Dartmouth Set for Opening Weekend Against Loyola and at Vermont

Friday, November 9

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Loyola (Md.)

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Photo by: Bryan LaFountaine

Dartmouth Set for Opening Weekend Against Loyola and at Vermont

11/8/2018 11:30:00 AM | Women's Basketball

Dartmouth Game 1 Notes Loyola (Md.) Notes Dartmouth Game 2 Notes Vermont Notes

The Big Green open at home Friday night before making the trip across the border on Sunday

GAME 1
Dartmouth Big Green (0-0) vs.
Loyola Greyhounds (0-1)
Date: Friday, Nov. 9, 2018 – 7 p.m.
Location: Hanover, N.H. – Leede Arena
All-Time Series: First Meeting
Last Time: N/A
ESPN+ | LIVE STATS

GAME 2
Dartmouth Big Green (0-0*) at
Vermont Catamounts (1-0*)
Date: Sunday, Nov. 11, 2018 – 3 p.m.
Location: Burlington, Vt. – Patrick Gymnasium
All-Time Series: Vermont, 20-15
Last Time: Nov. 10, 2017 / W, 66-56
ESPN+ | LIVE STATS

OPENING WEEKEND

A rejuvenated Dartmouth squad enters the 2018-19 season with hopes of qualifying for the Ivy League tournament which began in 2017.
The Big Green face the Greyhounds from Loyola for the first time in program history Friday night, they then travel across state lines to Vermont for a 3 p.m. contest on Sunday.
Dartmouth has been successful in past season openers, winning its last two over Vermont and Central Connecticut State.
Dating back to the 2005-06 season, Dartmouth is 5-0 in season openers played at Leede Arena.

2017-18 IN REVIEW

Dartmouth finished with its most wins since the 2008-09 season with a 15-12 record and matched the 2015-16 season with a 7-7 mark in the Ivy League.
Kate Letkewicz led the Big Green with 14.0 ppg, pulled down 6.0 rpg and dished out 38 assists en route to finishing her career 15th all-time with 1,136 points.
Dartmouth had a couple of milestone wins for the program. They first defeated Boston College on Nov. 12 for its first ever win over an ACC team. They then took down Colorado on Dec. 11 for the Big Green's first win over a Pac-12 opponent.
The Big Green came one game shy of making the Ivy League Tournament.

TEAM LEADERS

Dartmouth will be led by senior captains Cy Lippold and Isalys Quinones.
Lippold is coming off her best season where she averaged 12.3 ppg and led the team with 5.3 apg and 53 steals.
Lippold put her name in the record books last season, she had the second most assists in a single season with 144.
Won the GO Award which is a team award given to the player who consistently demonstrated a commitment to improving the growth opportunities of her game.
Quinones was third on the team with 10.5 ppg and led the Big Green with 6.5 rpg and 18 blocked shots.
Quinones spent the summer playing for the Puerto Rican national team where she and her team advanced to the FIBA World Cup and won Puerto Rico's first-ever Centrobasket Women's Champioonship.

NEW AND FAMILIAR FACES

Notable returners include junior Paula Lenart who made five starts last season, averaging 3.3 ppg, 3.2 rpg, while collecting 13 steals and nine blocks.
Junior guard Annie McKenna is back after appearing in 20 games last year. Kealy Brown, Anna Luce, Elle Louie, Emily Dryden and Grace Phillips will see time as well.
The Big Green welcome five freshmen to the team: Katie Douglas and Veronica Kelly both hail from New Jersey, while Asha Taylor is from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. A couple of international players have been added to the mix as well with Jimena Abejon from Spain and Georgia Alexander hailing from British Columbia.

IVY PRESEASON POLL

After finishing fifth and narrowly missing the conference tournament last season, Dartmouth was pegged to finish sixth by sports information directors and media members associated with the Ivy League.
The top four spots shaped out as they finished last season with Princeton selected to finish first with 133 points and 14 first-place votes. Penn was tabbed for second with 107 points and two first-place votes. Taking the final first-place vote was Harvard with 104 points.
Rounding out the poll was Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, Columbia and Cornell.

