Season Preview: Big Green Looking to Move up Standings in 2018

HANOVER, N.H. – The Dartmouth volleyball team is set to open the 2018 season next weekend, kicking off the campaign with its first of four consecutive tournaments.

After finishing sixth in the Ivy League last season, head coach Gilad Doron and his Big Green squad are looking to move up in the standings this year.

"We are excited to start our 2018 campaign," Doron said. "We have a very short amount of time to get used to one another and build a cohesive unit that will have the opportunity to compete at the highest level this fall. We are challenged with integrating six new players into our team, players that will increase the depth in all positions and will add healthy competition in the gym."

TEAM BREAKDOWN
The 18-player roster is made up of 12 returnees (two seniors, four juniors, six sophomores) and six rookies. The team lost two solid contributors in Sara Lindquist and Morgan Dressel to graduation.

PLAYERS TO WATCH
Top returnees in 2018 include:
Senior Zoe Leonard

Third on the team in services aces (11) and fourth in digs (134)
Reached double-digit digs in the last five matches of the season

Junior Carly Tower

First on the team in block assists (86) and total blocks (94) and second in kills (133)
Her 1.12 blocks per set in a season has her first in the all-time record book, while her 94 total blocks puts her second for most blocks in a season

Sophomore Mallen Bischoff

Second on the team in kills (154) and third in digs (173)
Ivy League Co-Rookie of the Week after Dartmouth swept Penn and 2016 co-Ivy champion Princeton for the first time since 2006.

CLASS OF 2022
Six fresh faces will be opening their collegiate careers next weekend: Emma Moffet, Bella Hedley, Nicole Liddle, Francesca Meldrum, Annemarie Horn and Jael Campbell.

2017 IN REVIEW
Dartmouth concluded 2017 with an overall record of 10-13 and were 6-8 in Ivy play, both of which were improvements from the season before. The Big Green won four matches by scores of 3-0 (Siena, Columbia, Brown, Penn) and rallied to take down two teams in five sets (Eastern Washington, Princeton). At the end of the year, Lindquist was selected to the CoSIDA Academic All-District team and earned Academic All-Ivy recognition.

SCHEDULE
All four of Dartmouth's multi-day tournaments will take place in the first two weeks of the season, starting with Navy's Kristen Dickmann Invitational (Aug. 31-Sept. 1). After that will be the Dartmouth Invite, featuring Boston College, Lafayette and Siena (Sept. 7-8), followed by the Hofstra Asics Invite (Sept. 14) and the Big Apple Challenge (Sept. 15). The following weekend, the Green will go into conference play.

COACHING STAFF
Doron is back for his third year at the helm and is joined by assistant coaches Eyal Zimet – who is also in his third season – and Olivia Lathrop, who spent the last two seasons as a graduate assistant at DeSales University.

Schedules