The Northeast region of the USA Rugby Women's DII College Fall Championship, hosted by ACRA, didn’t sort out it until today, as Bowdoin and Colorado College played the final Round of 32 game of the weekend. The visitors had to wait until the final five minutes of the game before putting any points on the board, while the Polar Bears ran in nine tries for the 51-5 win.

Charlotte Kleiman’s line-piercing runs put Bowdoin into good field position and saw Randi London, Pamela Zabala and first-year prop Vianney Gomezgil-Yaspik dot down twice apiece. Hayleigh Kein added the final five-pointer of the first half, and London’s three conversions gave Bowdoin a 36-0 lead at the break.

Samantha Hoegle, Addison Carvajal and Emily Athanas-Linden added second-half tries, and good defense from Georgia Bolduc, LeShauna Phinazee, Sophie Meyers and Cammie Ogden-Fung stifled Colorado College’s attempts to sustain a fluid attack.

The road grows bumpy going forward, as Bowdoin must face Tri-State champion Rutgers in the Round of 16. The New Jersey team owned Rugby Northeast’s St. Michael’s on Saturday, posting a 66-0 shutout in the opening round. Kristen Siano scored an impressive 41 points, dotting down four tries, converting six, and adding three penalties. Erin Arroyo scored two tries, while Anchi Numfor and Caroline Frankola touched down one apiece.

It was a good day for the Tri-State conference, which sent three teams to the playoffs. While conference mate Vassar was busy winning its game in the Mid-Atlantic region, Marist, which earned an at-large bid to playoffs, posted a 35-3 win over New England Wide champion Coast Guard. Tri-State went 3-3 on Saturday.

Marist will line up against Bloomsburg, which finished second in the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Conference (MARC) yesterday to Kutztown. The MARC final, which served as the region’s Round of 32 match but was really a seeding match for the Round of 16 (because both finalists moved onto national playoffs), started in Bloomsburg’s favor. That in itself is quite a feat not only considering the team’s first year as a DII participant in MARC, but also due to Kutztown utter domination in the conference. Rachel Harpster lit up the scoreboard with a try, and Kelly Mason added the extras for the 7-0 lead.

But then Kutztown kicked it into gear and ran away with a 45-7 victory. The loss marked Bloomsburg’s first of the season. The team’s Round of 16 opponent, Marist, has suffered a couple of losses this fall, but seems to be on the upswing. The pair will face off on Nov. 15 in Hanover, N.H., at Dartmouth.

For the full DII brackets, click here.