No. 16 Dartmouth

2020 Record: 5-0
Pre-COVID Ranking: 6th

Claire Marshall has seen plenty of cloudy days in Hanover, N.H., but it’s a different kind facing Dartmouth this spring. 

The Ivy League was the first Division I conference to cancel the 2020 season last spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic before the NCAA followed suit, and as of the first week of January when students began to return to campuses, there wasn’t a clear-cut plan for how the conference would proceed this year. 

“The uncertainty is this enormous gray cloud that is making everything a little more difficult to do and get after,” said Marshall, a senior midfielder. “But we really do need to work towards what is possible and what could be.” 

Marshall hasn’t set foot on the Big Green’s home field since last spring and was barred from campus during virtual classes all winter. While freshmen were on campus working out under the direction of head coach Alex Frank, she and a group of upperclassmen worked out on their own at nearby fields. 

“It kind of felt like old summer-league lacrosse,” Marshall said. “We showed up with no Dartmouth-branded gear on, all in groups smaller than nine. We’d show up early in the morning and run our own little practices in groups and set up our own lines and bring our 50-yard strings to get our 300s in. The whole message there was despite being shut out of everything at Dartmouth, we all chose to be in the Hanover area and make the most of what we could.” 

Dartmouth wants the chance to build on the momentum of last year’s 5-0 start with a new cast. The Big Green graduated their top four scorers — including All-American Katie Bourque, who will play as a graduate student for North Carolina — as well as two starting defenders and starting goalie Kiera Vrindten. Marshall, an All-Ivy defender as a sophomore, is their leading returning scorer after notching seven goals in five games in her first year in the midfield. She is part of a core of eight seniors.  

“There’s a lot for us to learn, but I think these players really understand what it takes,” Frank said. “They got a little taste of it, whether they were on the sideline or on the field last year for those first five games. They understand anything is possible.” 

Replacing their graduates is more challenging because the Big Green will only have two-thirds of their players on campus to practice for the first 10 weeks during their winter semester. The team has bonded over Zoom calls, but won’t be all together in person on the field until mid-March.  

“Things are going to have to come together really quickly,” Marshall said. 

Marshall feels most confident in the defensive end that has several experienced players to take the lead. Three goalies are still competing to start, and the offensive end is full of opportunities for players to emerge. 

“This season more than others, this is when grit shows through,” Marshall said. “I never doubted the athleticism and grittiness of Dartmouth lacrosse.”