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Be sure to check out our Facebook page for highlight videos and updates on our season. We head to Bryant tomorrow to take on the Bulldogs. Go Big Green!

Kowabunga!

Today we took a break from practice and tackled the High Ropes Course at Dartmouth. We are very fortunate to have the Dartmouth Outing Club, the oldest and largest collegiate outing club in the country, at our disposal.

We conquered the Low Ropes Course this past spring and CRUSHED the High Ropes today.

While each element introduced unique challenges, the zip line was by far our favorite!

Special thanks to our fearless leaders, Becky and Jenny from the DOC, and our filmmakers Lexi, Rachel and Rose.

We're back!

Pre-season officially kicked off for us yesterday and we're so excited! We took some video of our first two days and hope to make daily posts about our progress. Here's our first video. The song is "Everything I Want" by Matthew Puckett.

Order your Dartmouth Volleyball gear

As promised here's the information on how to order some Dartmouth Volleyball gear. The website opened up for orders on July 14th and will remain open until July 21st. This is our one and only gear sale so tell your friends and family!!

84 Days Until Pre-Season...

Not that we're excited about pre-season to begin, but it's only 85 days away! Our team has spent the spring term getting ready to kick some butt and take some names in the Ivy League this fall.

We met all our goals as a team, including crushing our personal bests in the weight room! Go Big Green!

Please enjoy the video - it's a short snippet of a week in the life of the Dartmouth Volleyball team...


P.S. Now that summer has arrived this blog is going on vacation until August. We hope that everyone has a safe & fun summer!

Two Engineers and a Yellow Cat

Well, if that doesn't grab your attention I'm not sure what will. We had a great day today! Our team tackled the low ropes course at Dartmouth courtesy of the Dartmouth Outing Club - the oldest and largest collegiate outing club in the country.

As we were getting started our facilitator, Becky, had the girls name an animal and a color that they could identify with...that somewhat explains the title of this blog. :-)

As Becky led our team through the course she stopped after each section to reinforce the lesson learned and relate how it applied to our team.

Better than try to explain to you the adventures our team had today, I am going to show you. We recently purchased a Kodak zi8 and plan to record some of the great moments that our team has on a weekly basis.

Please enjoy, because we sure did!

Community Service: Cooking at David's House

This past weekend our team participated in their annual tradition of cooking dinner at David's House. This place serves as a home-away-from-home and support for families with children receiving treatment through the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth (CHaD).

Here are some photos and quotes from the team about their experience this year:
"It was a really positive experience, to be able to transfer our teamwork from the volleyball court to giving back to the Dartmouth community." - Maddy Baird '12

"It was hilarious how much our chemistry as a team transferred into the kitchen. we were all laughing afterward about how we just walked in to David's house, no one even really decided who was going to do what, we just all starting doing something and within a half an hour the meal was cooked. We were like a machine!" - Annie Villanueva '12

"It was really fun to do something great for someone else, especially because in college you get used to having food prepared for you. It was a fun challenge to prepare it for someone else, especially someone in need." - Lexi Campbell '13

"Our team always has a great time cooking at David's House - our experience last weekend was a little bit more interesting than usual considering the fact that we didn't have the coaches there to supervise our cooking. But at the end of the day, I think we managed to whip up a legitimate Italian-style meal, complete with spaghetti, garlic bread, and a big salad. Good work team!"
- Jessie Hartman '11

"We had so much fun together, we're all friends off the court, but it really felt good to do something good for someone else as a team." - Amber Bryant '12

Why I Chose Dartmouth

Since coming back from Spain, I have some time to reflect upon my last two years of Dartmouth. I keep thinking of how fortunate I am to have found such an incredible college that truly fits me both as a student and as an athlete.

I am always asked the question, why exactly did you choose Dartmouth? I always find myself asking the same question. Everyone’s answer is different. Most will say it is because of the incredible opportunities Dartmouth has to offer the students like the chance to travel abroad, or take an off term to find an internship, or do a community service project. This was definitely one of the most influential factors on my decision, but also many other things played an important role in my process of choosing a school.


