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.
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