GRR: Norwich University Women
Now that ACRA has been assimilated into USA Rugby, essentially – hence the official fall championship description including “hosted by ACRA” - the awkwardness of the two “national” titles will be resolved, to an extent. The DI and DII teams that emerge victorious on Dec. 7 will be known as USA Rugby’s fall champions and earn berths to the national final against the spring champion on May 9.
Two conferences are represented in the Northeast region of the USA Rugby Women’s DI College Fall Championship, hosted by ACRA, Round of 16. The Northeast conference sent its first-, second- and fourth-place teams: Norwich, American International College (AIC) and UCONN, respectively. The Ivy League is represented by conference finalist Dartmouth.
It was crossover weekend for the Northeast DI women’s colleges, which produced one thing: big scores. These games do not impact standings, and good thing, because Norwich, Army and American International College outscored their opponents by a combined 348-5.
Saturday’s game against Norwich was probably the most important of DI Quinnipiac’s fall season. Yes, it was friendly. Yes, it was a loss. But the 45-38 scoreline is representative of the vast improvement the team has made since fall 2013.
Norwich banked its first win of the DI Northeast Women’s Rugby Conference (NWRC) season, taking down Army 39-5 (0-1) at West Point. The Vermont Cadets improved to 4-0 all-time against the New York Cadets.