Coming from Texas, it is rare to find many people who are willing to go to a school anywhere other than the South. I, too, thought I was one of those people. I always thought that I would follow in my sister’s footsteps and go to the University of Georgia and play volleyball for the Bulldogs. Never in my mind did I even consider the chance of me going to a college somewhere in the Northeast. It was not until my senior year of high school that I finally realized my dream of going to the University of Georgia was not my own dream; it was my sister’s dream. I have always done everything that my older sister did because that was all I have ever known. After making this realization, I began seriously considering different colleges all over the country; I did not want to limit myself by just staying in the South. I had not considered all of the other colleges that I had been recruited by, and what great things each of them had to offer.

The college that stood out to me the most was Dartmouth. Although I had never seen the campus, I had only ever heard incredible things about this school. I had one friend who was on the volleyball team at the time and when I approached her about the coaches and the program she talked with me for almost two hours just about how incredible the volleyball program was, and all great opportunities offered by Dartmouth.

I trusted her judgment and came to visit the campus. Instantaneously, I fell in love with both the campus and the volleyball program. The team and the coaches made me feel like I was already a member of the program, and I could honestly feel how excited they were that I had an interest in coming to Dartmouth. I did not have this same sense from any of the other colleges I had previously visited. I just had a sense that Dartmouth was the best fitting school for me.

So I took a risk, I decided to come to Dartmouth, and be a member of the Big Green volleyball program. Even though I was terrified of moving across the country and not having my family close to me, I was comforted by the fact that the members of the team and coaching staff would surround me. This was the first time in my life that I can think of where I made a choice solely on my own and not influenced by what my older sister would do.

By choosing Dartmouth, I get to continue to play volleyball for a Division I program, while also having a life outside of volleyball. We have the freedom to take off terms, and virtually do anything you can imagine. I have spent the past three months in Spain taking classes and traveling all around Europe with two of my best friends.

Most people who play volleyball in college are not blessed with these kinds of opportunities. I am fortunate enough to be able to take advantage of all of the wonderful possibilities that Dartmouth has to offer.

-Kendall Houston '12

I Have Promised to Challenge Myself

After four months away in Spain, it feels incredible to be back home in Hanover! I feel as if my time abroad fostered a fresh appreciation for the immense opportunity available at Dartmouth. This spring term I have promised to challenge myself by experiencing new things that are only available at Dartmouth.

This term I enrolled in Portuguese I at Dartmouth. I knew that learning a completely new language would be a great challenge for me. However, I was so intrigued by the opportunity to know a language besides English and Spanish that I quickly signed up. I think its incredible that my interest in the culture and language of Brazil can develop into the ability to communicate in Portuguese just after ten weeks of class at Dartmouth. However, that is the beauty of Dartmouth courses. All the hard-work that students put into their classes they receive twofold in knowledge and understanding by the end of the term.

The Dartmouth community itself is phenomenal. Returning this spring, I fully appreciate the intellect and passion of those around me. The people that I have met at Dartmouth have exposed me to so many interesting and different viewpoints and ways of life. Amongst the four thousand undergraduates at Dartmouth, every student is unique and from all over the world. I love attending a school where everyday I meet someone who is different than me. My friends at Dartmouth constantly are provoking new ways of thinking and providing challenges to my traditional understanding. These relationships have cultivated a strong sense of independence and individuality in me and have been the greatest source of growth in my life. It has been incredible to be surrounded by people that I feel I can constantly learn from and grow.

Besides the incredible, academic opportunities and amazing student-body at Dartmouth there are hundreds of random things to do around Hanover. This last weekend I stayed in a Dartmouth Outing Club cabin situated on a beautiful lake up in the mountains with a group of friends. It was such a fun, entertaining experience cooking our own food and being completely on our own for a night. Between, world-renowned guest lecturers, the numerous hiking trails, the Dartmouth Organic Farm, dozens of mentoring programs, the fabulous opportunities to grow and change the world are endless in a community like Dartmouth.

