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Men’s lacrosse doubles up UMass Lowell under the lights

In its first and only game of the year under the lights, men’s lacrosse took on another rookie program Tuesday night, routing the University of Massachusetts at Lowell 18-9. In a predictable win over the fresh-faced River Hawks — who just ended their first Division I season at 1-12 overall — the Big Green earned its most decisive victory of the season, putting itself over its previous season high of 16 goals in a game. The game also marked the first time the team came away with a victory of more than two goals.

Football spring practices lay the groundwork for next fall

Each spring, the men’s football team conducts 12 spring practices to prepare for the coming fall season. Both players and coaches see spring work as a prime opportunity for young and under-used players to show their skills, as well as a chance for experienced veterans and core units to add to their repertoire and improve cohesion.

Baseball clinches eighth straight Red Rolfe Division title

If two weeks ago Dartmouth baseball was the king of splits, it has since become the king of streaks — winning 10 in a row, sweeping all of its conference competition so far and taking the Red Rolfe Division title for the eighth consecutive year with four conference games left in the season. It’s a good time to be watching baseball at Dartmouth.

Women’s tennis sits No. 2 in Ivy League after two win weekend

The No. 31 women’s tennis team beat Brown University (10-9, 3-3 Ivy) 4-3 at home on Friday and traveled to Yale University on Sunday, winning by the same 4-3 scoreline. The team’s last five conference matches have been decided 4-3, and the Big Green has been able to scrape out four of those five wins, with its only loss in the batch coming against Princeton University (12-8, 6-1 Ivy), which clinched the 2015 Ivy League title — its second straight — with a win over Cornell University on Sunday.

Men’s tennis wins two matches over weekend

On the heels of two consecutive conference victories last weekend, the 47th-ranked men’s tennis team was looking to extend its win streak this past weekend as the Ivy League season winds down. After victories against unranked Brown University (15-7, 1-5 Ivy) by a score of 4-3 and against Yale University (11-11, 1-5 Ivy) at 5-2, the Big Green (13-10, 4-2) now enters its final home match on a four-win surge and a chance to end the season in second place in the Ivy League.

Mitola ’16 graduates early, departs men’s basketball team

In less than a month after leading the men’s basketball team to its highest win total since 1999, Alex Mitola ’16 has chosen to transfer out of the program and graduate early at the end of this spring term. The reigning two-time team most valuable player and second-team All-Ivy League member had asserted himself as one of the top players in the Ivy League, but now is in the midst of deciding between several potential programs to both further his collegiate basketball career in his final year of eligibility and pursue graduate school work.

