PACK THE HOUSE!

Okay Dartmouth fans, we need your support for the rest of the year as our Ivy League season begins with a bang against archrival Harvard on Saturday! We're hosting the Crimson at Leede at 7 p.m. for the first game in a four-game homestand. We host UNH on Jan. 19 and our first back-to-back Ivy weekend versus Cornell and Columbia on Jan. 29-30.

Our fans are always the best in the Ivy League and we want to make sure we lead the league in attendance once again this year! We went 7-0 in Ivy play at home last year and 6-1 the year before and our fans are a huge part of that effort.

On Saturday we're hosting our annual Pack the House game against Harvard. Pack the House is an NCAA league and nationwide challenge for the teams that can draw the best single-game attendance. We'll be trying to better our single-game attendance record from last season - 1700 fans at our Ivy Title-clinching win over, of course, Harvard! We want to FILL Leede Arena this time.

There will be lots of fun promotions and giveaways including a drawing for a basketball autographed by the entire team. Also, educators at all levels (teachers, administrators, support, etc) as well as all Town of Hanover employees will receive free admission. Those tickets need to be pre-reserved by calling Josh Hartman in the marketing office at 603-646-1486. For more info on Pack the House at Dartmouth click here.

- Dara

BC Preview is Up

Just a quick note that the preview for the Boston College game has been posted on DartmouthSports.com. As always, you can find my game notes, livestats, live video and radio links here.

Go Big Green!

- Dara

Catching Up With a Familiar Face

Hi All,

As Coach Wielgus mentioned in her blog, we recently had a visit from Koren Schram ’09 while she was in the US for her holiday break. Personally, it was great to see Koren as we became close friends during the three years that we were in Hanover together. Koren is currently playing professional basketball for a team called Hamar just outside of Reykjavik, Iceland. Her team is doing well, second in the league, and Koren is a big reason why! Her quickness, fearlessness and deadly three-point shot have translated well into the professional, international game. Koren won three Ivy Championships in Hanover and was a first team All-Ivy selection as both a junior and senior. We're really proud of what she and Sydney Scott ’08, in her second season playing professionally in Denmark, have been able to accomplish on the court after Dartmouth.

Before last season, ESPN.com's Graham Hays wrote a great article about Koren and her plans to pursue a career in medicine after playing college basketball. He also wrote a nice piece on her after our NCAA Tournament game at Maryland last spring. He mentioned at the time that it would be interesting to someday follow-up and see where she ended up with med school, basketball, etc. Well that opportunity came sooner than he thought when Graham was at our Blue Sky Classic to write a feature on Dayton and saw Koren making her rounds at Leede. He double-checked with me to make sure it was really her and the two sat down for a chat that he turned into yet another great article.

Check out the story here.


It's been a busy week for the players as winter term classes started on Monday along with preparations for ACC foe Boston College on Thursday. BC will be our second-to-last non-conference game and final tune-up before Ivy play. The Eagles will obviously present a formidable challenge but we believe they are a great precursor to preparations for Harvard on Jan. 16. We take on the BC down in Chestnut Hill this Thursday night at 7 p.m. and don't play again until the 16th, when we host the Crimson.

- Dara

Quick Turnaround and Back on the Road

Hi All,

Sitting in a hotel room in Worcester, Mass. with some time to kill before dinner and thought I'd give a quick update on things. We're at my old stomping grounds to take on Holy Cross tomorrow (Saturday Jan. 2) at 1 p.m. I graduated from Holy Cross in 2004, where I was an athlete and worked for the athletic department. I'm glad we've kept up our series with HC because it's a good measuring stick for us and is a great battle between two traditional New England powers. And people always ask me if I am torn - the answer is of course not! Dartmouth is who I am now and it's Go Big Green all the way! All the usual preview and multimedia info can be found here.

We're looking to turn things around tomorrow as we were unable to get a W at our own Blue Sky Classic, but there were some positives to come out of the tournament. We took a really tough 58-57 loss to Rhode Island in the opener. URI came out on fire and led us, 21-5, in the first seven minutes! We battled back, but they still held a 12-point lead at the half, that they quickly built back to 16 early in the second. Then we finally got our rhythm going, got the ball inside to Brittney and got some big threes to fall. Betsy Williams hit a particularly huge shot to pull us within two points late in the game. We were down 58-57 with a chance to win on the last possession, but things didn't go our way and we couldn't complete the comeback.