I feel as if this college has provided me with the complete experience. The flexibility of the Dartmouth academic structure has allowed me to pursue my passion for foreign language and has provided me with the opportunity to apply my knowledge through my term abroad this last winter. Since coming to school, I have gained invaluable experience through the unique students and unforgettable opportunities surrounding the Dartmouth community. My time here has been full of terrific possibilities that only continue to grow as my college years progress. I feel so fortunate to experience such an extraordinary sense of freedom while simultaneously being a part of such a strong volleyball program at Dartmouth.

-Maddy Baird '12

Stronger Than You Think

Happy spring from Hanover!! The grass is just starting to green up and the trees are full with "leaves to be"! We are right in the middle of our spring practice season. For our "non traditional" season, the Ivy League allows us to have ten practice sessions with our full team and compete in two spring playdates. In general, we start spring practice once everyone returns to campus after spring break. We begin with a start-up team meeting and set some goals to work on during the term. On Saturday, April 10th we hosted a home playdate in Leede Arena. Springfield College, Providence College, Bryant University, and Franklin Pierce College drove up to Hanover for the day. It was great to see the team playing together again against a variety of opponents. This competition helped us see what we will need to be working on for the next two weeks in order to get ready for our final playdate at the University of New Hampshire on Saturday, April 24th.

This week, we "paid back" our women's lacrosse team (ranked #7 in the nation) with a short volleyball clinic. In the fall, they were generous with their time and taught our team the basics of catching and throwing. We decided to return the favor and invited them to join us for a little pepper and serving. I think both teams were able to really appreciate the skills necessary to be successful at both sports and we had a few good laughs too!


Outside of practice time in the gym, the team has been lifting with our strength coach, Amanda, twice a week since the start of the term. Once our official spring practices are over, they will see Amanda between 3-4 times a week for added training and conditioning. We are planning some "team challenges" for the month of May to test our spring theme of "You're Stronger Than You Think". Stay tuned to the blog to see how the challenges go for the players!! and who emerges as the strongest or at least who is still standing at the end of competition!!

Happy Spring!

-Ann Marie Larese, head coach

Oh, The Place You'll Go....(with a Dartmouth degree).

I have always known of the uniqueness of Dartmouth and have learned even more these past two years of how incredible it is to be a part of the Dartmouth Experience.

Here are some of the things that set Dartmouth apart:
1) The D-Plan. Dartmouth is on the quarter system. This mean that we have four 10-week terms (fall, winter, spring, summer). Volleyball is during the fall term, which means that our players have the freedom to travel abroad during the winter term or have an internship, etc. The option is theirs for the winters of the sophomore and junior years.

2) Limited missed class time. Given all the hype of March Madness and how much is said in the media about how poorly Division I college students perform in the classroom - we are just the opposite. Being an Ivy League institution means that we hold ourselves to the highest standards and take our academics seriously. If our players schedule their classes for the mornings and early afternoons in the fall term, they could potentially only miss two Fridays of classes while we are in season. Additionally our team GPA consistently hovers around 3.2.

3) Best Undergraduate Teaching Institution. In 2009 U.S. News and World Report's ranked Dartmouth as #1 in the category of "Best Undergraduate Teaching" among national universities.