Men’s lacrosse edges debut NJIT varsity program by two goals

Men’s lacrosse broke its three-game losing streak with a 7-5 win against the New Jersey Institute of Technology Tuesday, ending the Highlanders’ debut season at 0-12. The meeting at NJIT’s Lubetkin Field at Mal Simion Stadium brought Dartmouth’s record to 4-6 with three games to play. Dartmouth’s usual standouts took to the stage again as Wiley Osborne ’17 had four assists, Jack Korzelius ’18 marked a hat trick, Adam Fishman ’15 notched his 15th goal of the season and goalkeeper Blair Friedensohn ’16 made 11 saves. A new face in Cody George ’18 stepped onto the board with a tally, and Jack Connolly ‘16 and Billy Heidt ’16 finished out the Big Green’s seven markers. The Big Green entered the match unsure what to expect, head coach Brendan Callahan said. NJIT’s new program is led by head coach Travis Johnson. Johnson was given just over a year to build a team and recruited more than 20 freshmen, completing the roster with just two older members, a sophomore and a senior from the club team. NJIT is the 11th start-up since 2010, according to Inside Lacrosse. The school recently transitioned to NCAA Division 1 status, but is not included in a conference. The fledgling team brought an unusual style into their match with Dartmouth. By running a possession game that at times looked more like a stall, the Highlanders were able to control the ball, take quality shots and limit Dartmouth’s offensive opportunities, contributing to the low score. At one point, Friedensohn said, NJIT held the ball for around seven minutes — an extremely long time for the Big Green defense to work continuously. The situation was not helped by Dartmouth’s poor performance on faceoffs, losing 11 of 16. It was a challenging style to play against, but not one the team is likely to spend much time learning to counter, Friedensohn said, as it is not one they expect to see again this season. “I knew if we came out and played well, we could certainly get her done,” Callahan said of the game. “The guys found a way to make it happen.” Dartmouth took the lead immediately in the match, scoring two goals in the first two minutes. NJIT got on the board with six minutes to play in the first quarter, then tied the score with just over a minute remaining. Dartmouth scored moments later to end the first quarter up 3-2. Korzelius netted the only goal in the second quarter, and NJIT had two goals in the third to enter the fourth quarter with the teams knotted at four. With one more goal for each side to start the fourth, it was not until just 7:26 remained that Korzelius was able to put Dartmouth up for good, netting two goals to close the final quarter. The star freshman was at it again. “I definitely think that there is always room for improvement, never settling for anything like that,” Korzelius said of the recent praise he has received. The team was, Callahan said, “a little tired and beat from the weekend,” having dropped its Princeton match Saturday. The team tried to learn from the loss to move forward into Tuesday’s game. “It was back to the basics, the details of what we did,” Callahan said. “We spent some time talking about what it meant to be a team and play together. Hey, we’ve got to shoot the ball better, we’ve got to communicate better on defense, we felt like there were some cracks in the base-level of our fundamentals and our skills, and we focused on that in the game today.” Tuesday, Callahan said, should be a springboard win, as Dartmouth has started the path to hitting its target of finishing the last four games 4-0. The Big Green has just a few days to prepare for its last road game at the University of Pennsylvania, but is now focusing on the bigger picture — the team has just two remaining games that could decide whether or not they make the Ivy League Tournament. “That’s the reason all of us came here — so we could win the Ivy League tournament,” Freidensohn said. “We’ve all been dreaming about it, so that’s really on the forefront of our minds — dedicating every second the next two weeks to that reaching that goal.” This season, which many saw as a rebuilding year under a new head coach, has had so far a large emphasis on improvement and growth. Now, Friedensohn said, the team is finally focusing less on getting better and more on simply trying to win. “We’ve actually established that we have improved every single week, and that’s why improvement is no longer our goal, but now, setting the next standard, is winning,” he said. “We’ve earned the right to set that as our goal.” The players are excited to have reached this point in the season, where they will be putting their work into practice. “The biggest part of our season is right now. These next games determine where we’re going to head, if we make these playoffs,” Korzelius said. “It’s definitely an awesome ride so far but we’re focused on finishing up in the way we want.” The team will play the University of Pennsylvania Saturday at noon in Philadelphia.

Men’s tennis sweeps weekend, defeating Princeton and Penn

Needing to rebound after two disappointing home losses to open the Ivy League season, the No. 54 men’s tennis team entered this weekend on a four-game losing streak. It left with two consecutive 5-2 wins, taking down No. 30 Princeton University on Saturday and the University of Pennsylvania on Sunday.

Women’s tennis splits weekend outings

After a narrow loss to No. 56 Princeton University 4-3 on Saturday, the No. 37 women’s tennis team edged out the University of Pennsylvania 4-3 on Sunday on the back of a match-clinching three-set victory by Taylor Ng ’17 at No. 1 singles.The match against the Princeton team (11-7, 5-0 Ivy), which sits atop the Ivy League, proved close from the very beginning, as the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles teams fought tooth and nail in their matches.

Alumni push College for divestment

Seventy-nine Dartmouth alumni hope to up the pressure on College administrators to divest fossil fuels through an open letter addressed to College President Phil Hanlon, the Board of Trustees and the Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility, originally released on April 2. The letter urges the College to make headway on the divestment of its financial portfolio from fossil fuel companies and informs the school that the undersigned alumni are donating to the Multi-School Fossil Free Divestment Fund instead of the Annual Fund.

