2020 Season Preview: Dartmouth Set to Begin Title Defense

THE 2020 SEASON
•   The Dartmouth women's lacrosse team will kick off the 48th season in its storied history this Saturday afternoon at UMass.
•   Nearly five decades in, the Big Green are one of the nation's most historic programs and will look to continue to build on that tradition with another strong campaign this spring.

LET'S LOOK BACK
•   The 2019 season was one for the record books as Dartmouth once again returned to form, earning a share of the Ivy League title, the 13th crown in program history.
•   The team posted an 11-6 overall mark including two postseason games (Ivy and NCAA Tournament) and were 6-1 in conference games.
•   Although the team was bested by Penn in the Ivy League Tournament, the team's resumé was strong enough to earn them an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament, the 15th appearance in program history.
•   The NCAA Record Book had to make several edits to include Dartmouth's statistically impressive 2019, including the team's 93.6% (338-361) rate of success on the clear, the top mark in the history of women's lacrosse.
•   The 18.35 draw controls per game was a new Ivy League record and ranks as the third-best mark in NCAA history, unfortunately the top-two figures also came last season: UMass (19.11) and Duke (18.74).
•   That number was inflated by the stellar play of Kathryn Giroux '19, who set new conference records for draws in a season (160) as well as in her career (418). At the conclusion of her career, Giroux ranked 14th in career draw controls in NCAA history.
•   The 272 goals scored by the Big Green in 2019 were a new program record, eclipsing the old mark of 243 set in… 2018.
•   The 16.00 goals per game set a new Ivy League mark and was the 28th-best scoring offense in NCAA history.

A TOP-10 PROGRAM
•   Thanks to its 11 wins in 2019, Dartmouth became just the 10th team in women's lacrosse history to reach 400 victories.
•   As it stands now, the program's 410 all-time wins sits firmly in 10th, 16 more than 11th-place Colgate (394).
•   Only Princeton (5th, 477) has more wins by an Ivy school with Harvard (389) and Penn (386) ranked 13th and 15th all-time, respectively.

THE SCHEDULE
•   Dartmouth will play 15 regular-season games between February and the end of April.
•   Of those 15 games, six will be played at Scully-Fahey Field with three games against Ancient Eight teams.
•   The home opener is Feb. 22 against Boston University at 3 p.m. as part of a doubleheader with the men's team playing at noon.
•   After the home opener against the Terriers, the Green and White will welcome national power Florida (Mar. 3) and regional rival New Hampshire (Mar. 7) to Hanover in the next two contests in the Upper Valley.
•   Additionally, the Big Green will take on Army West Point in a neutral-site game to be played at Deerfield Academy on April 1. Dartmouth will be considered the home team for that game.

NEW YEAR, NEW STAFF
•   The 2020 season will mark the first for head coach Alex Frank after she joined the program this summer after four seasons as an assistant at Colorado in Boulder.
•   A 2012 Northwestern graduate, Frank was on the sidelines last season during Dartmouth's final game. She just happened to be on the other side as an assistant with the Buffaloes, who edged out the Big Green in an exciting NCAA Tournament First Round game.
•   Joining Frank as her assistant coaches are Tee Ladouceur and Kelsie Garrison. Ladouceur was a coach with Denver the last two seasons, while Garrison played for Frank at Colorado, graduating in 2018.

THE CAPTAINS
•   Seniors Katie Bourque, Sarah Ross and Natalee Palmer make up the team's trio of leaders in 2020.
•   Bourque is coming off a career year in which she scored 38 goals and finished with 46 points as a junior. For her efforts, the Ridgewood, New Jersey, native was named to the All-Ivy League Second Team.
•   Ross is another New Jersey native who will serve as captain, coming to Hanover from Cranford. She appeared in four games in 2019 and had one assist, while scoring twice and posting three points as a sophomore.
•   Palmer, a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, is the lone defender in the trio. She has 46 games under her belt and in that time has caused 13 turnovers and picked up 31 ground balls and a pair of draw controls.

THE POLLS AND PICKS
•   The Big Green begin the season ranked 22nd in the preseason poll released by the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) in late-January.
•   The Ivy League's preseason prognostication poll picked Dartmouth third in a top-heavy conference that features two teams ranked in the top-10 nationally.

SISTER ACT
•   One of nine freshmen this season is defender/midfielder Jev Ward from Sherwood Park, Alberta.
•   Believed to be just the second Canadian player ever in the history of the women's lacrosse program, she joins her sister, sophomore Jazmyne Ward — the first Canadian — on this year's roster.
•   The Wards are now one of two sets of sisters on the team as they join junior twins Hailey Ricciardi and Riley Ricciardi.

RETURNING LEADERS
•   Points: Katie Bourque (46)
•   Goals: Katie Bourque (38)
•   Assists: Tori Chanenchuk (13)
•   FPG: Katie Bourque (7)
•   Ground Balls: Claire Marshall (41)
•   Draw Controls: Claire Marshall (54)

IN GOAL
•   It was a healthy dose of Kiera Vrindten in the circle last season for the Big Green as the then-junior posted an 8-6 mark with a 12.09 goals against average and a .392 save percentage against some of the best teams in the nation.
•   Pushing Vrindten for time this year will be sophomore Becca Wade, who was 1-0 with a 6.51 GAA and a .464 save percentage in five appearances with two starts.
•   Rookie Amy Shohet is expected to come in to solidify the position and learn behind the two veterans in front of her, while pushing both every day to make the team better.

WEEKEND PREVIEW
•   A complete preview of Saturday's season opener at UMass will be on DartmouthSports.com Friday.

Schedules