4) A Few Famous Dartmouth Alums:
-Theodor Seuss Geisel '25 (aka Dr. Seuss) - Children's author and illustrator
-C. Everett Koop '37 - former Surgeon General of the United States
-Sandy Alderson '69 - CEO of San Diego Padres baseball organization
-Jeffery Immelt '78 - CEO of General Electric
-John Donahoe '82 - CEO of eBay
-Timothy Geitner '83 - United States Secretary of the Treasury
-Rachel Dratch '88 - Actress, cast member of Saturday Night Live
-Connie Britton '89 - actress; best known as Tami Taylor on Friday Night Lights
-Andrew Shue '89 - actor, best known for Melrose Place
-Sondra Rhimes '91 - Screenwriter, director, and producer; best known for producing Grey's Anatomy (ever wonder why Meredith wears a Dartmouth shirt?)
-Gillian Apps '06 - two-time Olympic gold medalist in ice hockey
-Cherie Piper '06 - three-time Olympic gold medalist in ice hockey

5) Dartmouth is a liberal arts college. We offer 35 majors that cover a wide range of possibilities once your graduate. You can find a physician that majored in Physics and a high school teacher that majored in Environmental Studies.

For the smallest school in the Ivy League, we have a lot going on!



-Heather Somers, assistant coach

Reunited!

After a winter spent all over the globe (literally), our volleyball team is finally reunited again in Hanover, New Hampshire. Even the rain that hasn’t stopped pouring down since the minute I arrived on campus can’t dampen my spirits.

I spent this past term in hustling, bustling New York City. I interned at a small public relations firm called Nike Communications, where I worked on the “travel team,” making clips, keeping books, and pitching stories for the Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, a luxury hotel line with 22 properties all over the world. One of my favorite parts of the internship was being able to help out at events for various clients. I worked at Vino 2010, the largest Italian Wine Conference ever held outside of Italy, and also a couple parties for fun companies like Betsey Johnson and Esquire Magazine. It was my first exposure to PR, and I loved learning more about the field. I have grown to appreciate any experience that helps me understand just what I might want to do with my life, seeing as I am asked that question more and more often as I get older. Every day I feel blessed for the amazing opportunities I’ve been given, but with that realization comes the desire to do something that will fully take advantage of those opportunities – I guess figuring that out is really what college is all about.

Practices start up again this week, and I think everyone on the team is excited to be back on the court together, doing what we love. Our team has gone through a lot of changes over the last year and it has been so great to see everything clicking into place. It is always a bit uncomfortable getting back into the swing of volleyball, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel like a fish on dry land for a large part of practice. But we have all spent so many hours of our lives playing this game that it really doesn’t take much to get back on track. Especially when you’re out there with your best friends.

Our team is in a great place right now, emotionally, mentally, and physically. In our team meeting to kick off this spring season, we all felt like we were on the same page, and the energy in the room was extremely positive, enthusiastic, and open. I know I’m not just speaking for myself when I say that I am so happy to be back, and so proud to call every one of these girls my teammate. Can’t wait for spring season!

-Jessie Hartman '11

Opportunities Galore!

Hello everyone from sunny San Diego! I am currently enjoying my winter off term in my hometown of San Diego, CA. This term has been a great break from the Dartmouth lifestyle and has really allowed me to get some great work experience as well as life experience. In terms of work, I was given the opportunity to intern with the Planning and Conservation League and helped to plan and organize their annual legislative symposium which occurs in Sacramento, CA every year. The Planning and Conservation League (PCL) is a major non-profit environmental organization in California as well as a significant lobbying power in the California State Legislature. Through this experience I not only learned a lot but also met some of the most influential people who are shaping the face of how California deals with the environment and the effects us humans have on it. Seeing as I am an Environmental Studies major, I was in HEAVEN.

I have also been interning for another firm, Crotty Consulting, Inc, which is a small governmental consulting firm in downtown San Diego. Chris, my boss essentially runs politicians campaigns from outreach to mailings to speeches. The main project we have been working on through my time there is the California Valley Solar Ranch, which is a proposed solar array “ranch” located in San Luis Obispo, CA. I have mostly been working on outreach to the public to get them behind the construction of the project.


But enough about work, I am sure no one really cares about that especially after reading about Annie’s adventures in Spain! So besides working, I have been traveling around California a lot. I have managed to see a lot of my close high school friends over the last 2 months. From Berkeley to UC San Diego to Cal Poly I have had a great time really exploring California. It is such an awesome thing that Dartmouth allows us to take this time off to work, explore and mature, but I still have a heck of a time trying to explain to people why I am not at school this quarter. People think I flunked out or something! Haha.

