmouth took place at the No. 2 position, as Swedish sophomore Gustav Detter smashed Dartmouth's team captain Todd Wood '07, 9-0, 9-0, 9-0.
"It was pretty much a David versus. Goliath match-up. An upset versus Trinity was not in the cards and not even a remote possibility. Everyone across the board put in a 100 percent effort," captain James Crandell '07 said.
Dartmouth's most competitive match occurred at the No. 4 place where Bantam Eduardo Pereira, a senior from Brazil, was boxed in against Ted Newhouse '09. Although he was unable to win a single game, Newhouse did get points on the board, ultimately losing 9-7, 9-5, 9-6.
Moving to the losers' bracket, Dartmouth's next game took place Saturday against the No. 4 seeded University of Pennsylvania, who had fallen to No. 5 Yale, 7-2 on the previous evening.
Penn was not as strong as Trinity, but still notched an easy victory over the Big Green, 8-1. In the semifinals, Dartmouth was able to challenge Penn's victory and fought some close games, and in one match battled the Quakers to five games.
The Big Green's first win of the weekend came from Tyler Young '09 at the No. 6 position against freshman Christopher Thompson.
At the No. 4 position, Newhouse extended his match against junior Spencer Kern to five games by winning a close fourth game, but ultimately fell to the Quaker 4-9, 9-3, 9-1, 9-10, 9-2.
Andrew Boumford '09 at the No. 1 position, Wood at No. 2, Michael Shrubb '10 at No. 5, Dan Wagman at No. 6 and Billy Nix '07 at No. 8 were all defeated by their Penn opponents in three games.
"We lost to them in the regular season," Crandell said of the Feb. 11 sweep in Philadelphia. "We knew going in that we had our shot but they were definitely favored. We played a reasonable match but they got the better of us."
Dartmouth was hoping for a rematch against seventh-seeded Williams College, who had defeated the Big Green earlier this year 5-4, but Williams pulled out an upset against a University of Western Ontario squad playing without two of its players, including its No. 1.
Dartmouth lost its third match of the weekend against UWO, 6-3.
At No. 1, Dartmouth's Boumford defeated Mustang junior Greg Hunter in a gritty five-game battle, 10-8, 6-9, 9-3, 8-10, 9-6. Wood won as well, playing in the No. 2 spot and besting Mike Auer in three games.
Dartmouth's third win of the day was at No. 6, where Shrubb bested UWO's freshman Strachan Jarvis in four games, 9-2 2-9 9-7 9-5.
"I thought the guys showed good effort. UWO was another tough team we came up against," Crandell said.
