Dartmouth Stalls at Home

By Christian Hummel | Wednesday, February 18, 1998

Dartmouth Alumna Gretchin Ulion '94 and current student Sarah Teuting '98 earned gold medals this week as members of the US Women's Ice Hockey Team. The Nagano games marked the first time Women's Ice Hockey was offered as an event. Ulion had several goals in the tournament while Teuting was the team's chief goalkeeper. These were the first medals earned by Dartmouth putting it ahead of several whole countries — Jamaica and Kenya, among others.

Teuting also made several comments to national newspapers, including The Chicago Tribune, disparaging the work-ethic of her former Dartmouth teammates. She apparantly accused them of having a poor work ethic and failing to show to great concern when they would lose. On campus, her former teammates were startled and offended by her remarks. They were also shocked that she would make her statements to such a large audience. Teuting has stated she will no longer be playing for Dartmouth and will instead concentrate her time on her pre-med studies and playing the cello for the Dartmouth Symphany Orchestra.

Skiing

Back in the states, Dartmouth teams had mixed results over Carnival weekend. Dartmouth finished second overall to Vermont in the hunt for the Carnival Cup. The weekend saw several solid individual performances. On the women's side Jess Smith '99 won the 10K cross-country race and Jen Collins '99 won the giant slalom. For the men, David Viele '98 turned in a terrific performance with a second-place finish in the giant slalom.

In another Carnival-related result, a team of brothers from Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity defeated a team of brothers from Psi Upsilon to win the inaguaral Human Dog sled race around the Green.

Hockey

On the ice, the men's hockey team (10-9-4, 6-8-2 ECAC) improved their hopes of making the ECAC playoffs with a solid road trip to Colgate and Cornell. The first game was against third-ranked Colgate at Colgate. Goals by Jeremiah Buckley '98 and Bob Cancelli '98 gave the team an early 2-0 lead. Colgate struck with two goals of their own to make it 2-2. Dartmouth regained the lead with a power-play goal by Jon Sturgis '98 heading into the third period. But Colgate found a way to get by the defense to tie the score 3-3, which is the way it ended.

In Ithaca, the men in green simply were too much for the Big Red. Curtis Wilgosh '98 and Ryan Poulton '00 both found the back of the net early to get up 2-0. In a scenario strikingly reminescent of the night before, Cornell managed to tie the score. But this time Dartmouth responded harshly putting away three more to finish the game 5-2.

'We've been playing our best hockey in the last month or so. Everyone has been working really hard and we have a veteran team, so the leadership is excellent. We have six games left and we feel confident that we can win all six and make a strong showing in the playoffs,' said Sturgis.

Wilgosh had this to say about the team's play recently, 'right now the team is playing with the confidence we have been lacking in the past. It is one of those intangibles in hockey which takes a long time to create within a team but once you have confidence it is very difficult to remove....The Colgate-Cornell road trip reflected this confidence.'

With six games before the playoffs, Wilgosh noted that the team feels good going into the stretch. 'As far as the rest of the season goes, there is not one player on the team who thinks Lake Placid [home of the ECAC finals] is not an achievable goal.'

Basketball

In Leede Arena, men's basketball had a more disappointing weekend. The team has found itself in the midst of a losing streak at a terribly unfortunate point in the season. While Dartmouth has struggled all season, the loss to Princeton seems to have taken the wind out of its collective sail. Entering Carnival Weekend on the heels of two harsh losses to Princeton and Penn, the team was hoping the friendly atmosphere of the College's big weekend would rub off with a win or two. Unfortunately it did not work out that way.

The game against Columbia started in slow fashion. The Lions were up 31-23 at the break, but Dartmouth game back gunning in the second. Once again the usual suspects were at work for Dartmouth trying to bring the game back in hand. Ian McGinnis '01 had a double-double by draining 21 points and a career-high 14 rebounds. At one point, the men in green were up by three, but Dartmouth could not sustain any momentum and eventually succombed 62-56. This season marked the first time in seven years that Columbia has swept Dartmouth in men's hoops.

The next night the men in green continued their slide in a 75-56 loss to Cornell. Despite an early lead in the first few minutes, Dartmouth simply could not keep with the Big Red.

Again highlights are to be found in individual performances. Shaun Gee '00, the team's top scorer, lead with 24 points. PJ Halas '98 contributed 11. With a 6-16 record overall and a 3-7 record in the Ivies, the team is simply out of contention at this point. Next weekend sees the team traveling to Philadelphia to once again face Penn and Princeton. The Tigers continue to tear up the Ivy League and are currently ranked number eight in the country.

Women's Basketball

In women's basketball, Dartmouth has continued to play solid ball. This weekend saw the team defeat Ivy rivals Columbia and Cornell. Despite starting off the game slowly, the team rallied in the second half behind Liz Martin '00 who was put in to jump-start a sluggish offense. Courtney Banghart '00 had three three-pointers to set a new Dartmouth three-point record for a season. She would finish the game with 15 points. The game ended with a score of 63-48.

The next night in gorgeous Ithaca, the team faced a Cornell team that offered no real resistance. Samantha Berdinka '01 had eight straight points to start a big run for Dartmouth early in the game and the team never looked back. Banghart came up big again with 12 points and Nicci Rinaldi '99 put in 10 with 8 boards.

The final score was 74-46. This weekend's results puts the team record at 12-9 (5-3, Ivy) right behind conference front-runners Harvard. If the team continues to play as well as it has, the season finale against the Crimson could be for the Ivy title and a berth into the NCAA Tournament.

Dartmouth Stalls at Home

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