Besides traveling, the other fun part of my life is playing volleyball. I have been lucky enough to be able to practice weekly with my old club, Encinitas Wave. I practice with the 18-1s which is a BLAST and keeps me sharp on my game. Even though I will admit, I sometimes feel old playing with those 18 year olds. Since when am I almost a SENIOR in college?! Crazy! Anyway… it has been incredible playing with these girls, because I have really seen them grow up as players, from their freshman years in high school to now and I serve not only as a fellow player but also as a coach. On top of playing I have been training at a gym that is specifically for volleyball players. To put it bluntly I have been getting my butt kicked, which is good (when I can move again after the soreness recedes) because I am feeling strong and healthy and ready for spring season.


Last but not least, to continue with how amazing and wonderful Dartmouth is, I just found out that I received acceptance to the Environmental Studies Foreign Study Program to South Africa!!!! This is the same program that Katie mentioned in her entry, and I actually applied because of some encouragement I received from her. I am so incredibly excited to go and feel so blessed that Dartmouth has opened these kinds of doors for me. I am loving being home but I can’t wait to get back on campus this spring and see the team.

-Kelsey Johnson'11 (Carlsbad, CA)

The Best Adventure of My Life

Hola from Espana! As Katie Hirsch said in her entry recently, Dartmouth has provided us with some amazing travel opportunities, not just with the team, but on our own as well. I am in the middle of experiencing that right now!


I, along with teammates Kendall Houston and Madeline Baird, took this Winter as a transfer term to the Universidad de Salamanca, in Salamanca, Spain. I am not even sure where to start about this amazing adventure we are in the middle of! Since I was young, I’ve had the dream of studying abroad in college. This dream was part of the reason I chose Dartmouth volleyball: the fact that we have the freedom to follow our passions (no matter where in the world they take us), while still competing on a division I college team is spectacular. People always talked about it, but I never really appreciated it until this winter when we went away.

We’ve been here in Spain since the beginning of January, and I can’t believe it’s already March. Time is flying! We’re taking Spanish language, Spanish Literature and History classes here. Salamanca, the city where we are living is great. It’s absolutely beautiful, pretty small, and full of young people because of the University. We’ve done lots of exploring here, and lots of traveling in Spain. We went to Sevilla and Madrid, and we are going to Barcelona next week, and Basque country the week after that! Our Spanish has gotten SO much better already, and keeps getting better every day. We have class every day, but usually take Fridays off to travel, including to Morocco, London, and Rome. I can’t believe that this life I am living right now is real! We’ve been taking tons of photos, and writing in our journals, and I am having the time of my life. Being with my teammates makes it even better. This week, we went and practiced with the University of Salamanca women’s team! The girls were so nice, and it was good to get some practice. They taught us all the Spanish words for “I go!” and “Your ball!” and “set me!”. Maybe we’ll bring those back to Dartmouth!


In addition to being the best adventure of my life, being abroad has made me appreciate Dartmouth. I can’t wait to come home and tell stories, share pictures, and be with the rest of the team again! I think that after realizing how much traveling you can do in a weekend, we will explore New England a lot more and take advantage of all the opportunities around us at Dartmouth. We are so lucky!

-Annie Villanueva '12 (Santa Barbara, CA)

My Blood Runs Green.

As time passes and I reflect on my years as a Dartmouth undergraduate, I feel increasingly fortunate. Because of being a Dartmouth student and a member of the volleyball team, I have had a number of opportunities that I am convinced would not have been available to me had I attended a different academic institution. Some of these grandiose opportunities involve travel, which has been a passion of mine since I was a little girl. The first travel experience that Dartmouth provided me occurred my freshman year, when the volleyball team went to Montana to compete in a pre-season tournament. After tournament play concluded, the team traveled up to Yellowstone National Park and spent a day exploring the park, Old Faithful, and its wildlife. I had been to Yellowstone once before when I was about 10 years old with my family, so it was very special to me to go back 9 years later with my new family - the Dartmouth Volleyball family.

