March 20, 2009

     Meghan McFee wrapped up her winter term final exams at Dartmouth College last weekend.
     This weekend her basketball skills will be tested like never before.
     McFee, a Manchester native and 2007 graduate of East Catholic High, will be on the national stage with her Dartmouth teammates on Sunday. The 16th-seeded Ivy League champion Big Green will take on top-seeded Maryland, the Atlantic Coast Conference champ, in a NCAA Tournament Raleigh (N.C.) Regional first-round game at the Comcast Center in College Park, Md.
     “Preparing for Maryland is different than preparing for the Ivy League,” Dartmouth coach Chris Wielgus said. “We have to be able to weather the storm.”
     Maryland (28-4) is one of the top scoring teams in the country so McFee, Dartmouth’s sophomore point guard, will play a big role in trying to control tempo. Plus, McFee will be matched up with Terrapins’ senior All-American Kristi Toliver, the 2008 Nancy Lieberman Award winner as the nation’s top point guard.
     Toliver has been a starter since she set foot in College Park and led Maryland to the 2006 national championship. McFee will be playing in her first postseason game.
     “When I was younger I would watch every NCAA Tournament game I could,” McFee said. “I remember when UConn won both titles in 2004 and I used to go to a lot of UConn games. I never actually thought I would play in a NCAA Tournament. It was a dream of mine and that it’s coming true is really unbelievable.”
     Dartmouth (18-10) got an automatic bid by winning the Ivy League championship.
     After a 3-9 start, McFee was inserted into the starting lineup. The Big Green has won 15 of 16 games since, losing only to Cornell in overtime on Feb. 27.
     In 28 games McFee is averaging 5.2 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 2.0 assists. Since becoming a starter to begin the Ivy portion of the schedule, her numbers are 7.0 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 2.6 assists.
     “I didn’t play much at all (13 games) my freshman year and over last summer I got a lot stronger and really worked on my game quite a bit,” McFee said. “Still I didn’t play that much at the beginning of this year. Then the point guard spot opened up and I started playing there. The coaches gained trust and confidence in me and I just went from there.”
     She had a career-high 21 points in a win at Princeton on Jan. 30 and a double-double (14 points, 10 rebounds) in a victory at Brown a week later.
     “Meghan’s fiercely competitive, a bit of a perfectionist, and has a great work ethic,” Wielgus said. “She’s stronger than a year ago and her skills are much improved. She’s a big guard at 5-foot-10 and can shoot the 3.”
     Dartmouth’s non-league schedule prepared it well for Ivy play. Eight of its first 10 games were against teams that reached the postseason (three NCAA, five WNIT). But the Big Green lost all eight.
     McFee, who was on East Catholic’s 2004 state championship team and on successful Eagles squads throughout her high school career, got her first start against Harvard on Jan. 10. The Big Green won and she and her team have not looked back.
     “By the time we played Harvard we were ready for anything and everything with the schedule we had played,” McFee said. “My first start, our first Ivy League game, was very exciting and to beat one of the better teams was a great beginning. It gave us momentum and it snowballed from there.”
     Dartmouth was never out of first place and took a one-game lead over Harvard into the regular-season finale against the Crimson in Hanover, N.H.
     A year ago, the Big Green shared the Ivy title with Harvard and Cornell but lost in a playoff to Cornell — the Ivy League is the only conference in the country that does not have a tournament to determine its automatic bid — and lost its chance at a NCAA berth.
     A Harvard win on March 10 would have meant a one-game playoff between the teams but Dartmouth would have none of it.
     “One of our main goals this year was to win it outright,” McFee said. “I was nervous before the game, but focused and ready to get the job done. We had the best turnout since I’ve been here. The fans were amazing and the support we got from the community and the student body meant a lot to us. Once it started, it was really fun.”
     Ivy Player of the Year Brittney Smith had 19 points and Koren Schram added 18 points for the Big Green. McFee had only one hoop, but it was her layup with 2:12 left that put the game out of reach.
     As 1,701 fans cheered, McFee dribbled out the final seconds of the 64-51 victory.
     “I had the ball and the crowd erupted and it flashed through my mind — it’s official and we’re Ivy League champions,” McFee said.
     McFee, who said her basketball idols growing up were former UConn stars Shea Ralph and Svetlana Abrosimova, is a sociology major at Dartmouth. She’s aware of the challenge of facing Maryland and going up against the likes of Toliver.
     But McFee hasn’t backed down from a challenge before, and she won’t start now.