Big Green Host Dartmouth Invitational This Weekend

Dartmouth Invitational

Friday, Sept. 9
Niagara (1-6) vs. Hartford (2-5) | 10 a.m. | Live Stats | Video

Dartmouth (3-0) vs. Army (2-4) | 12 p.m. | Live Stats | ILDN

Niagara vs. Central Connecticut (4-2) | 2:30 p.m. | Live Stats | ILDN

Hartford vs. Army | 5 p.m. | Live Stats | ILDN

Dartmouth vs. Central Connecticut | 7 p.m. | Live Stats | ILDN

Saturday, Sept. 10
Army vs. Central Connecticut | 10:30 a.m. | Live Stats | ILDN

Dartmouth vs. Niagara | 12:30 p.m. | Live Stats | ILDN

Army vs. Niagara | 3:30 p.m. | Live Stats | ILDN

Dartmouth vs. Hartford | 6 p.m. | Live Stats | ILDN

THIS WEEKEND
On Friday and Saturday, Sept. 9-10, the Big Green will host the Dartmouth Invitational, a two-day, nine-match tournament featuring Niagara, Hartford, Army and Central Connecticut State.

LAST TIME OUT
Dartmouth opened 2016 by going undefeated at the Sacred Heart Hampton Inn Invitational, blanking Milwaukee (25-21, 25-22, 25-23), George Mason (25-23, 25-16, 25-22) and Sacred Heart (26-24, 25-23, 27-25). At the conclusion of the tournament, Emily Astarita was named MVP (43K, .437 pct., 3SA, 17D, 8BA) and she and Kaira Lujan (17K, .371 pct., 2BS, 11BA) were selected to the All-Tournament Team.

SCOUTING NIAGARA
The Purple Eagles have struggled during the beginning stages of their season, entering the invite with a record of 1-6. They opened the year at the LMU Invitational, falling to tough opponents like No. 12 UCLA, No. 21 Loyola Marymount and Illinois, before picking up their lone victory thus far in 2016 over California State, Fullerton. This past weekend, Niagara dropped all three of its matches at the Jack Kaiser Classic to St. John's, Binghamton and La Salle.

SCOUTING HARTFORD
The Hawks enter the weekend with a record of 2-5 and are halfway through their four-tournament fall. Hartford opened the season with five straight losses to Rider, Bryant, Rutgers, Fresno State and Rhode Island before defeating Manhattan and Central Connecticut, both by scores of 3-2 this past weekend.

SCOUTING ARMY
The Black Knights (2-4) are in the midst of a very tough first month of the season. They opened 2016 by hosting a home invite against Bakersfield, Valparaiso and Hofstra, falling to all three opponents. The following weekend, Army traveled to the Longhorn State for the Texas Classic and went 2-1, defeating Lipscomb and UTSA and falling to No. 3 Texas. After the Dartmouth Invite, the Black Knights will host a seven-match invite this time.

SCOUTING CENTRAL CONNECTICUT STATE
The Blue Devils are currently 4-2 after their first two weekends of play. They hosted the CCSU Invitational to kick off the fall, taking down Iona, Lehigh and Fordham to remain undefeated heading into September. At the Hartford Invitational the next weekend, Central Connecticut won its first match against Manhattan, but dropped the following two to Rhode Island and Hartford.

NCAA RANKINGS
After Dartmouth's impressive opening weekend, a few players found themselves in the NCAA rankings.

Lujan – blocks per set (T32nd, 1.44)
Astarita – points per set (10th, 5.56)
hitting percentage (16th, .437)
kills per set (16th, 4.78)

DORON AND COMPANY
The Big Green has a whole new look behind the bench this season. Gilad Doron is his first year at the helm of the program after coaching at the University of San Francisco for nine years. Joining him in their first year as assistant coaches are Eyal Zimet and Tara Hittle.

CAPTAINS
The 21-player squad that is made up of 16 returnees and five rookies is led by Astarita and Lujan, who are both entering their final season on the court. Last year, Astarita started every match, had a career-high and conference-leading 350 kills and a .250 hitting percentage. She was named to the All-Ivy League First Team as well. Lujan, a fifth year senior, was third on the team with a career-high 186 kills and produced 2.21 kills per set in 2015. She was second among the Big Green with a .313 hitting percentage and hit over .500 five times during the season. She was also named First Team All-Ivy and this is the second year in a row that she is serving as captain.

FRESH FACES
Making their collegiate debut this fall are Allie Carey, Corinne Cox, Abby Kott, Maddy Schoenberger and Carly Tower. There is a nice mixture of positions as two are middle blockers (Kott, Tower), one is a setter (Cox), one is an outsider hitter (Carey) and the last one is a defensive specialist (Schoenberger).

CAN'T BE THERE?
Live stats for each of the nine matches will be available on DartmouthSports.com. Fans can subscribe to the Ivy League Digital Network (ILDN) to watch any or all of the matches. For updates on Dartmouth, go to the team's new official Twitter handle: @DartmouthVBall.

NEXT UP FOR DARTMOUTH
The Big Green will conclude tournament play at the West Virginia Invitational next weekend, taking on Akron, Winthrop and the host in the short, two-day invite.

Schedules