Dartmouth volleyball presented me with other travel experiences as well. Aside from playing in a tournament in Montana, we traveled to compete in Ohio, North Carolina, and New Mexico (where I bought some beeeeeeeautiful turquoise jewelry) in addition to states in the Northeast. However, my travel experiences were not limited strictly to domestic adventures. The summer before my senior year, I went with my co-captain and best friend, Sandy Barbut ‘08, to Germany and Holland on a select US team coached by Dartmouth Head Coach Ann Marie Larese. While abroad, we played German and Holland teams at several tournaments, including a battle against the Holland Junior National Team (unfortunately we didn’t win). We also did some sightseeing in Amsterdam and visited a wooden shoe factory in Germany.

Last year I was entertaining the idea of playing professionally in Europe and went on another European tour (along with 2009 co-captain Morgan Covington ’10) led by Coach Larese to Austria and Italy. Once again we played local clubs from various towns but also got to tour Venice and the Alps and learned how to make traditional Austrian Apple Strudel! The hills were alive that day…


Another amazing experience Dartmouth Volleyball provided me with was a spring break trip to the Dominican Republic. Every so often, the Volleyball team takes an international trip where we compete against local teams, participate in a community service project, and explore a new part of the world. This trip occurred my senior year and was enchanting. From basking in the sun on the beach (which was warmly welcomed after spending a chilly winter in Hanover) to practicing with the Dominican Junior National team, to having a pizza/dance party with a local women’s volleyball team, it was incredible to share an experience such as this with my teammates and coaches.


At Dartmouth, in order to fulfill the graduation requirements, each student must complete what is known as the “culminating experience.” This may be done a few different ways with the most popular choice being to participate in a Foreign Study Program (FSP) offered through the College’s different departments. Being an Environmental Studies major, the FSP offered in my department is only offered in the fall. With Volleyball being a fall sport, I chose to partake in the FSP (in South Africa) the fall following my senior year. Since I was within three credits of fulfilling my degree requirements, I was still able to walk at graduation. Going on the South Africa FSP was a truly life-changing experience for me. It was so much more than a trip, or taking a class – it was discovering more about myself and the world around me through a new avenue of learning. The events that took place on this journey were unlike any I had ever been a part of before, and have since become memories that I will keep with me forever. It would be nearly impossible to sum up the course of three months into a paragraph of a blog, but some of the highlights included climbing a sand dune to watch the sun set; being in a jeep 15 feet away from a roaring lion; living in a thatched hut for three nights with a rural South African family; conducting a research project studying the migration patterns of African elephants through the use of dung beetle collection and analysis; eating Mopane worms and other local foods; making friends with a traditional South African healer, who used… “non-western” practices in curing her patients; and making new Dartmouth friends that I would have never gotten the chance to know otherwise.

In the six years that I have been affiliated with Dartmouth College, I routinely have to pinch myself to make sure my life isn’t surreal. I have a love for Dartmouth that encompasses every vein, every pore, and every skin cell in my body. My blood runs green. It is my home and it always will be. Dartmouth helped me grow up and become a woman (reluctant as I am to admit I’ve grown up) and I will be forever grateful of my time spent here. Whether I was traveling in a foreign country, sweating on the volleyball court, or succeeding in the classroom, I was always appreciative of Dartmouth. I still am. There is no other institution that compares. However, I’m sure my opinion is biased…after all, I did come back to coach!