The Big Green Weekend Primer

Surprise! Despite what the weather may indicate, it’s actually April, meaning we’re in the heart of the spring season. Luckily for them, the majority of Dartmouth’s teams will escape the snow by hitting the road this weekend with only women’s tennis and men’s lacrosse sticking around in Hanover. Nevertheless, this should still be a critical weekend as teams try to establish themselves midway through the Ivy League slate.

Senior Spring: Featuring Gabas Maldunas ’15

A boy from Panevezys, Lithuania, has taken over Dartmouth basketball. No doubt you’ve seen the SportsCenter Top 10 highlight by now — a Yale University player swats a full court in-bounds pass from Miles Wright ’18 out of bounds with 1.9 seconds to play. Down by one, Dartmouth is given one last chance.

Baseball splits doubleheaders against Cornell and Princeton

After competing in two doubleheaders this weekend, Big Green baseball has concluded its rounds in the Lou Gehrig Division and has established itself as the King of Splits. After playing both Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania last weekend and the first home games of the season this past weekend against Cornell and Princeton Universities, the team finished with a win and a loss in all four doubleheaders thus far.

Women’s rugby to gain varsity status in fall

Nearly 37 years after the Dartmouth Women’s Rugby Club was originally founded, the College will now promote the program to varsity status beginning with the next academic year, athletic director Harry Sheehy announced last week. The decision to elevate women’s rugby will raise the total number of varsity sports at the College to 35, with 17 teams for women, 16 for men and two coed teams.

Men’s tennis opens Ivy slate at home against defending champs

This weekend, the men’s tennis team will commence the Ivy League slate of its 2015 season. The Big Green, ranked No. 50 by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, will have the home-court advantage as it looks to build on a strong 9-8 pre-conference record heading into Saturday’s match against No. 28 Columbia University and Sunday’s match versus No. 55 Cornell University.

Caldwell leads skiing to sixth at NCAAs

To close the 2015 carnival season, 10 members of the ski team competed in the National Collegiate Men’s and Women’s Skiing Championships held on March 11-14 at Lake Placid, New York. After four days of competition, Dartmouth finished in sixth with 275 points, while the Big Green’s Eastern Conference rival University of Vermont placed fourth with 443 points.

