Any team that begins its season with two overtime games is bound to have an exciting year. With a 4-3 win over Vermont and a 5-5 tie against Boston University, the women's hockey team has certainly opened the 2007-2008 season in electrifying fashion.
As defending Ivy League and ECACHL tournament champions, there are high expectations on this talented squad. Though five important players (including three Olympians) graduated last year, 16 letterwinners have returned in hopes of taking the sport by storm again. In addition, a promising group of newcomers should help contribute immediately.
"When you lose a group of seniors there's a bit of a void, but I think we've got some great people who want to and are capable of stepping up," Head Coach Mark Hudak said.
Key returnees include forwards Nicole Ruta '08, Carrie Thompson '08, Marley McMillan '09, Maggie Kennedy '09, Shannon Bowman '09, Sarah Parsons '10, Sarah Toupal '10 and Jenna Cunningham '10. Amy Cobb '08, Katie Gray '09, Sarah Newnam '09, Julia Bronson '09, and Sue Schmitz '10 all return on defense, and goalie Carli Clemis '09 is back in net.
Clemis received ECACHL goalie of the year honors last season, and Cunningham was named ECACHL player of the week on Oct. 29 after scoring three goals and contributing two assists over the weekend. Both women were selected to the preseason all-league team. Cunningham leads Dartmouth in points (a statistic that combines goals and assists) thus far with five, followed closely by Bronson, who has four. Clemis has made eight saves this season, which is a rather low figure due largely to Dartmouth's adept defense. Last year Clemis set a career high against Harvard with 38 saves.
Preseason coaches' polls predict that the Big Green will finish third in ECACHL behind league favorite St. Lawrence and perennial powerhouse Harvard.
"Obviously it's hard to replace a class of five great seniors -- it's even harder when three of them were Olympians," Newnam said. "Our team isn't dwelling on this loss and we are excited to begin a new season. During practice, we are putting in the hard work and grit that goes into making a winning team and are looking forward to this showing up on the scoreboard as the season progresses."
There is a definite sense that the responsibility for success lies on the shoulders of each team member and that everyone will need to contribute in order to realize certain goals this season.
"We have 20 girls who I know will step up at different times," Kennedy said. "There won't be one person that we rely on to get it done -- we all just need to have that mindset of knowing that we are each capable of doing it."
The team is 1-0-1 thus far, with the two overtime games under its belt. After falling behind in each game, Dartmouth fought back to tie the score by the end of regulation and depended on strong defense to tough it out.
"We demonstrated that we will compete for every goal until the buzzer sounds," Newnam said. "This year we will have to battle to the fullest in every single game."
The Big Green seems to grow stronger as the game goes on, having scored one goal in the first period, three in the second period, and four in the third period thus far. This late-game strength will certainly prove useful as the season progresses.
Two upcoming milestones are the 500 all-time wins mark for the team (which has existed since 1977) and 100 career wins for coach Mark Hudak. This will be Hudak's fifth season as coach.
The upcoming weekend will be another busy one for Dartmouth, as Princeton arrives on Friday with a record of 1-1-2. Last season the Big Green won both contests against the Tigers, and the team is hopeful that it can come out with the same result. On Saturday Dartmouth hosts the Bobcats of Quinnipiac, who boast a record of 2-3-1.
The Big Green looks to capitalize on lessons learned during the first two games and to gain more experience during the extended homestand.
"We made a lot of first-game mistakes this weekend, things we won't be doing when we get a couple more games out of the way," Hudak said. "We learned a lot this weekend and our improvement in some areas from Friday to Sunday was great. It bodes well for us this Friday and the rest of the year."
