Around The Water Cooler: Spring Action Heats Up

With spring comes all the craziness, both in the atmosphere and on the ground. In the air, the weather for the most part has been unwilling to make up its mind between days ofglorious sunshine and downright depressing days soaked with April showers. Best to have the shorts and sunglasses, rain boots and umbrellas on constant standby, because you never know what you are going to get. Likewise, in the world of Ivy sports, this past week has been one that featured both heartwarming stories and near scares for Ivy followers. We’ll explain it all in another edition of Around the Water Cooler.

In Ivy baseball last weekend, Dartmouth was the only team to go a perfect 4-0 in Ivy play. The Big Green won two games against Cornell—who had previously been undefeated in Ivy play—and Princeton to move to 6-2 and in first place in the Rolfe Division.

On Sunday afternoon, the Crimson men's soccer team and the Haitian National Team played to a 0-0 tie before more than 11,000 fans at Harvard Stadium. Following the end of regulation, Harvard and Haiti settled the match in penalty kicks, with Haiti coming off on top 4-1. The game, titled “Haiti Leve,” or “Haiti Rises” for our non-Creole reading readership, was the first leg of a five-day benefit trip by the Haitian National team throughout New England in hopes to raise funds for the organization Partners in Health, which helps relief efforts in Haiti. Tickets for the general public were ten dollars with additional donations collected at the game.

After a historic and thrilling season in which featured the Harvard men’s Basketball team’s first taste of the Ivy title and a brief glimpse at making the Big Dance for the first time since Truman was President, the Crimson faithful were in for a scare when news broke out early Monday morning that the University of Miami had offered Harvard men’s basketball coach Tommy Amaker the top job in its men’s basketball program. However, by midday, Coach Amaker had quickly displaced these fears by opting to remain at Harvard.

In New Haven this week, Yale announced that it had renamed its newly renovated soccer and lacrosse stadium Reese Stadium, after two brothers, Jason and Jonathan Reese, who not only distinguished themselves during their time as Bulldog lacrosse players in the late 1980s but have also proven to be two of the greatest donors and benefactors of the Yale’s athletic program.

Crimson men’s lacrosse is also in the midst of a transformation of sorts. After two one-goal losses to Albany and Cornell at home, Harvard unleashed a beat down of Quinnipiac on Tuesday, 14-7. Crimson lacrosse hopes to carry this momentum forward as it now enters a crucial three-week stretch in which Harvard will face off against Ivy foes Penn, Princeton and Yale respectively.

On the women’s side, the Dartmouth women’s lacrosse team maintained its undefeated streak thus far in the season to maintain first place in Ivy standings. The Big Green’s win came at the expense of Cornell, which is in the midst of a four game tailspin.