The most compelling game of the NIRA weekend as September ended was in D-II.

West Chester, having lost their opener by a significant margin, rebounded against Frostburg and then ran up against New Haven on Saturday. That game was a barnburner.

This game went back and forth throughout the day. West Chester scored in the first couple of minutes through Christelle Adikpeto (converted by Carleigh Welsh), and not that long after New Haven's Lala Guimares scored (converted by Sydney Dela Cruz) to tied it up. And that's how it continued. Lilly Rhodes went over only for Guimares to tie it up with her second. Moments later New Haven's pressure finally led to a penalty try that set the Chargers up for a 21-14 lead.

Right after the restart West Chester responded, with Camryn Snow going over. That made it New Havent 21 West Chester 19 at the break.

New Haven extended their lead right after the second-half kickoff with Seteana Volaono's try to make it 26-19. 

In the middle part of the second half West Chester wrested the momentum back. Tries from Taylor Baldwin, Bridget Kowalski, and Kristen Swavely, two of them converted by Brooke Cargo, turned the scoreboard around—the Rams now led 38-26. As the game closed out New Haven mounted a comeback. Guimares got her third and Vulaono her second, but that wasn't quite enough, and West Chester held on 38-36. 

This was a thriller but it also points to the fact that AIC, right now, is the top dog in D-II as the YellowJackets have beaten both New Haven and West Chester by large margins. The October 26 meeting between AIC and Davenport may well be a D-II final preview.

In D-I it was a relatively quiet weekend as Oxford University wrapped up their tour (Navy beat them 46-5) and a couple of other teams had the week off. Brown beat an improving Princeton; Elizabeth Mahoney scored three tries and Nikki Lynch scored three to lead Brown to the win and move them to 2-0-1.

But the big game was probably Dartmouth vs Sacred Heart. And this was yet again a close game in D-I ... Four games in D-I have been within a try, and while this game was not quite that, it was 20-16 with 10 minutes to go. Dartmouth took a 5-0 lead through Katelyn Walker. Fabiola Millien-Fausten's try tied it up for Sacred Heart and midway through the first half Alyssa Cunningham budged her side ahead with a penalty goal. Dartmouth responded with Asialeata Meni scooping up a loose ball and splitting the Sacred Heart kick-chase to regain the lead for Dartmouth; Annie Henrich's conversion made it 12-8 for the Big Green.

Henrich added a penalty for a 15-8 Dartmouth advantage at halftime.

Cindy Taulava's try extended that lead to 20-8, but Sacred Heart came back with Cunningham going over. She then added a penalty and it was 20-16.

Dartmouth finished the stronger, putting the game away with a penalty try and then a score from Kellie Miller to cap it off 32-16. But it was a lot closer than that.

"I think it was one of the hardest-fought matches we've had so far," Dartmouth's Abbey Savin after the game. "I think one of our biggest improvements is being able to work hard and staying communicative like we have been. That keeps our game strong and our tempo up."