A newly released preseason poll predicts another strong season for the Dartmouth women's hockey team.
Big Green women's hockey is expected to finish third in Eastern College Athletic Conference hockey competition, according to the ECAC preseason coaches' poll.
Harvard women's hockey finished first in the poll with 119 points and 10 of the 12 possible first-place points. The remaining two first-place ballots went to St. Lawrence University, which received 103 total points.
Dartmouth, a three-time ECAC regular season champion, finished with 98 points, good enough for third place in the preseason poll, with Clarkson garnering 84 points for fourth place.
"I think the preseason polls greatly underestimate the potential of our team and the wealth of experience coming from both our returning players and our incoming freshmen," Julia Bronson '09 said. "I am not really that concerned about the polls. I think the league is in for a surprise and I'm just excited for the season to get underway so that we can start proving ourselves."
Dartmouth finished last season ranked third in the ECAC standings, accumulating an 18-9-6 record overall and a 13-5-4 mark in conference play.
This strong effort culminated with the team competing in the ECAC playoff semifinals, before ultimately losing to Harvard in the quarterfinals of the NCAA championship tournament. Last season marked the 12th time that Dartmouth women's hockey advanced to the ECAC semifinals and the team's sixth appearance in the NCAA tournament.
The poll mirrors the order in which the teams from Harvard, St. Lawrence, Dartmouth and Clarkson finished in ECAC competition last season. Harvard finished last season undefeated in conference play.
Rounding out the middle and bottom of the poll were Cornell, Princeton, Colgate, Yale, Rensselaer, Brown, Quinnipiac and Union.
In addition to the third-place ranking the in the preseason coaches poll, Monday also saw the announcement that forward Sarah Parsons '10 had been named to the preseason all-league team for the second consecutive season.
Parsons was named to the All-ECAC third team last season, after scoring 15 goals and 19 assists during the year.
In addition to Parsons, five others were named to the ECAC preseason all-league team, including last year's ECAC hockey player of the year Sarah Vaillancourt of Harvard and Crimson teammate Christina Kessler. The other three named to the all-league team were Sasha Sherry of Princeton, Helen Resor of Yale and Cornell's Rebecca Johnston.
Additionally, Parsons will join Team USA at the Four Nations Cup beginning Tuesday, Nov. 4 in Lake Placid, N.Y., where she will be the only women's hockey player currently playing in either the Ivy League or the ECAC on the American team.
On the men's side, the preseason coaches and media polls both have the Dartmouth men's hockey team listed as finishing in 11th place out of 12 teams with 33 points.
Only Brown received fewer points in the coaches' poll, with 11 total points, while Rensselaer beat out the Big Green with 38 points for the 10th spot in the poll.
Princeton received the most votes in both the coaches and media polls, finishing just ahead of Harvard and Cornell. In the ECAC coaches poll, Princeton received nine first-place votes and 118 points, while Harvard received 103 points and two first-place votes. Cornell garnered the remaining top-seed vote and 100 points overall.
Princeton was last season's ECAC postseason tournament champion.
Coming in behind Princeton, Harvard and Cornell were Clarkson, Union, Quinnipiac, Yale, St. Lawrence, Colgate, Rensselaer, Dartmouth and Brown.
This is the first time in a decade that the Big Green hockey team has been forecast to finish so low in the standings. The last time that the Dartmouth hockey team received an 11th-place preseason ranking came prior to the 1998-1999 season.
Last season, Dartmouth men's hockey earned a 12-16-4 overall record, and 6-13-3 mark in ECAC play.
This season, in addition to welcoming back 20 returning players, the Big Green will also see nine incoming freshmen who will be competing for a spot in the lineup.