The final weekend of games for the women’s basketball team was fitting for the season, representing the up-and-down nature of gameplay the team has seen in the last few months. Having endured winning streaks of four and five games and losing skids of four and six, the Big Green dismantled Brown University 71-53 this past Friday only to receive a drubbing itself, 53-28 against Yale University 24 hours later. Nevertheless, the 2014-15 season still featured marked progress from one year ago. The team’s 14-14 overall record stands in stark contrast to last year’s 5-23 record, pointing to a program on the rise. Momentum is often an incalculable and hackneyed term in basketball parlance, but there’s no question there was some carryover from the women’s success last weekend into Friday night against Brown. After stifling the previous week’s opponents to an average of 42.5 points per game and taking home two consecutive wins, the Big Green extended its overwhelming defensive display to start against the Bears. After giving up a basket 33 seconds in, the Big Green immediately hunkered down on defense, holding Brown scoreless for nearly eight minutes after the initial basket. Over this stretch, Dartmouth disallowed any breathing space, forcing its foe —­­­­ which went 0-11 from the field during this period —­­­­ deep into the shot clock and into poor shot selection. “Tia Dawson [’15] had a lot to do with that,” head coach Belle Koclanes said about her team’s strong defensive showing. “[She] makes such a difference out on the floor for us on both ends, and defensively to have her in the paint as our enforcer just helps our defense immensely.” A similar story developed on the other end of the floor. Relying on its considerable size advantage and driving ability, the Big Green ferociously attacked the hoop, netting its first 10 — and 16 of its first 19 — points in the painted area, and eventually finishing the opening period with 26 points in the paint. The cold streak for Brown also coincided with a 13-0 surge for the Big Green, which out-rebounded its opponent 9-4 during this span. After springing out to an early 15-3 edge, the Big Green would not relinquish its lead for the rest of the evening. As she entered the final weekend of her career as a member of the Big Green, Dawson continued to show her ability to transform the game for the team. No other player had a bigger role in establishing the team’s supremacy in the post, on both offense and defense. With 13 points on 6-7 shooting and eight rebounds, the senior center paved the way for Big Green success in the first half, contributing heavily to a +7 team rebound differential at halftime. Dawson concluded the game with a double-double — her third in the last four outings — on 13 points and 10 rebounds. Though Brown cut the score to 17-13 just under 11 minutes into the first period, the Big Green quickly issued an emphatic response. Over the course of the next five minutes, the Big Green embarked on an 11-2 run. Lakin Roland ’16, who drove aggressively toward the hoop all night, tallied six of these points and ended with eight for the half. By the halftime break, Dartmouth had gained a commanding 37-23 lead, fueled largely by a 56.7 field goal percentage compared to the Bears’ 26.9. Dartmouth was able to grab one of its largest first half leads without the usual strong output from its top scorer in Fanni Szabo ’17, who only posted two points in the opening half. The guard settled in nicely in the next 20 minutes of action, though, finishing with an additional 12 points in the second half. A 6-2 Brown run to start the second half whittled Dartmouth’s lead down to 10 within the opening two minutes, yet that would be the closest the Bears got to the Big Green for the remainder of the night. In just a four minute span that followed, Dartmouth generated a 13-2 spurt to go ahead 52-31, serving as the coup de grace in the game. Three-point plays — two three-pointers and a layup plus foul shot conversion, all by different players— were essential to this run and to creating scoreboard separation for the Big Green. “I want all five players on the floor to be able to score at any point in time,” Koclanes said. “That’s what we’re working towards, that’s how our offensive is run. It’s a five out, it means that the ball is in everyone’s hands, making decisions and having opportunities. So I love multiple players scoring. You’re a harder team to defend that way.” Vital to the 71-53 victory, offensive productivity ran evenly across the women’s stat sheet. Four different players reached double-digit scoring — none eclipsing Szabo’s game-high 14 — and an additional three teammates connected on at least two field goals each. Effective offensive execution produced a 55.6 field goal percentage for the game. The team displayed a clearly overwhelming presence in the post as well, reaching 44-24 points in the paint over Brown and a 35-28 rebound advantage by the end of the contest. “It hasn’t happened for us in a while,” Milica Toskovic ’15 said about multiple players reaching double-digits, herself included. “I think that just has to do with our confidence right now. We’re on a three-game