Men's club lacrosse is not yet recognized by the College as a club sport, but that did not hinder interest from the almost eighty lacrosse players on its BlitzMail list. The club is one of the youngest, as Conor Frantzen '08 and Rich Tsen '08 founded it last spring.
However, Dartmouth is ineligible to play in the New England Club Lacrosse League, which bars schools with varsity lacrosse teams from competing. So, along with captains of several other lacrosse clubs from schools such as Vermont and Tufts, Frantzen formed the Pioneer Club Lacrosse League, which has just finished its first season.
Men's lacrosse (3-3) highlighted its season with a come-from-behind, 14-11 defeat of the University of Vermont. Dartmouth was ousted from the league playoffs in the semi-finals by Western New England College, which had already defeated Dartmouth in the regular season.
Frantzen said that talks to get men's club lacrosse recognized by the College are still underway. Without College recognition, the team was unable to get field space in Hanover, and did not have any formal practices this spring. All of their competitions took place on the road.
At the moment, women's club lacrosse (7-2) is a far more serious affair than men's. The team earned College recognition last spring and has used its allotted field time as much as possible, practicing between three and four times a week.
"We've been kind of going nuts," captain Cameron Houser '07 said. "We've used the resources of the College as much as we can."
The practice time paid off as the women's club lost only to Boston College in the regular season before falling to the University of Connecticut in the final round of the playoffs.
Unlike men's club lacrosse, which has had more than six former varsity lacrosse players show up to some games, Houser is the only former varsity laxer on the women's roster, which includes some players who had never played before joining the women's club.
A loss to UConn in the finals prevented the women's lacrosse team from heading to the national tournament. Many of the schools faced by the women do not have varsity teams.
"It's difficult to go down and play Coast Guard, who practices two and a half hours a day, five days a week, so we like to have the girls as prepared as they can be," Houser said.
Men's rugby wrapped up its season two weeks ago with a defeat in the finals of the Ivy League championship, but continued to scrimmage in Hanover against local club teams. The men fell to the Mystic River Men's Club on Saturday.
"[They were] a bunch of 30-year-old men. They were big," Ivan Zlatar '10 said.
The men did not qualify for the New England playoffs, the winner of which receives a bid to nationals. Entry to that tournament is based on the team's fall record.
Women's rugby has also been playing in spring tournaments and scrimmages. The squad placed third in the Ivy League tournament, defeating Cornell and Harvard before losing to Yale. Brown eventually won the tournament.
The Big Green lost to Yale again two weekends ago to take second in a tournament at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. The women took on Harvard on Sunday in Hanover.
The women's team just elected new officers and captains for the 2007-2008 season. Mallory McQueen '09 will be the backs captain, Emily Luscz '08 is the forwards captain and Katherine Minyety '08 is the new president of the club.
Men and women's rugby receive strong support from the club sports office, but even more support from alumni. Alumni contributions paid for the construction of the rugby clubhouse and helped subsidize the cost of the teams' spring trips overseas.
Men and women's ultimate hosted a regional tournament this weekend in Hanover.
Spring is the main season for the men's team. Captain Sam Routhier '07 said that most of the players work their D-plans so that they are on campus in the spring to play in the regional tournament. The team kicked off its spring season with a trip down the East Coast, playing in two tournaments in North Carolina and in Georgia.
Ultimate finished 15th in Georgia, and lost in the semi-finals in North Carolina. After spring break, the men's team finished second in the Yale Cup, where it defeated many of the teams in Hanover for regionals.
Entering the tournament, the men were seeded second, behind Brown. With two bids to the national tournament up for grabs, Routhier expected this to be the year when the Dartmouth men made their return to the national tournament. However, the men couldn't live up to their seeding, falling to Williams and failing to earn a bid to nationals.
On the women's side of the disc, the weekend was a good one, as the team's three practices a week paid off with a tournament win and the promise of a trip to nationals. The team lost in the quarterfinals of the Yale Cup before winning sectionals, which was good enough to give the women a No. 3 seed in the regional tournament.
"We have been to nationals the last three years in a row, and are considered one of the top teams in New England," captain Nora Johnson '08 said.
The women lost to eventual national champion Stanford in the quarterfinals of the tournament last year, the best finish ever by a Dartmouth ultimate team.
Men's and women's club soccer continue to compete after losing their status as junior varsity sports. Neither team is a College-recognized club, but in the spring they play in the Lightning Soccer league, which is sponsored by the college for area teams.
The men's team has had trouble finding practice space. The team can sometimes be found practicing on the Green in the spring. Both the men and the women play a full season of games in the fall against area JV teams.
In addition to the Lightning Soccer league, the men scrimmage the rugby team regularly in the spring, and will be scrimmaging Vermont and Wesleyan before the end of the year, according to captain Nedko Kyuchukov '07.
Men's club tennis was formed two years ago and is recognized by the College. Captain Stephen Spitz '09 said that most of the money allotted to the club by the College goes into purchasing tennis balls and paying for travel to tournaments. The team practices three times a week, sharing court space with the varsity tennis teams.
Club tennis competed in the club Ivy championships at Yale where they placed third out of four teams, with Yale taking the top spot. The team also participates in many intramural events on campus, and has a match against Hanover High School's varsity squad next weekend.
While the men's club tennis team has given itself the name Classic International Pastime, the club sport with the most international flavor is cricket.
Cricket practices twice a week and the squad is completely composed of international students. In the past, there have been three Americans on the team. Cricket competed last weekend against Middlebury, batting first for 253 runs in six outs before chasing for 210 runs with eight outs.
"They lost," Thayer student Nicola Mootoo said, clearing up the confusion.
The cricket team lacks a traditional cricket pitch, but practices in Leverone Field House and on Scully-Fahey Field. The team has an upcoming game against the County Club of Vermont, Dartmouth's biggest rival.
"It's tough competition with those guys," Mootoo said.
Cricket has some difficulty scheduling its game. New Hampshire and Vermont do not have cricket leagues and the team was unable to join the Massachusetts cricket league because of the prohibitive distance to Boston.
"Every game is like a final. Every game we try to play just to win," Mootoo said.
