Men's Lax Beats Cornell

By Benjamin Wallace-Wells | Wednesday, April 23, 1997

Cornell has been one of the Ivy League's dominant teams in recent years, so it was with cautious confidence that an improving Dartmouth side faced its first real test of the season. This past week was the first in which the Hanover winter had subsided sufficiently for the Indians to enjoy a full week of practice, and, from the opening minutes of the game, the Indians' improvement was evident.

Although Dartmouth struggled offensively in the first half, it was apparent from the start that the team's overall cohesion, unity, and consistency were improved. Defensively, the Indians looked excellent, safely disarming numerous Big Red attacks, and moving the ball swiftly and fluidly through the midfield.

Unfortunately, Dartmouth's attackers were struggling, and although Greg Edell '00 and Bill Tarr '98 scored in the first half, the Indians let in four goals and trailed, 4-2, at the break.

Dartmouth's veterans were not about to let their most solid performance of the season go to waste, and, accordingly, the Indian seniors took over in the third quarter.

Shortly after the break and a fluid Indian buildup, Brian Merritt '97, the team's leading scorer, found himself open behind the net and fed the ball to a cutting Scott Watts '97, who scored. The barrage had begun.

Minutes later, captain Scott Hapgood '97 converted to tie the game at four, and then defender Mike Fensel '98 capped off a brilliant solo run by whipping the ball past the Cornell keeper to give Dartmouth the lead. Dartmouth scored three of the next four goals and ended the quarter with an 8-5 lead.

In the fourth quarter, Cornell fought back, bringing the game within two goals, but Dartmouth's seniors continued to come through, and, sparked by a second goal from Watts, finished off the game by cruising to a 12-8 victory.

The Indians travel to winless Yale on Wednesday before returning to Memorial Field to take on Brown on Saturday.

Baseball

The men's baseball team enjoyed a spectacular weekend, establishing themselves as a power in the Ivy League with a pair of doubleheader sweeps over Cornell and Princeton. The four wins bring the Indians' Ivy League record to 7-1. Dartmouth trails Yale by one half game for first place.

Dartmouth's weekend opened with the Saturday visit of Princeton to Red Rolfe Field. Princeton's record stood at 1-1 within the conference, and the Tigers have been projected as one of the title contenders in the Southern Lou Gehrig division of the Ivy League.

The Indians' bats had carried them through the first part of their schedule, with Brian Nickerson '00, Mike Conway '99, Aaron Meyer '00 and Mike Armstrong '97 leading Dartmouth to unprecedented levels of offensive production.

On Saturday, however, it was the pitchers' turn.

The first game was nothing less than a brilliant individual effort from starting pitcher Scott Simon '98. Simon worked into extra innings, going nine innings, allowing Princeton only one run on eight hits.

In the bottom of the seventh, however, defeat threatened. Dartmouth had, uncharacteristically, failed to score. Simon had allowed one run to slip home, and, after the leadoff hitter made out, Dartmouth found themselves two outs away from squandering Simon's brilliant game.

Conway changed all that. The sophomore transfer pounded his first hit of the game into left field for a double. Armstrong, Dartmouth's leading run producer, then slapped a single to left, scoring Conway, and sending the game into extra innings.

Simon continued to stifle Princeton threats in the eighth and ninth, and so when James Little '00 came to bat, leading off the bottom of the ninth, the 1-1 tie was still intact. Little pounded a triple to straight away center, and, after Princeton intentionally walked the next two batters, Conway delivered once more, singling home the winning run.

The second game of the afternoon followed very closely the form of the first. Pitcher Eric Walania '98 kept the Tigers at bay throughout, allowing the powerful Princeton offense only two runs. The Indians scored two as well, from a Meyer home run and a steal of home by Armstrong, and, for the second time in a day, it was up to James Little to win the game. With two outs in the bottom of the seventh and runners on first and third, Little lined a single to left field, scoring the winning run and giving the Indians their second win of the day.

The powerful Princeton pitchers had been able to hold down Dartmouth's offense, but the pitching staff of Cornell, who entered Sunday's double header with a rather unimpressive Ivy record of 1-5, would have no similar luck.