-by Katie Hirsch '08, Assistant Coach

Dartmouth's Own Winter Holiday

This past weekend was one of Dartmouth’s oldest and most celebrated traditions, Winter Carnival! I had heard so many stories about the winter festivities from alums and the older girls on the team, but I still had no idea what to expect. The theme was “I came, I saw, I carnivaled,” playing off of the Latin phrase. The best tradition was the snow sculpture, which I am still amazed that the students were able to build considering that we have hardly any snow on the ground! They built the coliseum, to go along with the carnival theme. It was a big success because last year it had collapse. Opening ceremonies for Winter Carnival was at 6 pm Thursday night, where they introduced the finished snow sculpture and lit fireworks off of it!
The Colosseum Snow Sculpture

I was afraid that the fireworks would destroy the sculpture (considering one of the fireworks was scorching the snow before it went off!) but the students did a really amazing job making sure that the sculpture was strong. The opening ceremonies also had a speech from our new president Jim Kim, and a performance from Dartmouth’s a cappella group The Cords. It was so cold too, it was awesome that they all got up and sang for us. Sadly, there were supposed to be hot chocolate and cookies for after the ceremonies, but we couldn’t find them anywhere! My friends and I circled the inside of Collis Café (one of my favorite places to eat) for ten minutes, but no luck. The rest of the weekend had tons of great winter activities like the Polar Bear plunge, rock climbing, 99 cent day at the ski way, and the human dog sled race! I was too scared to do the polar bear plunge down at Occum Pond, but all my friends did it!
(photo by Joseph Mehling '69)

I was just there to take photos and help them zip up their coats after because they couldn’t feel their fingers anymore. It was so much fun because being from California, it is my first winter and it’s great to be at a school that embraces the season. But, I have to admit the best part was getting Friday off from classes, it’s awesome that Dartmouth has its own holiday to celebrate winter!

-Lexi Campbell (Solana Beach, CA), Freshman, Outside Hitter

Our Chance to Give Back

Each term our team participates in a community service project. Past projects have included volunteering at the CHaD Half-Marathon - which benefits the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth (CHaD), cooking dinner for the families at David's House, and painting a local elementary school.

This term, we were fortunate to help celebrate National Girls and Women in Sport Day, by conducting a clinic at a local rec center. The event is called Girls' SportsFest and is hosted by the city of Lebanon (NH) Recreation and Parks Department.

On Saturday, Lexi Campbell '13, Alissa Santa Maria '13, Head Coach Ann Marie Larese and Assistant Coach Heather Somers hopped in a car and drove to Lebanon eager to share their love of volleyball and passion for the game with approximately 60 girls ages 3-12.


Basic individual skills such as passing, setting, serving and attacking were covered as well, and most importantly, the team cheer!


We'd like to thank Paul Coats and his staff at the Lebanon Recreation and Parks Department for hosting Girls' SportsFest and giving us the opportunity to give back to our community and share the game of volleyball.

"Surprisingly enough, I am surviving the cold..."

Winter term has been great so far. Surprisingly enough, I am surviving the cold, but I’ve heard the real test comes in February. This term has been very different from fall term, but equally as enjoyable.

This past Saturday was the Men’s Hockey game against Princeton. I dressed up in green and went with some friends down to Thompson Arena to watch the game. It was exciting to see such a huge crowd of Big Green Hockey fans, including a group of Dartmouth students who painted “GO DARTMOUTH!” on their chests! There is a well-known rivalry between these two hockey teams, and traditionally, when Dartmouth scores their first goal against Princeton the crowd throws tennis balls onto the ice at the Tigers. Of course I had to partake in this great tradition, but unfortunately my tennis ball didn’t quite make it over the net surrounding the ice (I’m working on that shoulder strength :-)). I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so many tennis balls before in my life. I really enjoyed supporting the hockey team, showing my school spirit and participating in a legendary Dartmouth tradition.


Volleyball workouts are going great with Amanda Bayliss. I love getting into the gym after a day in the classroom. This coming week Lexi and I will be starting to practice with the Men’s Club Volleyball team to get in some extra touches on the ball. We are excited to show them some real defense.

