Six teams are set to go for three separate NIRA championships Sunday at Harvard University’s Robert A. Mignone Field.

The games will be shown LIVE on ESPN+

Goff Rugby Report editor Alex Goff will join John Broker in the booth.

The games are supported by HSBC and will feature:

10AM ET: University of New England vs Bowdoin (Tier III)

12PM ET: Brown vs West Chester (Tier II)

2PM ET: Army vs Harvard (Tier I)

New England shocked pretty much everyone by coming into the semis as the #4 seed and beating undefeated Colby-Sawyer to make it this far. Katie Berger’s try in the first minute put Colby-Sawyer on the back foot and the Nor’easters kept up the pressure.

“Every team that we saw twice during the regular season we were able to score more points the second time or cut the deficit by allowing less points,” said UNE Head Coach Ashley Potvin.

In their first meeting, New England lost to Bowdoin 27-12.

Bowdoin Head Coach MaryBeth Mathews will be wanting her Polar Bears to bring the heat on defense and use her power-running tight five to open up holes for the speedsters out wide.

It’s a classic approach, but effective.

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Brown has been very solid this year and then handled Queens 25-13 last week in the semis. 

Lexi Nelson, Abby O’Keefe, and Mahdia Parker all scored tries and Brown played smart defensive rugby all day.

O’Keefe also got on the scoresheet in Brown’s regular-season loss to West Chester. Karina Wang scored two in that game. 

West Chester has gone undefeated in conference play and Head Coach Tony DeRemer has a superb leadership group headed by Juah Toe, Haley Spangler (last year’s team MVP), and Grace Larko.

Freshman Haley Andreasen has been an excellent addition. Autumn Czaplicki leads the team in tries and is an impressive athlete.

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Army has a small, aggressive, skilled team against a Harvard outfit that has a big, strong, powerful pack. It will be a bit of a contrast of styles, and it will be about how each team handles securing possession. 

Sam Sullivan is a gamebreaker for Army, while Harvard’s Emily Prentice sets the tone up front. Harvard got to the final thanks to a one-point win over Dartmouth, while Army hammered Quinnipiac 54-10.