In the six weeks when most Dartmouth students left campus, the women’s hockey team continued training and competing, now at 4-13-3 with 10 regular season games left in the season. The team traveled to Minnesota and Vermont, and hosted Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Union College, St. Michael’s College and Saint Anselm College at Thompson Arena.
On Nov. 1 Dartmouth women’s hockey came home from Clarkson’s Cheel Arena with a win for the first time since 2011. They scored 3 goals all in the third period despite losing faceoffs and taking only 43% of shots on goal. Clarkson is ranked 9th in ECAC women's hockey.. Reflecting on the season, head coach Maura Crowell, the 3-0 Clarkson road victory was a “marquis win,” but the team struggled to keep up the momentum, winning only two of their next twelve.
“I think we let some games slip away that, you know, I think we could really get back and that’s the fun part about the second half is we do get to play everybody again,” Crowell said.
During winterim, the team split their time between practices and volunteering with the community. Without classes, Shae Messner ’26 explained that winterim is the perfect opportunity for a reset, to develop their team identity — being “tough, fast and connected” — and to gain confidence.
“We can really hone in our details…practice playing in our identity and showing that in our game, ” said Messner.
The team applied improvements from their winterim practices during the first weekend of January where they faced off against the University of Vermont. According to Messner, they worked on high energy, fast paced play over break, which helped combat UVM better than they anticipated. The team won over half of their faceoffs and took 17 shots on goal before the end of the night. Vermont scored in the first period, and although Dartmouth never equalized, they prevented UVM from scoring again for the remainder of the game.
On Saturday, the Big Green played Vermont again, this time managing to score before the game ran out, but ended up losing 2-1 to complete the double Vermont victory. Despite losing both games, Crowell said she was proud of how they played and the team is looking forward to the rest of the season.
“I think our energy is really good, our focus has been very strong during this period of time so we’re in a really good spot right now,” Crowell said. “We’ve really improved over the course of winterim and going back home for break allowed everyone to reset, and we’ve got some good momentum coming back.”
This past weekend, Dartmouth took on Yale University and Brown University. After losing to both teams in the fall, Michaela Hesová said Dartmouth was looking forward to a chance at redemption.
“We want to show our strength in the Ivy League,” Hesová said.
Notably, Hesová will be competing in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortino, Italy, for the Czech Republic. She was notified during winterim, about a week before her selection was announced. Hesová missed many activities and games over break to participate in scouting camps, but was supported by the Dartmouth women’s hockey team from afar. She will be the 10th Olympian in the program’s history and the 5th to compete while still in school.
Hesová says that attending the Olympics is a “dream come true” after a lengthy selection process, beginning in July.
“Dartmouth has really allowed me to develop to my full potential,” Hesová said. “I use everything and anything I have.”
Next weekend, the Big Green will face Quinnipiac University on Jan. 16 and Princeton University on Jan 17. on the road.
