Big Scores for Crimson, Brown in NIRA While Dartmouth, Army Battle
Big Scores for Crimson, Brown in NIRA While Dartmouth, Army Battle
It was a pretty good week for Harvard women's rugby.
The Crimson saw three alumni, including last year's co-captain, get picked for the USA RWC squad, and then celebrated that by beating Mount St. Mary's 95-3 on Saturday. Harvard was simply too quick in their ball presentation, too quick to reorganize after each phase, and too smooth with the ball.
The result was that the Mount was chasing their own tails much of the game and Harvard's talented new recruits once again had some space to shine—set up as they were by their veteran leadership.
Dartmouth defeated Sacred Heart in impressive fashion 29-3. It was Dartmouth's first game of the season and a good defensive showing. Lauren Ferridge scored two tries and Sophie Ragg, Jordan Duncan, and Asialeata Meni each added one. Sacred Heart made them work for it—it was 5-3 until just before halftime—and at 1-1-1 the Pioneers are still in good shape in the conference.
In another blowout Brown beat Princeton 83-0. Brown moved to 1-1-1 behind Noelle Lewis's four tries and Julia Murray ran the attack nicely from flyhalf.
And Army held off Quinnipiac 24-19. This was a game of momentum shifts, and it seemed for a while that no one would take said momentum. But Army scored first, about midway through the first half with Codi Butt going over. The Bobcats responded with a Libby Moser try making it a a 7-7 halftime scoreline.
Right after the break Kat Storey scored to put Quinnipiac ahead 12-7. Army was struggling to break through and while they did get a penalty goal from Alissa Eisenhart, Quinnipiac added a try from Hannah Pfersch to hold a 19-10 lead midway through the second half.
But Army clawed back. Cecilia Ollis scored and with Eisenhart's conversion Army was suddenly within two points. With seven minutes left, Sydney Schaaf put the Black Knights ahead, and Eisenhart's conversion made it 24-19. Army held on from there.
It was a tough loss for Quinnipiac, who had to have felt they had a good shot to win this one. Army got their toughest test of the season so far, and now have Brown and Dartmouth over the next two weeks.
Latest (unofficial) NIRA D1 standings:
| NIRA D1 | W | L | T | PF | PA | PD | BT | BL | Pts |
| Army | 3 | 0 | 0 | 173 | 26 | 147 | 2 | 0 | 14 |
| Harvard | 2 | 0 | 0 | 143 | 22 | 121 | 2 | 0 | 10 |
| Brown | 1 | 1 | 1 | 121 | 71 | 50 | 2 | 0 | 8 |
| Sacred Heart | 1 | 1 | 1 | 80 | 74 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 7 |
| Quinnipiac | 1 | 2 | 0 | 85 | 86 | -1 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| Dartmouth | 1 | 0 | 0 | 29 | 3 | 26 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Mount St. Mary's | 0 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 157 | -147 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Princeton | 0 | 3 | 0 | 21 | 223 | -202 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