That loss seemed to really stir something in the players, however, and they came out with a rejuvenated determination the next day! The team had a great shootaround and just the players stayed longer to work on some more stuff. That competitiveness showed when we took on Dayton, who was just outside the top-25 in both polls this week (essentially #27 nationally). Dayton has ranked as high as 20th this year. The game opened as a real defensive struggle, knotted at 0-0 until Dayton scored at 16:21. It was just 7-5 eight minutes into the game. We trailed by eight at halftime and Dayton managed to pull away in the second and added to the total with a late press. We lost, 57-36, but it was a closer game than that and our defense battled against a much taller and deeper team. There were a lot of positives to take out of it.

Hope everyone has a healthy and happy new year and we are excited to share the Ivy season with all of you!

- Dara

Coach’s Favorite Christmas Presents

Christmas was wonderful! Family time, good meals and lots of laughter all come together at this joyous time of the year.

But my favorite Christmas presents came late and never made it under the tree. They arrived on Dec 29 during our Blue Sky Basketball Classic. I was minding my own business at the press table watching Vermont beat Dayton, when I was tapped on the shoulder. I turned around and there was a tanned, fit, smiling Koren Schram’09! What a treat! Koren was home for the holidays from Iceland, where she is having a blast playing on a professional basketball team. It was so much fun to spend time with her, but I had to cut the conversation short ... we had a game to be played.

So I assumed my pre-game position on the bench waiting for the URI game to begin. Much to my surprise out of the stands comes Derrick Harrison ’07! Derrick was our team manager and my good friend. Derrick is teaching math in a middle school in the Bronx and he just completed his masters program. He had his delightful girlfriend Amber with him.

I can’t tell you what a joy it was to see Koren and Derrick. I think Christmas came twice to me this year!!

- Coach Wielgus

Back for the Blue Sky

In my world, the holidays arrive and leave faster than Santa’s sled. One minute we are in sunny southern California playing in the Galen Center. Next minute, we are diving for presents under a Christmas tree and eating the best food ever. Within a blink of the eye, we are back in Leede Arena practicing on the newly varnished floor. The holidays and travel a blur.

It is always hard to leave your family and friends, but I have to confess I was excited see the kids back in Hanover. Post Christmas at Dartmouth means ... tournament time!!!

The Blue Sky Basketball Classic Tournament is a wonderful event made possible by the generosity of Blue Sky owner Marc Milowsky and the professionalism of our staff here at Dartmouth. Dartmouth and Marc know how to run an event. The Tournament was started back in 1978 by me and Sally Estes our administrative assistant at the time. It has been going on ever since. So many great teams have played here: Rutgers, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Marquette, Arkansas and Duke to name a few.

This year is not different. We welcome back an old friend and former assistant Coach Sharon Dawley now at Vermont, Cathy Inglese brings her Rhode Island Rams and Jim Jabor’s top-25 Dayton Flyers round out the field.

This tournament is a treat to us and our gift to the Upper Valley community — good basketball over the holidays played in front of our friends and family. It doesn’t get much better than that.

We tip-off against Rhode Island on Tuesday (12/29) at 7 PM but be sure to check out an exciting match-up between Dayton and Vermont at 5 PM. It's a classic format this year so we'll take on Dayton at 7 PM on Wednesday with Vermont-URI playing at 5 PM.

- Coach Wielgus

Happy Holidays

All of us from Dartmouth Women's Hoops are scattered around the country this week, spending this holiday with our families and friends!

It's a brief break before reporting back on the 26th but I think everyone is used to taking full advantage of the time off. We're back at it soon after the holiday and looking forward to hosting the Blue Sky Classic - our 33rd annual tournament.

This holiday season we are so grateful to all of our loyal readers and fans. You make this program so special and we appreciate your support through all the ups and downs of the season. Hopefully you're enjoying this extra look into all that goes on behind the scenes and we look forward to defending our Ivy League title in 2010.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Wonderful New Year to All!

- Dartmouth Women's Hoops