Snow Postpones Harvard-Dartmouth Rivalry

The Harvard women's basketball team will host its annual end-of-season grudge match against Dartmouth tonight at 7 p.m. following yesterday's postponement.

The Crimson (11-15, 8-5 Ivy) and the Big Green (12-14, 8-5) are presently tied for second-place in the Ivies. Tonight's winner will be the outright league runner-up behind Penn (22-5, 13-0).

If Harvard can emerge victorious, it will realize a goal that has been elusive to every Crimson team since 1997--a sweep of Dartmouth.

Although each of the past three Harvard teams has defeated the Big Green in January, none of them--including the 1998 team that upset top-seed Stanford--was able to post a follow-up victory in March.

""I'm not going to let it [a loss in the Dartmouth rematch] happen this time," said Harvard Coach Kathy Delaney-Smith after defeating the Big Green, 72-58, to open this year's Ivy schedule. "If I can do anything to prevent that I will."

Dartmouth, for the fourth season in a row, appears to have turned its season around after an early loss to the Crimson. After a 1-11 start, the Big Green has won 11 of its last 14 games.

One reason for the Big Green's resurgence has been the emergence of tri-captain Samantha Berdinka. The Dartmouth guard scored a career-high 29 points against Yale in early February and tied a team field-goal proficiency record that sophomore center Katherine Hanks set against the Crimson last year.

All three of Dartmouth's leading scorers this year are sophomores. Hanks, as expected, is the team's statistical leader at 15.4 ppg, while forward Katie Skelly and guard Kerri Downs are averaging 9.8 and 8.7, respectively. Downs is the leading free-throw shooter in the Ivies.

Another battle for second will be played out in tonight's Ivy scoring race. Hanks and freshman Hana Peljto are neck-and-neck at 15.4 ppg. Peljto leads Hanks by exactly one point. Penn senior Diana Caramanico leads the league in scoring at 21.4 ppg. Peljto and Hanks will be the among the favorites to battle for the scoring title for the next two seasons.

Peljto recently earned Ivy Rookie of the Week Honors for the seventh time this season. She is a lock to be first Crimson player to earn Ivy Rookie of the Year Honors since Allison Feaster '98.

Tonight will be the last call for the Crimson's senior class--the last remaining link between the present and the 1998 Harvard team. Three of the seniors--co-captain Kristen Boike, Lisa Kowal, and Carrie Larkworthy--lived through an unforgettable experience during their freshman seasons, while co-captain Melissa Johnson transferred to Harvard after her sophomore year at North Carolina. It is a class whose seemingly unliminted potential was stunted due to injuries.

Johnson was among the league's most dominant centers during the 1999-2000 season in which she earned second-team All-Ivy honors, That season was cut short on Feb. 12, 2000 against Penn when Johnson sustained the knee injury that has since plagued her. Prior to the injury, Caramanico and the rest of the Quaker defense had been helpless to stop her.

Larkworthy, after three years of battling injuries, finally became a key contributor of the bench during her senior year. She always got the call whenver the Crimson needed some aggresive defense on the perimeter. She even hit some big threes on occassion--an added bonus.

Kowal was a key player on the 1998 team as a freshman. She had hoped to carry that success through the rest of her career, but the following season, a twisted vertebrae in her neck significantly limited her activity over her next two seasons. Months of rehab finally paid off this season, as Kowal has started nearly every game.

Now all that's left for the seniors is a final shot at Dartmouth. A victory would make for one special sweep.