COACHING STAFF

Entering her sixth season at the helm of the Big Green is Belle Koclanes, The Gail Koziara Boudreaux '82 and Family Head Coach of Women's Basketball.
Taja Edwards returns for her second year as an assistant coach for Dartmouth.
Kelcie Rombach steps in to her first year as an assistant for the Big Green. Rombach comes to the Big Green after spending a year at Providence College as the associate director of player development and played four years at St. Bonaventure where her team advanced to the second round of both the WNIT and NCAA Tournament.
2016 Dartmouth graduate Lakin Roland returns to Hanover after playing professionally overseas in France for the last two years. Roland played in 112 games during her Dartmouth career — tied for fourth in the program annals — averaging 11.0 points and 6.5 rebounds per contest. Her 1,235 total points rank 12th on the Big Green career list, while her 725 rebounds place her sixth. The six-foot forward earned a spot on the All-Ivy League First Team as a senior after two-straight honorable mention nods.

SCOUTING THE GREYHOUNDS

Loyola is coming off a season where they went 9-21 and 7-11 in the Patriot League which slotted them sixth in their conference tournament.
The Greyhounds were defeated by Navy in the quarterfinals of the Patriot League Tournament to close the book on their 2017-18 season.
Loyola was selected to finish third in the Patriot League preseason poll with 129 points and four first-place votes.
Loyola returns Isabella Therien, the Patriot League rookie of the year, she led the team with 15.7 ppg and pulled down 4.7 rpg.
Other returners of note include junior Stephanie Karcz who averaged a double-double with 14.2 ppg and 10.6 rpg and Alexis Gray who was third on the team with 12.1 ppg and led the team with 64 made threes.

LOYOLA'S LAST GAME

The Greyhounds dropped their season opener Tuesday night, 70-38, at George Mason.
Sophomore Isabella Therien led Loyola with 11 points, while junior Stephanie Karcz finished with 17 rebounds, four assists and four steals.
Loyola shot 20.0 percent from the field for the game (12-60).

SCOUTING VERMONT

Junior co-captain Hanna Crymble was the only forward selected to America East's Preseason All-Conference Team as voted on by the league coaches.
Crymble earned Second Team All-Conference honors a year ago and led the Catamounts in scoring with 16.9 ppg and rebounding with 5.6 rpg last season. On two occasions, last year she was named the America East Player of the Week. She has started 58 of the 59 games she's played at Vermont.
Vermont is one of only five teams in Division I women's basketball with seven or more true freshmen (Florida Atlantic, Oklahoma, SMU & Wichita State.) The Catamounts average age is 19.7, which is 11th youngest among the 349 Division I teams.
The Catamounts were picked sixth in the America East preseason poll with 28 points.

VERMONT'S EARLY SEASON

The Catamounts defeated St. Michael's College, 76-49, in their season opener Sunday at home.
Josie Larkins and Candice Wright led the way for Vermont with 13 points each. Wright also pulled down nine rebounds.
Lauren Handy finished with 10 points and seven rebounds.
Vermont plays Friday night in Burlington against Rider at 7 p.m. before the matchup against the Big Green.

ESPN+

Every home game and select road contests will be played on ESPN+ this season as part of the Ivy League's contract with the World-Wide Leader.

FOLLOW ALONG
To keep up-to-date on all the action over the weekend, you can visit the Dartmouth women's basketball schedule by clicking HERE and finding the links for live video and live stats associated with the games. You can also follow the game on twitter: @DartmouthWbb

WHAT'S AHEAD?
Dartmouth makes its trip out west to compete in the Lady Rebel Roundup hosted by UNLV. The Big Green will first take on Middle Tennessee State on Nov. 24 and depending on that result will face either UNLV or UC Santa Barbara on Nov. 25.