Previewing Dartmouth’s 2020 men’s college lacrosse schedule

The Dartmouth Big Green are the 6th team in our 2020 men’s college lacrosse schedule preview series and the first team from the Ivy League. Dartmouth finished 2-11 overall in 2019 and 0-6 in Ivy League play, which is the same record they had in 2018 & 2017. While the last few years have been less than ideal, Dartmouth does returns 100% of their scoring from 2019 which does provide some hope going into 2020, as the team looks to win its first conference game since 2015.

Here’s their entire 2020 schedule:

Who’s In?

• Merrimack Warriors (2/15)
• Vermont Catamounts (3/7)
• North Carolina Tar Heels (3/24)
• Holy Cross Crusaders (4/15)

Who’s Out?

• Boston University Terriers (15-8 L)
• Wagner Seahawks (11-4 W)
• Binghamton Bearcats (11-7 W)

Circle These Dates

• 2/15 at Merrimack: A potential annual non-conference series in the making? The two schools are a little less than two hours apart from each other and with the Warriors beginning their move up to the Division I ranks, it’ll be a new opponent for Dartmouth to get to know.
• 2/22 vs. Bryant: The Bulldogs had a down year in 2019 despite winning two of their first three games. Their meeting with the Big Green was one of their three wins all season, and it wasn’t pretty. Dartmouth’s Jack Richardson cut the Bulldog lead to one goal with 11:23 left in regulation, and that was it for the scoring. All eight total shots on goal were saved, including five by Daniel Hincks. Dartmouth had seven total shots, with three of them saved.
• 3/21 at Hartford: Dartmouth’s first Ivy League game of the season comes against the Crimson and new head coach Gerry Byrne. Harvard was the Big Green’s closest conference game last year, with the Crimson going on a game-changing six-goal run in the second half after Dartmouth took a two-goal lead midway through the third quarter. Harvard was also Dartmouth’s opponent when they last won an Ivy League contest.
• 4/7 at Hartford: Last year’s meeting was one of the more memorable games, featuring a huge snowstorm in Hanover. It was a neck-and-neck game throughout with the Big Green taking a one-goal lead on a Harlan Smart man-up goal with 1:49 left to play. But Hartford responded 42 seconds later and would record the game-winner with 23 seconds to go to come out with the win.
• 4/15 vs. Holy Cross: This will be their first meeting with the Crusaders since 2014 which Dartmouth won by five goals. But Holy Cross has changed considerably since then. They had a near .500 season in 2015, followed by three seasons of four and five wins before reaching .500 last year under head coach Peter Burke. They also qualified for the Patriot League Tournament three times, including a four-goal upset of Navy in the quarterfinals back in 2017.
• 4/24 at Brown: Similar to the Harvard matchup, Dartmouth contended in the first half and had a two-goal lead midway through the third quarter. But the Bears woke up in the second half and outscored the Big Green 7-1 in the final 17:43 of the contest to take the win. In some of these contests, Dartmouth has been a first half team. Can they take the next step and play 60 quality minutes?