Dartmouth exploded early in the opener, with seven runs in the first two innings. The barrage was capped off by a two-run second inning home run from shortstop Nickerson. Nickerson finished the day with four RBIs. Also contributing to the onslaught were Meyer (4 hits) and Conway (three runs scored). Conor Brooks '00 went the distance, allowing only three runs on ten hits and no walks. Brooks also struck out six while sparking Dartmouth to an easy 13-3 victory.

The second game did not start out as well. The Indians fell to an early 3-0 deficit, and, after Dartmouth battled back to tie the game up, Cornell scored twice to retake the lead, 5-3.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, however, the freshmen that have sparked the Indian offense all season long came through again. With Nickerson on first, Oregon native Little smacked a one-out, two-run home run over the left field fence to tie the game. The home run sparked the Indians, who rallied to score seven runs in the inning to take control of the game. Dartmouth won, 12-7.

With this weekend's four victories, the Indians have moved into second place in the Red Rolfe Division, the stronger of the two Ivy subdivisions. The two sweeps give the Indians a 7-1 Ivy record. Dartmouth trails Yale (7-0) by one half game, and leads Harvard (6-2) by one game.

The Indians travel to Providence this weekend to play four games against Brown (2-6 Ivy), after two mid-week, non-conference games against St. Anselm and Vermont.

Women's Lax

The women's lacrosse team, ranked #9 in the nation, continued its string of convincing victories with sound defeats of Cornell and the University of Massachusetts this week. The victories improve the Indians record to 7-1, 3-0 in the Ivy League.

Throughout this season it has been the clutch play and timely scoring of seniors such as Kelly Hannigan '97 and Kim Mendelson '97 that has driven Dartmouth. Against Cornell, however, the promising young players of this Dartmouth team started to realize their enormous potential, and it was the freshmen that sparked Dartmouth to its 6-3 success.

The Big Red scored the opening goal on Saturday afternoon at Ithaca just three minutes into the game. The game then settled into an offensive lull, as twenty minutes went by without a single goal from either side. The Indians then struck twice in quick succession, with freshman attackers Kate Graw '00 and Jacque Weitzel '00 scoring to give Dartmouth the 2-1 lead which they held until the end of the first half.

Just four minutes into the second half, the Indians extended their lead when play-maker Jen Greene '98 scored to give Dartmouth a 3-1 lead.

After Cornell struck back to reduce the Indian lead to one, yet another freshman attacker, Emily Fenwick '00, scored to re-extend the Indian lead to 4-2. Green then notched her second of the game to give the Indians a 5-2 lead. Cornell got one more, but a goal from Mendelson as the game drew to a close wiped out any chance Cornell had of a successful comeback to close out a 6-3 victory, perhaps the best defensive game the Indians had played all season long.

In midweek, the Indians hosted regional power UMass. Two goals from Weitzel sparked a first half barrage, and the half ended with an 8-6 Dartmouth advantage after the lead had swung back and forth between the two teams for much of the first half.

Weitzel again led an assault on the Minutemen net early in the second half, as she scored her third and fourth goals of the game to spark a 5-0 run that put the game away. Dartmouth cruised the rest of the way for a 13-8 win.

This week, the Indians, undefeated and in first place in the Ivy League, host Yale on Wednesday and Brown on Saturday.

Tennis

The men's tennis team emerged from this weekend not only with important wins over Ivy League rivals Columbia and Penn but also with a legitimate claim to being the top team in the Eastern region.

Columbia emerged from the fall season as one of the East's leading powers, and so the Indians' matchup against the Lions was earmarked as one of the most crucial on their schedule.

Dartmouth's victory was due in large part to two inspired wins in singles. Gabe Sauerhoff '99, playing at number one, pulled off perhaps the match of his life, upsetting Columbia's top player, undefeated Navroz Udwadia, in straight sets.

Penn proved something of an easier matchup, with Dartmouth winning five of seven matches, sparked by victories from Chen, Sauerhoff, Rob Simik '99, and co-captains Avery Rueb '98 and Matt Fuller '97. The two victories improve Dartmouth's record to 2-0 in the EITA, the tennis association to which the Indians belong.

Men's Lax Beats Cornell

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