The men finished their first Ivy League game this season with an impressive victory against the Crimson. The Big Green started out strong with two consecutive tries from Justin Ciambella '13, one of which was successfully converted by Madison Hughes '15. A successful penalty conversion by Hughes gave Dartmouth a 15-0 lead at halftime.
"There was an especially high level of intensity and excitement throughout the game because Harvard has historically been a big rival [of Dartmouth's] in the Ivy League," starting flyhalf Owen Scannell '13 said.
The intensity increased in the second half as Ciambella continued to sustain the Big Green's dominance against the Crimson with two more tries. His hat trick was followed by a succession of tries from Rex Littlefield '14, Wilson Chockley '15, Kevin Clark '14 and Parker Gilbert '16. Tyler Moragne '14 finished the game off with one last try, making the final tally 60-0.
Although the Big Green clearly proved to be stronger than Harvard, the team still has room for improvement this season. Both Scannell and Ciambella pinpointed cutting down on penalties as something that the Big Green still needs to work on in future games.
"We're in good shape and the coaches have done a good job conditioning us, but the more we play, the better we'll get," Ciambella said.
As it was the team's first home game this season, the game was also a chance for the Dartmouth men to show their supporters that they are still strong and capable, even after the departure of a strong senior class last year.
"This was the chance for this year's senior class to show that we will continue to maintain the high level of play that is expected from Dartmouth rugby," Scannell said. "I think we took a big step toward that on Saturday."
Ciambella also said that new leaders will need to emerge for the Big Green in 2012.
"We have a bunch of new players coming and playing much bigger roles than they had in the past," Ciambella said. "It was really great to see the team come together on Saturday."
This Saturday, the Big Green will face Yale University in an away game.
"Hopefully, it's a game where we're really executing our game plan on both sides of the ball," Scannell said.
The Dartmouth women also finished with a victory last weekend, defeating Syracuse, 33-7. The Big Green began the game with tries from Diana Wise '15 and Jovalee Thompson '14.
Although Dartmouth allowed a successfully converted try from Syracuse in the middle of the game, the team eventually regained its energy and dominance over the Orange with tries from Leandra Barrett '15 and Allison Brouckman '15. All of the first four tries were converted by co-captain Karoline Walter '13.
"In the middle, there was a lull when we seemed to have low energy, and that's when they scored on us," Walter said. "What was great was that we ended up pulling out of that lull and finishing really strong."
Indeed, after its mid-game slip-up, Dartmouth held off Syracuse for the rest of the game, with Wise scoring an additional try to make the final score 33-7.
"We haven't played Syracuse in a couple of years, so we weren't totally sure what to expect," Walter said. "Ultimately, we showed that even though we're a small team, we are still strong."
Although the women's team can still improve by sustaining its energy throughout its games, it performed particularly well in terms of integrating different players and positions, something the team had focused on developing during practices.
After the team worked hard during preseason, Saturday's match offered an opportunity for the Big Green to demonstrate how it came together as a team during training.
"We were all really encouraging to each other, and there was a really positive feeling that allowed us to be integrated as a team," Walter said. "It was definitely an improvement from last season."
This weekend, the women's rugby team will take on Columbia University in its first Ivy League game.
"We're all really psyched about how we've been doing so far, so we're definitely looking forward to getting a [conference] game under our belts," Walter said.
