Dartmouth's men's rugby team dominated its competition in post-season play last weekend as Dartmouth routed Harvard, 41-0, to win the Ivy League championship tournament, hosted by Columbia University in New York City.
The second-seeded Dartmouth team outscored its opponents a combined 163-0 over three games in the tournament.
Dartmouth men's rugby has been a powerhouse program for over a decade. The 2008 Ivy title marks Dartmouth's 8th Ancient Eight title in the last 12 years.
In the quarterfinal match against Columbia, Dartmouth got the best of the Lions with a 40-0 victory.
The semifinal was similarly one-sided, and Dartmouth clinched a trip to the championship match in a 62-0 blowout of the University of Pennsylvania.
Captain Drew Jennings '08 attributed the team's overall success to stellar defense.
"Our defense was suffocating," he said. "Every day, you had someone else who would step up. No team in the history of the tournament, since 1967, has ever shut out their opponents."
The championship game against Harvard was expected to be a close one -- the last matchup between Harvard and Dartmouth, on Oct. 20, 2007, resulted in a 6-6 tie.
"You play a team once, and especially if you tie, you ask yourself, 'What are you going to do against them next time to prove that you're better than them?'" Jennings said.
But the contest proved to be anything but a close match right from the opening whistle.
Dartmouth jumped ahead early when eight-man Matt Alkaitis '09 touched down for a try, giving Dartmouth a 5-0 lead two minutes into the game.
After a missed penalty goal by Harvard in the sixth minute, scrumhalf Gordon Silvera '08 capitalized on a penalty goal, bringing Dartmouth's lead to 8-0.
Silvera then hit a conversion after a try by flanker Ian Wilson '08 in the 21st minute to give Dartmouth a 15-0 lead at the end of the first half.
Dave Chattman '08 started the second half for Dartmouth, outrunning a defender and downing the ball, which had been grubbed into Harvard's try zone. Silvera converted the try seven minutes later.
A pair of Silvera conversions on tries by Zach Scott '08 and Chad Felter '07 capped the scoring for Dartmouth, 41-0.
Silvera took home the tournament's most valuable player award.
Players concur that the team's run to the national collegiate rugby tournament in Albuquerque, N.M., this April helped improve Dartmouth's overall play in the Ivy tournament.
"Going to nationals introduced us to a different style of rugby," Silvera said. "After nationals, we changed our mindset about rugby, which devastated our opponents."
Captain Kemper Pierce '08 attributed some of the team's success to the experience of the upperclassmen.
"We had a huge senior class," he said. "Having 19 seniors with experience on the team, especially in a game played with 15 starters, is instrumental in playing 80 solid minutes of rugby. Also, the fact that all of our seniors have been playing together for three or four years -- we were very surgical in working together. Everyone was on the same page."
After missing out on the Ivy title in 2007, when Dartmouth lost a heartbreaker to Harvard in overtime, the team was determined to win another championship for the rugby program.
"We met as a team in May when we elected the team's leadership," Pierce said. "We sat down and talked with our coach, and basically the group decided that what we wanted was to be a national-caliber team. We wanted to make nationals and we wanted to bring the Ivy League cup back to Hanover."
On the women's side, Dartmouth enjoyed mixed results last week, losing to the University of New Brunswick, 15-5, Tuesday and tying Williams, 5-5, on Saturday afternoon.
Dartmouth held UNB to a scoreless first half with an impressive defensive showing. Consequently UNB was forced to keep its best 15 players, including three Canadian national team members, on the field during the second half.
UNB was first to jump on the scoreboard in the second half when a conversion attempt after a try hit the uprights, giving UNB a 5-0 lead.
Dartmouth immediately evened the score, as Monica Martin de Bustamante '08 found her way to the try zone to knot the score, 5-5.
UNB then connected a tight-angle penalty before scoring once again to take a 15-5 lead.
