Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Preseason Picks

The Ivy League preseason prognostications are out and a panel of Ivy League media and women's basketball SID's think that Dartmouth will finish third in the Ancient Eight this season. Princeton was picked to finish first and Harvard second.

Given last season's finish I believe those three placings are fair but I also know that the preseason polls are rarely correct (cliche - but true!) and expect the League to be as competitive as ever this year!

Below is part of my release written for the website - click here to read the entire thing.

Season starts  in 16 days at Northwestern - can't wait!

- Dara

The 17-time Ivy League Champion Dartmouth women's basketball team has been picked to finish third in the Ancient Eight this season by a panel of league media and sports information directors.

Dartmouth, which has won four of the last six Ivy Championships, landed third in this year's preseason poll with 96 points. Defending champ Princeton was picked to repeat with 135 points and 16 first-place votes and Harvard landed in second with 115 points and one first-place vote.

Yale was predicted to finish fourth, followed by Columbia, Brown, Cornell and Penn. The poll featured 17 voters including a media member and sports information representative from each Ivy school and one national representative.

2010-11 Ivy League Women's Basketball Preseason Media Poll
Predicted Order of Finish

(First-Place Votes in Parentheses)

1. Princeton (16)   135
2. Harvard (1)       115
3. Dartmouth         96
4. Yale                   84
5. Columbia            73
6. Brown                50
7. Cornell               39
8. Penn                  19
 

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Harder-Hiking: F57

Better late than never but here's an entry from freshman Eve Zelinger (Palo Alto, Calif.) about her Dartmouth Outing Club (DOC) trip early this September. We'll have to ask Eve which is harder - a morning workout with strength Coach Miller or "harder hiking" :)

Here it is:

I sat on my chair in my room on a hot summer night reading the Hiking 3 packing list. I glanced at the bold and read, “The rivers and lakes of New Hampshire get quite chilly by September, and temperatures can reach close to freezing at night.” For the chance of a small gust of wind or any possible circulating air, I opened my room’s window an inch higher. I folded my raincoat and long sleeved shirt and stuffed it in my pack. I could only dream of the cold air of New Hampshire nights hitting my face and cooling my overheating body.

A week later, I found myself no longer in my bedroom, but at Franconia Falls. The freezing cold water rushed down the natural rock water slide. As the water moved quickly, I stood frozen. With my legs on either side of the cold moving water, I had to make a decision. Was I going to sit down and let myself go? Despite hiking a somewhat strenuous nine miles, with a heavy pack on my back, I found myself understanding the weather description on the packing list. It was raining, I had one pair of dry clothes, and I couldn’t imagine myself submerging in the literally, breath-taking water. I sat down. I guess it was physics that sent me down the rock. With my mouth and eyes opened wide, I fell through the air and hit the water. Seconds later, I witnessed myself swimming faster than I had ever seen myself swim before to reach the rocky “sidelines” and get out. Though as I stood there, teeth chattering and goose bumps arising, I couldn’t be happier that I had experienced those three seconds of adrenaline rushing fun.

After leaving Franconia Falls, we continued to hike flat trails and climb large rocks. I would like to say we conquered Mt. Guyot, though my sore legs were no indication of an effortless defeat. We consumed Cabot cheese and Peanut butter spoonfuls. And one memorable night we had to “take one for the team,” in order to leave “no trace,” and “yum-yummed” the remains of our delectable wilderness dinner. Yum- yum is a term; a quite deceiving one I might add, which entails combining leftovers and passing the pot of food in circles amongst the group members, who then proceed to consume spoonfuls of deliciousness, until the pot reaches its bottom. I must confess I picked a convenient time to take an evening bathroom break ;)

The next day I woke up knowing I would be returning to civilization. After being on my D.O.C trip in the wilderness, I found myself appreciating the most trivial things. I recognized the beauty of a sink, and the wonders of dry socks and drinkable, non-iodinated water. And it was as I sipped hot chocolate (one without floating particles of last night’s couscous) and once again sat in a chair, that I realized the extraordinariness of such ordinary things.

-Eve

Friday, October 8, 2010

Picture Day!

Hi All,

Hope everyone is enjoying the fall weather these days - it's actually been quite mild here and we've had a good number of sunny days including today and the weekend forecast.

Like I'm sure many of you are, I am anxiously awaiting the start of basketball season! Note that's anxiously and not patiently. I think the same goes for our players and coaches. Though they can do some skill instruction and have a few practices, things won't officially kick-off for us until mid-October. Then just a month later we open at Big 10 foe Northwestern on November 12.

One exciting preseason activity has already passed, as we got the team pictures and headshots taken in record time - at least since I've been here. Getting those done in September was nothing short of a miracle between new class schedules, lifts and workouts and three teams sharing Leede Arena!

You may notice the white background behind the players - Leede got a bit of an interior facelift this summer. Mostly painting including one big change that you won't see in these pictures and that you'll just have to check out yourself this winter! (Perhaps on Nov. 24 for our home opener against Vermont).

Anyhow I thought I'd share some of the fun pictures with you. I really like picture day because it's a good chance to see the whole team together and take some great shots and let the players' personality shine. Our photographer Mark Washburn did a great job with these.







 This is my favorite, a casual group picture of all the players!