Men’s Hockey
No. 11 Union College used three power-play goals to trump visiting Dartmouth College 4-1 on Friday evening at Messa Rink, as the Big Green fell to 5-8-3, and to 2-5-2 in the Eastern College Athletic Conference.
Captain Carl Hesler ’18 scored Dartmouth’s lone goal of the evening at the 13:52 mark of the first on a power play, deflecting a Josh Hartley ’17 shot past Union goaltender Alex Sakellaropoulous for his second goal of the season. Hesler’s goal brought Dartmouth even with Union at one goal apiece, with Brett Supinski opening up the scoring for the Dutchmen, and marking the sixth consecutive game in which the Big Green have capitalized on a man-up advantage.
Despite outshooting Union 35-24, Dartmouth was unable to solve Sakellaropoulous, who was busy all night. Adrian Clark ’20 made his first career start in goal for Dartmouth, registering 20 saves in the loss.
Supinski added another tally on a man-advantage at 15:42 in the second period, and Jeff Taylor made it 3-1 just a minute and four seconds into the third. Spencer Foo added his third point of the night, having previously assisted on two of the three previous Dutchmen goals, by registering an empty-netter with under thirty seconds remaining in the contest. Foo and teammate Mike Vecchione are now tied atop the national scoring list with 41 points apiece.
On Saturday, Dartmouth used three third period goals to break open a 1-1 tie and defeat Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, who is 4-20-1 and 2-11-0 in the ECAC, by a score of 4-2. The victory marked just the second road-win of the season for the Big Green. Grant Opperman ’17 registered two goals on the evening, notching his first two-goal game since Nov. 15, 2014 against Brown University. Classmate Troy Crema ’17 also added two tallies in his second two-goal performance of the season – his first since a Nov. 27, 2016 game against Robert Morris College.
Opperman broke a 1-1 tie with his second goal of the evening and third of the year 10:46 into the final stanza. Just four minutes later, Crema redirected a point shot from Connor Yau ’19 past RPI goalie Chase Perry to put the Big Green up by two. Perry finished the evening with 36 saves to his credit.
Though Viktor Liljegren brought the Engineers back within one with 2:54 to go, Dartmouth would not allow the home squad to pull any closer, as Crema provided the icing on the cake with an empty-netter with 2:09 left to play to put the Big Green back up by two. Dartmouth netminder Devin Buffalo ’18 was also solid down the stretch, making 14 saves alone in the third period. Buffalo finished with 31 saves in the win, his sixth of the season.
The Big Green, tied for 10th in the ECAC for power-play percentage, scored on the man-advantage for the seventh straight game, going 2-7. Rensselaer also scored twice on seven opportunities with an extra skater.
Dartmouth returns to action on Tuesday night when it faces No. 6 Harvard University at Thompson Arena.
Women’s Hockey
The Dartmouth women’s hockey team picked up three victories this week by defeating in-state rival University of New Hampshire, Union College and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to halt a seven-game losing streak. The Big Green improved its record to 5-12 and 3-8 in ECAC play. They are now .500 at Thompson Arena this season and 1-9 on the road.
Tuesday evening against UNH, the Big Green used first period goals from captain Mackenzie St. Onge ’17 and Cecilia Lopez ’20, the first of her career, to top the visiting Wildcats 2-1. In addition to St. Onge and Lopez, three additional Dartmouth players were credited with a point on the night, as Kate Landers ’19 and Tess Bracken ’19 assisted on Lopez’s goal, while Kennedy Ottenbreit ’17 picked up a helper on St. Onge’s tally. Christine Honor ’19 was stellar in goal, making 31 saves and picking up her first collegiate victory.
“I thought we had a really good first period and thought we showed a lot of resilience in the third,” head coach Laura Schuler remarked after the game. “The girls battled hard and competed and never gave up.”
Though UNH cut the Dartmouth lead to one just 2:18 into the second period, Honor turned aside eight Wildcat shots in the period to keep the Big Green in front. Honor continued to hold her own in the third period as the Wildcats kept knocking on the door, tacking on 15 additional saves.
Dartmouth was outshot 32-25 and both teams were unable to capitalize on the power play, with Dartmouth finishing 0-2 and UNH going 0-3.
Dartmouth continued to roll on Friday evening, besting Union, 2-1.
“Union played a great game against us,” Schuler said. “They really played us hard all the way through and forced us to work for the win. I am really excited for our girls. They worked hard tonight and continued to build on things from previous games.”
Dartmouth got on the board early in the first again when Caroline Shaunessy ’19 beat Union goaltender Kate Spooner top corner with just 5:28 gone by. Despite four power-play opportunities in the second period, Spooner kept the Big Green from adding to the scoresheet. It was not until 8:06 in the third period that the Big Green added to its lead, as Eleni Tebano ’17 finally beat Spooner after a nice feed from Alyssa Baker ’19.
Union got on the board with just over three minutes to go twenty seconds into a 5-on-3 advantage, but Dartmouth goalie Robyn Chemago ’17 and the Dartmouth defense held strong in the waning minutes of the contest. Chemago finished with 21 saves to earn the win and her first victory of the year.
