The Big Green's lone win came against No. 8 University of Western Ontario while the two losses came at the hands of No. 2 Yale University and No. 6 Cornell University. Dartmouth (12-8, 2-6 Ivy) finished seventh out of the eight teams in attendance.
"It wasn't a perfect finish, but I think it was the best we could do this season," head coach Hansi Wiens said.
The finish is the highest final ranking the team has had in over three years.
"Everyone's really ecstatic right now," co-captain Dan Wagman '10 said. "We finished higher than eighth and beat a good team on Sunday. We couldn't ask for much more." The Big Green's victory over the Mustangs came at the end of the weekend after both the teams suffered two losses in the earlier rounds. Western Ontario settled for last place in the tournament with the loss.
The bottom of the Big Green's lineup secured the close 5-4 win over the Mustangs, with No. 7 Ted Schroeder '11, No. 8 Wagman and No. 9 Stephen Wetherill '12 all winning their respective matches.
No. 1 Chris Hanson '13 and No. 2 Nick Sisodia '12 also beat their opponents to round out the five wins.
"I hadn't seen [Western Ontario] play at all this year," Wiens said. "They were really good, but in the end I think we deserved to win."
The Big Green's first match of the weekend was against a powerful Bulldog team (13-2, 7-0 Ivy).
Only Hanson was able to string his match to five games before narrowly losing in the final game, 11-8, to complete the Bulldog shutout, 9-0.
"Against Yale, we never really had a chance," Wiens said. "They are just too strong."
After falling to the Bulldogs, the Big Green was placed into a side bracket composed of the other teams with first-round loses. No longer in contention for the national title, Dartmouth still had a chance of finishing as high as fifth in the country.
Its hopes were dashed, however, when the Big Red (10-7. 3-3 Ivy) stormed past the Big Green in the next round, 7-2.
Dartmouth's two match wins came from Hanson and No. 5 Brian O'Toole '12. O'Toole opened by winning the first two games, but Cornell sophomore David Hilton countered with two of his own. The two competitors were evenly matched in the final frame, but O'Toole emerged victorious, winning the fifth game, 13-11.
"We played Cornell really tough," Wiens said. "They fought hard, and I think they earned the win."
Trinity College won the tournament after soundly defeating Yale, 6-3. It is the 12th consecutive year that the Bantams (22-0) finished the season as national champions.
The Bulldogs finished in second place, followed by Princeton University in third. The Tigers (11-4, 6-1 Ivy) cracked the top three after a 7-2 upset victory over third seeded Rochester University.
The Big Green finishes fifth in the Ancient Eight while Yale's runner-up performance earned it the 2010 Ivy League title.
The season is over for the Dartmouth squad, but some of its members will go on to compete at the CSA Singles Championship Tournament held at Trinity March 5-7.
The number of players each team can bring is determined by final team rankings, which will be released later in the week, Wiens said. Hanson and Sisodia will definitely be competiting, he added.
Wagman, however, has played his last match as a member of the Dartmouth squad.
"It's the end of my athletic career," he said. "It's definitely a little sad, but now I get to relax a little bit."
The women's team will compete in the Howe Cup for teams ranked No. 9-16 in the nation this weekend at Yale.
