GRR: Mason Dixon
Virginia Women’s Rugby (UVA) deserves a spot in the spring Round of 16; the question is where they figure in. After a very successful fall, UVA started 2015 with a slim loss to North Carolina – a defeat that cost them the South #1 seed at the Mason Dixon playoffs and forged a tougher road to the conference final.
The Mason Dixon quarterfinals didn’t unfold as predictably as assumed – the hallmark of an interesting post-season. On one end, North Carolina posted a shocking 153 points on Maryland; and on the other end, semifinals’ host James Madison dropped a big game to Virginia Tech.
The Mason Dixon conference is two games away from determining its Women’s DI College quarterfinal match-ups, but the pairings haven’t been as straight-forward as expected.
With 15 minutes left in the match, DI Mason Dixon rivals North Carolina and Virginia were within two points of each other. One might have sided with UVA to pull ahead in the final quarter considering the team had a much more successful fall record. But it was the Tar Heels in its first conference match of the season that surged with three tries and a 29-10 win.
West Chester got its second conference win of the season, getting a little more push-back from James Madison than Temple, but still recording a 67-5 victory.