Few Pieces of Great News

Hi All,

Some good news to report. First off, congratulations to our two All-Ivy selections: junior forward Brittney Smith is a repeat selection for the All-Ivy First Team and freshman guard Faziah Steen, a unanimous choice to the Ivy All-Rookie team. We're proud of both of them!

Britt led us in every statistical category this season: 12.1 points, 10.2 rebounds per game, 61 assists, 53, steals, 51 blocks. She really made her move into the record books in areas of scoring, rebounding, blocks, free throws and scored her 1,000th career point and grabbed her 750th career rebound. She'll be tearing up those record lists next season and could very well become just our third-ever 1,000-rebounder.

Faziah did a great job for us this season, selflessly playing point guard despite that not being her natural position, and made her mark in the league. She scored 9.4 points per game and upped that to 10.9 ppg in Ivy play. She also grabbed 48 steals and closed her freshman campaign with 23 points at Harvard. The future is very bright for this young player.

Full All-Ivy story is here.

ALSO, as a team we have been named the Ivy winners for the NCAA "Pack the House" Challenge! In its third year, "Pack the House" is a national effort in which conferences and institutions compete to build attendance. Each participating institution designated one date as a "Pack the House" game with the goal of setting an attendance record. The NCAA named 33 winners, one from each conference, based on marketing plan creativity and attendance criteria. The University of Virginia was the NCAA's national challenge winner.

We are really proud to win this because we have always led the league in attendance and it is a great initiative to help grow our game.

Dartmouth hosted 1,619 fans for its victory over Ivy rival Harvard on January 16 and broke our student-attendance record from last season with more than 250 students cheering the Big Green to victory. That game was great and the environment at Leede was electric. You can read more about that here and here.

Perhaps my favorite thing is that the NCAA will donate $500 to the nonprofit organization of each winning school's choice. Dartmouth has asked that the NCAA make its donation to the Upper Valley Haven, which is a local shelter for homeless families, also providing food, clothing and other services to our neighbors in need.
As you may know, our team has worked closely with The Haven, including tutoring children and hosting a food drive earlier this season. Read a blog post about The Haven here.

BIG thanks to Josh Hartman from our marketing department for all the work he did for this. All the details on the Pack the House win are here.

Just watched the women's selection show and am trying to get geared up for the tournament! I am obviously still interested, but it takes a little more time when you're not in it.

Happy bracketing!

- Dara