winning streak, and it just [felt] like we had a lot of confidence coming in. People coming off the bench are hitting open shots. We’re really gelling well right now.” Yet three games would be the extent of the women’s winning streak. Relapsing back into a type of play reminiscent of its six-game losing skid earlier in the conference schedule, the Big Green had one of its worst outings in its last game of 2015, ending on a sour note with a 53-28 loss to Yale. Prior to their complete collapse, the Big Green manufactured a strong start on Saturday night in New Haven, Connecticut. Playing in the final game of her career, Toskovic capitalized on her hot shooting touch early on to score the Big Green’s first seven points. Even amid a defensive standstill that defined much of the first period of play, the Big Green rode its perfect shooting from beyond the arc — 3-3 on three point field goals for the half — to open a 13-8 lead at the 9:10 mark. In the first four minutes of action, Yale out-rebounded Dartmouth 8-1, and seven of Yale’s rebounds came from offensive boards. By the end of the half, the Bulldogs possessed a +14 rebound differential, with its 17 on just the offensive end more than the Big Green’s total 14. The trend would come to illustrate Dartmouth’s struggle underneath the basket for the rest of the game. “Yale just keeps coming at you,” Koclanes said. “They don’t stop, they’re one of the most aggressive teams that we play. They’re stronger than us, they play more physical. We had a hard time settling in against Yale’s pressure. We need to improve in so many areas, starting with getting stronger, individually, collectively and physically stronger.” On the other end of the floor, the Big Green gradually descended into offensive disarray after gaining their five-point edge. Sloppy ball handling and careless passes naturally created a serious turnover problem with 11 in the first 20 minutes and another 11 in the second half of play. The miscues primarily came in short spurts, with four turnovers occurring in less than three minutes and another five coming later in just over a three minute span. Offensive rhythm became unattainable, and the Big Green fell victim to a seven-minute scoreless drought. The decisive rebounding disparity compensated for Yale’s own disappointing shooting display, as the Big Green remained defensively stout and forced its opponent into poor shots. A multitude of second chances allowed the Bulldogs to overcome a 25.6 field goal percentage in the first half, slightly worse than Dartmouth’s 27.8, en route to a 22-15 lead over the Big Green at halftime. Yale freshman Tamara Simpson had 20 points by the end of the night and 16 in the first half. The halftime break changed little for the Big Green, as its turnover issues persisted in the following half. Six of the team’s first nine possessions of the new half ended due to a turnover. A dearth of scoring options only exacerbated the team’s offensive woes, as the Big Green missed six shots before Roland finally converted a three-pointer at the 13:15 mark for the team’s first points of the second half. The triple somehow still had the Big Green within striking distance at 28-18, but the Bulldogs put a damper on Dartmouth’s hopes of a comeback, responding with a 15-2 run to secure an insurmountable 23-point lead at 43-20 with only six minutes left to play. Bulldogs Nyasha Sarju and Whitney Wyckoff combined for 12 of these points for a collective total of 18 in the second half, as Yale left its home gym triumphant by a tally of 53-28. The Big Green finished the contest with a 22.2 field goal percentage, as no player entered double-digits in scoring. The women were also heavily out-rebounded 50-28 by Yale. Szabo, the team’s leading scorer, suffered a slow start for the second consecutive game, only this time the sophomore couldn’t recover, shooting 1-13 from the field and scoring for the first time with only 1:24 left in the game. Despite the blowout defeat, the 2014-15 campaign remains a relative success for the team. In only the second year under the tutelage of Belle Koclanes, the Big Green reached its highest win total since a 2008-09 season that held an NCAA tournament berth. The final record at 14-14, 5-9 in the Ivy League marks a nine win improvement over one year ago. “We’re definitely moving forward, I’m proud of this team’s effort this year,” Koclanes said. “We’re on solid ground now [getting to .500], we learned a lot of lessons along the way. The [returning players] have a ton of fire in their bellies.” While moving on from the departure of a senior class is always difficult, the team will not incur too severe of a roster loss progressing to the next season. Replacing leadership is a concern, but the players who produced 82.6 percent of the scoring this year will return in 2015-16. “It’s definitely going to be hard [to replace the seniors],” Roland said. “Just from a maturity and confidence standpoint. Just having all three of them on the team and battling with all of us is going to be hard to replace, but that’s what happens with a team — you lose great players, then people step up and that’s fully what we expect to do.”

