Luck or Not, NIRA D1 Semis Set
Luck or Not, NIRA D1 Semis Set
It was a close win for Army but was it enough to get 2nd place?
While Dartmouth enjoyed the culmination of an undefeated run with an astonishing 85-0 defeat of Brown over the weekend, thanks to four tries from Ariana Ramsey—four tries in a row, actually—Army and Harvard were in a battle.
It was Senior Day at West Point and somehow the Black Knights pulled it off. It was a back-and-forth game. Harvard took a lead thanks to a try from Chloe Headland. Army replied with a penalty goal from Alissa Eisenhart (more from her later) and then a try from Olivia Popp set up by Julia Riekena that, with Eisenhart's conversion, made it 10-7 Army.
Charlotte Gilmour's try nudged Harvard ahead for a 12-10 lead but Army responded on the other side of halftime when captain Kaylee Cargile beat several defenders to go in. Now it was Army ahead 15-12. Eisenhart added another penalty and it was 18-12.
Harvard, however, had other plans and despite being down a player due to a yellow card, Victoria Stanley scored out wide and Headland's conversion gave Harvard a 19-18 lead with time winding down.
The Crimson were in excellent position to seal the deal with a penalty with only a couple of minutes to go, but missed. Army then had a penalty close to the posts ... and missed. Harvard looked to run the ball and run out the clock. But the Crimson were eventually penalized, and this time Eisenhart was good on the kick and Army had somehow won 21-19.
Asked what the difference was, West Point Head Coach Bill LeClerc said: "Luck."
The thing is, in the end it makes little difference other than to keep the rivalry heated up. Army doesn't have enough bonus points, even with a big win over Sacred Heart this weekend, to overtake Harvard for 2nd. And those two will be meeting again as the 2nd and 3rd seeds regardless in Cambridge, Mass. in two weeks.
Dartmouth takes on 4-3 Quinnipiac in Hanover in the other semi.
A week later Dartmouth will host the final, which will be streamed live.
NIRA D1 Standings with 1 Week to go:
| NIRA D1 | W | L | T | PF | PA | PD | BT | BL | Pts |
| Dartmouth | 7 | 0 | 0 | 384 | 67 | 317 | 7 | 0 | 35 |
| Harvard | 5 | 2 | 0 | 365 | 97 | 268 | 6 | 2 | 28 |
| Army | 5 | 1 | 0 | 219 | 76 | 143 | 2 | 0 | 22 |
| Quinnipiac | 4 | 3 | 0 | 279 | 147 | 132 | 4 | 1 | 21 |
| Brown | 2 | 4 | 1 | 151 | 211 | -60 | 4 | 0 | 14 |
| Sacred Heart | 2 | 3 | 1 | 137 | 145 | -8 | 2 | 0 | 12 |
| Mount St. Mary's | 1 | 6 | 0 | 101 | 388 | -287 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Princeton | 0 | 7 | 0 | 46 | 551 | -505 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| LIU* |