Dartmouth held a 34-22 advantage in shots but was unable to capitalize on six power plays. Union’s special teams unit finished just 1-7.
Dartmouth ended its three-game homestand by defeating RPI 2-1 in overtime at Thompson Arena on Saturday afternoon. The Big Green improved to 2-0 in overtime contests this season when Ottenbreit buried a rebound past Engineer goalie Lovisa Selander on a power play just over one minute into the extra period.
“I am really proud of how our girls played [Saturday],” Schuler said. “They stuck to the game plan and did the little things they needed to do to be successful, and I couldn’t be happier for them.”
Dartmouth began the contest on the wrong side of things, as RPI’s Laura Horwood gave the visitors a 1-0 lead just 50 seconds into the game. The Big Green would even the contest at 1-1 just 48 seconds into the second period when Lopez intercepted a pass in the RPI zone and fired one past Selander, netting her second tally of the weekend. Dartmouth goaltender Chemago was very active in the final period, turning aside 11 RPI attempts to keep the game tied. Chemago finished with 17 saves to earn her second victory of the weekend.
It was Ottenbreit who provided the heroics in overtime after RPI’s leading scorer Laura Horwood was penalized two minutes for boarding. Baker and Bracken were credited with assists on Ottenbreit’s game-winner, her sixth goal of the season.
Dartmouth will play an identical schedule away from home next week, beginning with a contest at Harvard University on Tuesday evening, before facing off against Yale University and Brown University on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon, respectively.
Men’s Squash
The Big Green opened 2017 on the road at No. 11 Princeton University, beating the Tigers for the second year in a row. The first two matches went to the Tigers before Matt Giegerich ’19 got one back for the Big Green, beating his Princeton opponent three games to two. In the second round of matches, Dartmouth leveled the score at 3-3. With both teams battling for the overall victory, Drew Monroe ’20 won, while Princeton’s Cody Cortes beat Brandon de Otaduy ’20 to keep the score tied. Glen Brickman ’17 was the hero for the Big Green: down 2-0 in the final match, he came back to win his last three games and give Dartmouth just its second all-time win over Princeton.
Dartmouth could not replicate Saturday’s success against No. 7 University of Pennsylvania the next afternoon. Carson Spahr ’19 started the day well for the Big Green, dealing Penn’s Karim Hussein a defeat in four games and earning Dartmouth’s lone win of the day. Monroe fought hard against his UPenn opponent at the No. 9 position, but was defeated in five games.
Women’s Squash
The women’s squash team was dealt two defeats on its two-match road trip this weekend to No. 4 Princeton University and No. 2 University of Pennsylvania.
The Tigers blanked the Big Green 9-0 on Saturday. The opening matches were the closest for the Big Green. In the first round, Junnat Anwar ’20 took her Princeton opponent to extra points in the third game, and Becky Brownell ’18 rallied to win her second and fourth games before falling in the fifth. In the next round, Emma Roberts ’19 lost her match in the fourth game to give Princeton overall the victory.
Though Dartmouth’s match against No. 2 UPenn will go on the scoresheet as an 8-1 defeat, the single win will be followed with an asterisk. It came at the No. 5 position, where Brownell took the second and third games before her Princeton opponent defaulted. Anwar kept her match interesting for the second day in a row, taking UPenn’s Grace Van Arkel to extra points in the first game. The 14-12 defeat was one of the closest games of the day against a strong Quaker team.
Men’s and Women’s Track and Field
A week after winning the Dartmouth Relays, the men’s and women’s track and field teams dominated again in Leverone Field House. Each team scored 10 event victories to beat the University of Maine, the University of Vermont and Rensselaer Polytechnic University.
On the women’s side, Nicole Deblasio ’19 won two of those 10 events: the 60-meter dash and 200-meter dash. Katy Sprout ’17 won the 400-meter dash and was part of the winning 4x400-meter relay team, while Eliza Dekker ’19 won the 800-meter run and anchored the first-place 4x800-meter relay squad. Cha’Mia Rothwell ’20, who made her name known last weekend by setting Dartmouth’s long jump record, coasted to victory in the 60-meter hurdles, breaking her own school record with a time of 8.46 seconds. The Big Green had three event winners in the infield: Melissa Dunham ’17 in the shot put, Ameila Ali ’19 in the weight throw and Folasade Akinfe ’20 in the long jump.
The men’s team also won big points on the field. Max Cosculluela ’17 won the pole vault, and Justin Donawa ’19 took the crown in the triple jump. Alex Frye ’17 was victorious in the high jump. Dartmouth’s throwers won two events: Lucas Ribeiro ’19 in the shot put and Tim Brennan ’17 in the weight throw. The Big Green was strong in the middle distance events, with Myles Holt ’20 winning the 400m, Amos Cariati ’18 the 500-meters and Simpson Tanner ’19 the 800m. Cariati and Holt were also part of the victorious 4x400-meter relay team. Alec Eschholz ’19, another member of the relay team, claimed the 60m hurdles.
