Stonehill and St. Michael’s have been trading blows for the Rugby Northeast title the last few years, but neither has claimed the title with an unblemished record. That changed this fall, and en route to its second league trophy, the Stonehill women broke a number of conference and school records.

Stonehill played its final regular season (7-0) match last weekend against Bryant, and during the 70-0 victory, set a new RNE scoring record (504 points) and point differential (480). When including friendlies, Stonehill went 626-41 over nine games, shattering the previous school record of 465 points scored in 2005-06.

“Our team strength is really good,” Stonehill College coach Derek Jenesky said. “We have a very solid group of five seniors mixed in with some exciting freshman who have jumped in as starters and some role players. We pretty much had our way with Rugby Northeast. Out toughest match was home against St. Michael’s, but we led 28-0 before finishing them off 33-12. We are definitely better than last year. More dynamic. We have the ability to move the ball really well and have the top three scorers in the whole conference.”

Stonehill played St. Michael’s with an eye on nationals; not only was the automatic bid to the Round of 32 on the line, but the Skyhawks also needed to play some defense before meeting teams that ran up big scorelines, too.

“St. Mike’s was a big physical team,” Jenesky said. “We learned a lot about ourselves in that match. We were able to stand up to their physicality and counter when the opportunity presented itself. It was the first time our starters were able to go a full 80 minutes because every conference match has been a blowout, so that was very helpful for us.”

Senior captains Sarah Buonopane (2^nd leading conference scorer) and Alexa Caruso were key to the physical stand-up in the forwards, and flyhalf JeiLi Merrill “is our facilitator on offense as our 10. She gets the ball where we need it to go.”

“In big matches we always feel very confident because we have Lexi [Caruso] and Sarah, and they always come up huge for us when we need them to,” Jenesky had said after the St. Michael’s win. “So many of our tries are either scored by them or we work the ball through them.”

“Jei is probably the most unsung player in the whole conference,” Jenesky added. “We score so much and she sets up 80% of our tries. In a timing offense you need a good #10, and we have the best.” 

Merrill works so well with senior back Ashley Motta, who has great hands through contact, and both like to work the ball to freshman phenom AJ Luther. During the St. Michael’s game, Luther’s two tries pushed the flyer past the previous conference all-time scoring leader, Buonopane (118 pts, 2013), with 125 points.

“When AJ fully learns the sport, she is going to be a superstar,” Jenesky had said. “She has had an unbelievable freshman year, but that record is certainly one the team can be proud of also because a lot of people touch the ball in order to get it into AJ’s hands.”

Unfortunately for Stonehill, the team’s best finisher left the Bryant game with injury and won’t be competing this weekend against Tufts. If Luther isn’t healthy by the Round of 16, Jenesky indicated that the team will indeed be concerned.

So what lies ahead? Stonehill hosts Tufts, which finished second to Bowdoin College 44-0 in the New England Small Colleges conference championship, in the Round of 32 this Saturday. The Skyhawks are favored to win and will play the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Conference champion, which will be decided this Saturday between Kutztown and Bloomsburg. Kutztown should win the MARC title, and if so, a replay of last year’s ACRA Round of 16 game will unfold. In 2013, Stonehill led 15-5 after the first quarter before Kutztown went on a 31-0 scoring spree from which the Skyhawks never recovered. Both teams claim to be much stronger than last year’s squad, so a good game should occur on Nov. 15.

For more information on the USA Rugby Women DII College Fall Championship, hosted by ACRA, click here.