This term I am taking a freshmen seminar class, which focuses on skepticism of the paranormal. Professor Pfister, a professor of psychology here at Dartmouth, teaches this course in East Wheelock. I have found this course particularly interesting and my favorite topic of research thus far, has been superstitions and athletics. I researched into this topic and got to discuss some of my own volleyball superstitions with my professor. I then proceeded to write a paper on why superstitions were/are created: to give people a sense of control over situations that are sometimes out of their control. I look forward to learning in this class every week. I now look at the world through skeptical eyes.

-Alissa Santa Maria (Yorba Linda, CA), Freshman, Setter

Did you know...

...that Dartmouth is #1 in first U.S. News ranking of 'Best Undergraduate Teaching'?

2010 Camp Dates

The dates for our 2010 Nike Volleyball camp are Sunday, July 11 through Thursday, July 15.

Camp sells out every year so be sure to register early!

Coming to camp is a great way to meet our coaching staff and see first hand our beautiful campus. We encourage campers interested in Dartmouth to participate in the Admissions Info Session and Tour while they are on campus and we can make accommodations during camp for this to happen.

Real Life Research

Last week was my first week working in Professor Collier's lab at the Thayer Engineering School. The lab is one of the largest implant retrieval labs in the country, implants being hip and knee implants. I'm still learning about everything so I'm not sure how great I can explain it but right now there are three grad students in there working on their theses due in June. Basically the general idea is that everyone is researching certain properties of UHMWPE which is the polyethylene that is the part of the implant that acts as your cartilage. There are many different projects going on right now but basically researching the properties of this polyethylene will help figure out how to better prepare it to be put in the body and therefore last longer. Sometimes the polyethylene will oxidize and pieces will break off causing inflammation and the patient to have to come back into the doctor and revise the implant.

So far this is my understanding of what is going on and right now I am just weighing samples and taking scans with a high tech microscope for the grad students to then use that data and analyze. I've also learned how to use the EPR machine in the chem lab which is a large magnet that creates a magnetic field that detects free radicals in the polyethylene samples.

The research engineer that is showing me around said her goal is to teach me how to use the machines and then hopefully later this term I can start a mini project of my own.

I'm working about 4 hours 3 times a week and getting paid as well which is a plus but the time in the lab is very beneficial not only to learn about the projects but also to just be in contact with people who have been through the Dartmouth program before and are now applying their knowledge to real life research.

This lab is in close contact with DePuy which is a major manufacturer of implant parts and the research that is done in this lab is used directly by this company and other implant manufacturers.

Even after a week the internship has inspired me a little bit to look at engineering in a different light. It's not just about memorizing the formulas and numbers but with these tools you can then apply them to real life situations and hopefully benefit someone in the long run.

-Amber Bryant (Libertyville, IL) Sophomore, DS/Libero

The Future of Sand Volleyball

The NY Times had an interesting article on Sand Volleyball as an NCAA sport yesterday. Check out the link.

2010 Recruiting tournaments

Here are the club tournaments that one or more members of our staff will be attending:

Fiesta Classic, Phoenix, AZ
Las Vegas Classic, Las Vegas, NV
Wisconsin Dells Showcase, Wisconsin Dells, WI
Colorado Crossroads, Denver, CO
Hoosier Mid-East Qualifier, Indianapolis, IN
Southern California Qualifier, Anaheim, CA
North-East Qualifier, Baltimore, MD
AAU's/JVA Championships, Orlando, FL
The Volleyball Festival, Phoenix, AZ
USA Volleyball Girls' Junior National Championships, Reno, NV

We look forward to finding the future members of Dartmouth Volleyball!

First blog!

Welcome to the Big Green Volleyball Blog!

We are embracing technology here in the Volleyball office. We have a Facebook page for fans of Big Green Volleyball and have recently added this blog as a means of communication. We will be updating our blog about once a week during the winter and spring, perhaps less during the summer and more frequently in the fall.

The picture below was taken when Dartmouth College President Jim Yong Kim came to volleyball practice in August and proved that he wasn't too rusty since his playing days at Brown!