Men’s hockey blanks Princeton in ECAC playoffs

If any lesson can be taken from the first weekend of postseason play for the men’s ice hockey team, it’s this: the team’s abilities are not in question, but if they want it, they’re going to have to work for it.

Women’s basketball splits road pair for .500 season record

The final weekend of games for the women’s basketball team was fitting for the season, representing the up-and-down nature of gameplay the team has seen in the last few months. Having endured winning streaks of four and five games and losing skids of four and six, the Big Green dismantled Brown University 71-53 this past Friday only to receive a drubbing itself, 53-28 against Yale University 24 hours later. Nevertheless, the 2014-15 season still featured marked progress from one year ago. The team’s 14-14 overall record stands in stark contrast to last year’s 5-23 record, pointing to a program on the rise.

The final weekend of games for the women’s basketball team was fitting for the season, representing the up-and-down nature of gameplay the team has seen in the last few months. Having endured winning streaks of four and five games and losing skids of four and six, the Big Green dismantled Brown University 71-53 this past Friday only to receive a drubbing itself, 53-28 against Yale University 24 hours later. Nevertheless, the 2014-15 season still featured marked progress from one year ago. The team’s 14-14 overall record stands in stark contrast to last year’s 5-23 record, pointing to a program on the rise. Momentum is often an incalculable and hackneyed term in basketball parlance, but there’s no question there was some carryover from the women’s success last weekend into Friday night against Brown. After stifling the previous week’s opponents to an average of 42.5 points per game and taking home two consecutive wins, the Big Green extended its overwhelming defensive display to start against the Bears. After giving up a basket 33 seconds in, the Big Green immediately hunkered down on defense, holding Brown scoreless for nearly eight minutes after the initial basket. Over this stretch, Dartmouth disallowed any breathing space, forcing its foe —­­­­ which went 0-11 from the field during this period —­­­­ deep into the shot clock and into poor shot selection. “Tia Dawson [’15] had a lot to do with that,” head coach Belle Koclanes said about her team’s strong defensive showing. “[She] makes such a difference out on the floor for us on both ends, and defensively to have her in the paint as our enforcer just helps our defense immensely.” A similar story developed on the other end of the floor. Relying on its considerable size advantage and driving ability, the Big Green ferociously attacked the hoop, netting its first 10 — and 16 of its first 19 — points in the painted area, and eventually finishing the opening period with 26 points in the paint. The cold streak for Brown also coincided with a 13-0 surge for the Big Green, which out-rebounded its opponent 9-4 during this span. After springing out to an early 15-3 edge, the Big Green would not relinquish its lead for the rest of the evening. As she entered the final weekend of her career as a member of the Big Green, Dawson continued to show her ability to transform the game for the team. No other player had a bigger role in establishing the team’s supremacy in the post, on both offense and defense. With 13 points on 6-7 shooting and eight rebounds, the senior center paved the way for Big Green success in the first half, contributing heavily to a +7 team rebound differential at halftime. Dawson concluded the game with a double-double — her third in the last four outings — on 13 points and 10 rebounds. Though Brown cut the score to 17-13 just under 11 minutes into the first period, the Big Green quickly issued an emphatic response. Over the course of the next five minutes, the Big Green embarked on an 11-2 run. Lakin Roland ’16, who drove aggressively toward the hoop all night, tallied six of these points and ended with eight for the half. By the halftime break, Dartmouth had gained a commanding 37-23 lead, fueled largely by a 56.7 field goal percentage compared to the Bears’ 26.9. Dartmouth was able to grab one of its largest first half leads without the usual strong output from its top scorer in Fanni Szabo ’17, who only posted two points in the opening half. The guard settled in nicely in the next 20 minutes of action, though, finishing with an additional 12 points in the second half. A 6-2 Brown run to start the second half whittled Dartmouth’s lead down to 10 within the opening two minutes, yet that would be the closest the Bears got to the Big Green for the remainder of the night. In just a four minute span that followed, Dartmouth generated a 13-2 spurt to go ahead 52-31, serving as the coup de grace in the game. Three-point plays — two three-pointers and a layup plus foul shot conversion, all by different players— were essential to this run and to creating scoreboard separation for the Big Green. “I want all five players on the floor to be able to score at any point in time,” Koclanes said. “That’s what we’re working towards, that’s how our offensive is run. It’s a five out, it means that the ball is in everyone’s hands, making decisions and having opportunities. So I love multiple players scoring. You’re a harder team to defend that way.” Vital to the 71-53 victory, offensive productivity ran evenly across the women’s stat sheet. Four different players reached double-digit scoring — none eclipsing Szabo’s game-high 14 — and an additional three teammates connected on at least two field goals