Despite a strong defensive effort, the Big Green men's rugby team hopes for a national championship were dashed when it lost 26-5 to Brigham Young University on Friday in Marietta, Ga. The team was, however, able to follow up its loss with a 53-26 win over Navy in Saturday's consolation game.
The women also fell out in the first round, suffering a 65-0 defeat at the hands of Pennsylvania State University in Friday's match in Sanford, Fla. The team also dropped its consolation match 30-0 to the University of Northern Iowa the following day.
Men's team captain Conlan O'Leary '09 said BYU dominated possession throughout the match, preventing Dartmouth from showing off its talent.
"We ended up losing because we couldn't really match their size in the breakdown," he said. "Our big advantage is how our backs can attack, but [the backs] didn't get the ball very much because we had trouble maintaining possession."
Thanks to a try scored by Derek Fish '12 off a turnover late in the first half, the Big Green was still in the game going into halftime, down only 12-5. The try represented Dartmouth's only points for the day.
While the Cougars' powerhouse offense capitalized on set-piece movements, their tough defense repeatedly broke up Dartmouth's attacks in the breakdown.
"What happened, essentially, was that for us to showcase our speed and creativity, we needed to have the ball for long stretches of time," O'Leary said. "But they were really big and challenged us at the point of contact, so we didn't get to use our full arsenal."
Although the Big Green eventually wore down BYU's offense in the second half, creating several line-break situations, it was unable to convert any of these opportunities to score.
With eight minutes to go in the game, the Big Green was five meters out from the try zone in good scoring position. The Cougars then pounced once again, as BYU's Shawn Davies intercepted a pass and ran it back 90 meters to score a try.
Relegated to the consolation game, the Big Green men crushed Navy on Saturday, a victory which will improve the team's seeding in next year's tournament.
"Right from the get-go it was clear that we were a far superior team," O'Leary said. "It was surprising how badly we beat them, and it's always good to beat a national powerhouse like Navy."
Dartmouth dominated the match in the first half, which O'Leary said generally consisted of the Big Green scoring on the Midshipmen's kickoffs. Because of Dartmouth's 36-5 advantage at halftime, the Big Green reserves played the second half and continued to score tries.
"The Navy result shows that we have to pick ourselves up and move on," he said. "There were no hangover effects."
Citing the Big Green's own success alongside that of Army and Navy, O'Leary said that the tournament "really made a statement for Northeast rugby," showcasing the region's talent.
The women, on the other hand, had an overall disappointing tournament run.
Co-captain Michelle Dunn '09 said that although the Big Green "excelled" in the areas it had practiced for the match against Penn State, the team's subpar tackling was disappointing, and was a factor in the loss.
"In general we were pretty disappointed, even though we came in the underdogs, and weren't expected to win," she said. "We played well in all aspects, except one -- tackling."
Without Dartmouth tackling, the Lady Ruggers were able to run their wings from the outside to score tries, which Dunn said set the tone of the match, as the Big Green was not able to deliver offensively either.
"Once they got that momentum, they had it for the rest of the game," she said. "Most of the time when we were down on our end about to score a try, it got held up or kicked out of bounds."
Two key Big Green players, Valerie Hanson '11 and Monica Martin de Bustamante '08 Th '09, were injured during the match.
Coming off a crushing loss and these critical injuries, the Big Green also struggled in its consolation match against Northern Iowa.
Dunn said that the Big Green was not familiar with the Panthers and had not seen any match reports before it met Northern Iowa on the pitch. The Big Green was overmatched, as the panthers were Midwest champions, and a large, physical team.
"We looked at Saturday as a chance to make up for Friday's tackling, and we did that, but we were overmatched in size," she said. "It was disappointing, but we look forward to seeing what we can do."
While the women still have a few upcoming matches to end their season, their current focus is transitioning from the current seniors to the new leadership.
"We have elections this coming Thursday to elect new captains and club officers," Dunn said. "We're looking at these games to show them the ropes and phase out seniors."
The women's next match will be against Norwich University on April 25 in Hanover.
The men now enter into the Ivy League tournament, facing Cornell in the first round. After Dartmouth's success last year, when the Big Green won the tournament, O'Leary said that the team expects to do well again.
"We really pride ourselves on being the strongest, fastest, most manly team in all the Ivy League," he said. "We expect to replicate what we did last year."
