Onward and Upward

As I’m sure you all know, we took a heartbreaking double-overtime loss to Yale last night. We unfortunately got behind which really hurt us, again, having to come all the way back from 10 points down just to force overtime.

I won’t say much other than I know that the effort our players put in was tremendous. They came all the way back and left it all on the court, all of them exhausted and two pushing through injuries sustained midway through the second

We have three losses in Ivy play, but still a full seven games left to play — we get another shot at everyone. How exciting is that?! I know our players are not giving up. Just two years ago we were in the exact same boat and wound up tied for the Ivy Championship. This league is crazy and, as we’ve seen, anything can happen and any team can beat any other.

Times like this I am drawn to a quote that I imagine many of you have read before. It is from the great Teddy Roosevelt’s speech, “Citizenship in a Republic” delivered at the Sorbonne in Paris on April 23, 1910:
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."


I’d like to say is thank you to all of you out there who support us so faithfully. Our players and coaches and staff would not make it through without the unyielding care we get from parents, friends and fans. I know many of you, especially parents, wish you could be with us more often, but there is a lot of love here.

The players were pretty beat up last night after a long, physical game, but after a day off today, I think everyone is ready to get after it this week. We are driven to go 7-0 during the next three weeks.

Couple of notes. First, check out a feature on one of the more inspiring stories to come out of the program, senior captain Michelle Meyer ’10.

Also, serious congratulations are in order for junior Brittney Smith ’11 who is already charging up the record books. She scored her 1,000^th career point and grabbed her 700^th career rebound against Yale last night. She is just the sixth player in program history to reach both those career marks. She became the 15^th 1,000^th point scorer for Dartmouth and did so seventh fastest, in just 81 games. Remarkable work, Britt.

- Dara