each. Effective offensive execution produced a 55.6 field goal percentage for the game. The team displayed a clearly overwhelming presence in the post as well, reaching 44-24 points in the paint over Brown and a 35-28 rebound advantage by the end of the contest. “It hasn’t happened for us in a while,” Milica Toskovic ’15 said about multiple players reaching double-digits, herself included. “I think that just has to do with our confidence right now. We’re on a three-game winning streak, and it just [felt] like we had a lot of confidence coming in. People coming off the bench are hitting open shots. We’re really gelling well right now.” Yet three games would be the extent of the women’s winning streak. Relapsing back into a type of play reminiscent of its six-game losing skid earlier in the conference schedule, the Big Green had one of its worst outings in its last game of 2015, ending on a sour note with a 53-28 loss to Yale. Prior to their complete collapse, the Big Green manufactured a strong start on Saturday night in New Haven, Connecticut. Playing in the final game of her career, Toskovic capitalized on her hot shooting touch early on to score the Big Green’s first seven points. Even amid a defensive standstill that defined much of the first period of play, the Big Green rode its perfect shooting from beyond the arc — 3-3 on three point field goals for the half — to open a 13-8 lead at the 9:10 mark. In the first four minutes of action, Yale out-rebounded Dartmouth 8-1, and seven of Yale’s rebounds came from offensive boards. By the end of the half, the Bulldogs possessed a +14 rebound differential, with its 17 on just the offensive end more than the Big Green’s total 14. The trend would come to illustrate Dartmouth’s struggle underneath the basket for the rest of the game. “Yale just keeps coming at you,” Koclanes said. “They don’t stop, they’re one of the most aggressive teams that we play. They’re stronger than us, they play more physical. We had a hard time settling in against Yale’s pressure. We need to improve in so many areas, starting with getting stronger, individually, collectively and physically stronger.” On the other end of the floor, the Big Green gradually descended into offensive disarray after gaining their five-point edge. Sloppy ball handling and careless passes naturally created a serious turnover problem with 11 in the first 20 minutes and another 11 in the second half of play. The miscues primarily came in short spurts, with four turnovers occurring in less than three minutes and another five coming later in just over a three minute span. Offensive rhythm became unattainable, and the Big Green fell victim to a seven-minute scoreless drought. The decisive rebounding disparity compensated for Yale’s own disappointing shooting display, as the Big Green remained defensively stout and forced its opponent into poor shots. A multitude of second chances allowed the Bulldogs to overcome a 25.6 field goal percentage in the first half, slightly worse than Dartmouth’s 27.8, en route to a 22-15 lead over the Big Green at halftime. Yale freshman Tamara Simpson had 20 points by the end of the night and 16 in the first half. The halftime break changed little for the Big Green, as its turnover issues persisted in the following half. Six of the team’s first nine possessions of the new half ended due to a turnover. A dearth of scoring options only exacerbated the team’s offensive woes, as the Big Green missed six shots before Roland finally converted a three-pointer at the 13:15 mark for the team’s first points of the second half. The triple somehow still had the Big Green within striking distance at 28-18, but the Bulldogs put a damper on Dartmouth’s hopes of a comeback, responding with a 15-2 run to secure an insurmountable 23-point lead at 43-20 with only six minutes left to play. Bulldogs Nyasha Sarju and Whitney Wyckoff combined for 12 of these points for a collective total of 18 in the second half, as Yale left its home gym triumphant by a tally of 53-28. The Big Green finished the contest with a 22.2 field goal percentage, as no player entered double-digits in scoring. The women were also heavily out-rebounded 50-28 by Yale. Szabo, the team’s leading scorer, suffered a slow start for the second consecutive game, only this time the sophomore couldn’t recover, shooting 1-13 from the field and scoring for the first time with only 1:24 left in the game. Despite the blowout defeat, the 2014-15 campaign remains a relative success for the team. In only the second year under the tutelage of Belle Koclanes, the Big Green reached its highest win total since a 2008-09 season that held an NCAA tournament berth. The final record at 14-14, 5-9 in the Ivy League marks a nine win improvement over one year ago. “We’re definitely moving forward, I’m proud of this team’s effort this year,” Koclanes said. “We’re on solid ground now [getting to .500], we learned a lot of lessons along the way. The [returning players] have a ton of fire in their bellies.” While moving on from the departure of a senior class is always difficult, the team will not incur too severe of a roster loss progressing to the next season. Replacing leadership is a concern, but the players who produced 82.6 percent of the scoring this year will return in 2015-16. “It’s definitely going to be hard [to replace the seniors],” Roland said. “Just from a maturity and confidence standpoint. Just having all three of them on the team and battling with all of us is going to be hard to replace, but that’s what happens with a team — you lose great players, then people step up and that’s fully what we expect to do.”