2H Rallies Producing Texas Wins
Texas is one game away from winning the Southwest DI conference title. The Longhorns are 3-0 and have one more match against Texas Tech this weekend, thus ending home-and-away series with its two conference mates. The league victor will move onto the fall DI championship, the details of which have yet to be released.
Sunday’s game against Texas A&M was particularly thrilling, as Texas took an early 14-0 lead before the Aggies rallied with four consecutive tries. The Longhorns trailed 24-12 at the break.
Towson Ties, Shocks Salisbury
Towson has struggled the last few seasons. After an incident with the university in fall 2013, the women’s team was placed on probation. The club was still allowed to play its matrix matches in the DII Capital conference; however, the coach was fired and certain strictures were placed on the team. Inconsistency followed, numbers dwindled, and Towson spent the next two years toward the bottom of the league.
But the team didn’t fold, and when the probation lifted this fall, the remaining members launched an aggressive recruiting campaign to revitalize the group with new, talented players.
“They definitely feel like they’re back,” said coach Sara Nittinger, who came on in late fall 2013. “They’ve put it all behind them and are ready to move on.
Dartmouth Downs the Big Ivy 3
Dartmouth is undefeated in the Ivy League, and although the team hasn’t clinched the top seed to playoffs just yet, the Big Green is looking good for a successful first year as a varsity program.
Dartmouth has one more league game at Yale before conference playoffs commence on Nov. 7, but can already count wins against Brown (8-5), Princeton (23-5) and Harvard (20-15) among its triumphs. Saturday’s match against the Crimson held special significance for Dartmouth coach Katie Dowty, an alumna of fellow varsity Harvard.
“I was proud that both teams represented the new standard of NCAA varsity rugby and played a great match in front of a huge crowd of returning Dartmouth alumnae,” Dowty reported. “The Ivy League is a leader in the NCAA women's rugby movement and that gives us a sense of camaraderie in addition to our long-standing rivalries.”
Delaware Eyes Playoffs
There is new reason for the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Conference (MARC) to get excited about playoffs. The previous two years, the MARC championship coincided with the national fall Round of 32, so the conference received two seeds directly to the Round of 16. But now that the conference has adjusted its playoff format and schedule, MARC will receive three seeds to the national fall Round of 32 instead.
MARC removed its quarterfinal round from playoffs and will begin with the semifinals, sending the top two teams from each division to the championship on Nov. 7-8. The inclusion in the national Round of 32 also means that MARC will now contest a third-place game, which previously had no relevance.
DII Davenport Better Notre Dame
Davenport is the top-ranked team in Division II, and sometimes that spot can be a lonely place in terms of competition. But Davenport and Notre Dame College, now a DI varsity program, have shared a healthy rivalry that has helped both teams stay sharp over the years. On Saturday, however, the Panthers showed that their claws are a little sharper and banked a 26-12 win over the Falcons.
“I was happy with the win, although Notre Dame College came in pretty beat up and missing some players,” Davenport coach Greg Teliczan reported. “It was a tough, physical game from start to finish. Their scrums were very strong and worked us a bit. I felt we were very competitive in loose play, which killed us against them in playoffs last year.”
CWU Scores 10 Tries vs Norwich
The East Coast varsity tour is off to a good start, as Central Washington ran up a 66-17 victory over host Norwich (2-4) today. On Sunday, the Wildcats suit up in Hamden, Conn., and will look to keep its four-game winning streak alive against Quinnipiac (5-1).
Taylor Duncan scored about six minutes in, and kicker extraordinaire Kat Long tacked on the extras. But then Norwich surged and took the lead with a converted try and penalty, 10-7.
Wildcat Cassidy Meyers secured the lead for good, running in the first of her four tries (two in each half). Long added two more conversions, and while the Cadets had the final say of the half with a converted try (21-17), CWU retained the lead into the break.
Life Beats Army 63-7
Two weekends ago, Life (2-1) traveled north for its first two games of the season. After a shutout win against West Chester, the Running Eagles dropped a 14-point game to Quinnipiac. When the team returned to Marietta, Ga., coach Ros Chou tailored training to address some deficiencies discovered while on tour. Life put in the hard work and was rewarded with a massive 63-7 win over visiting Army (4-3) today.
“We anticipated a much closer game because of the Quinnipiac match,” said Chou, who was referencing Army’s win over the Bobcats earlier in the fall. “We lost a lot of ball against Quinnipiac, so we have been working diligently on retaining ball in contact, as well as proper assignments for offensive rucking. We also knew Army was an 80-minute team and would be fit.”
Wildcats Eager for East Coast Double-Header
More friendlies await for Central Washington, but this weekend is arguably the most exciting for the Wildcats this fall. The Ellensburg team is on the east coast, and will play Norwich and Quinnipiac in an all-varsity double-header.
The Wildcats are members of the Pacific Mountain Conference North, which plays a split-season schedule. But CWU has packed its fall with meaningful games alongside its league matches, and has won them all so far. CWU defeated a mixed WPL/DII ORSU side 55-10, posted 100 unanswered points in a scrimmage against DI Washington State, and defeated DI club champion Seattle 35-24.
Head coach Mel Denham has brought a roster of 23, and there is a mix of veteran and newcomers on board.
NSCRO Women's Top 20 - Oct. 15, 2015
Welcome to our first-ever NSCRO Women’s Top 20. Well, it’s half ours. We leaned on the expertise of NSCRO women’s commissioner Byrn Chivers to get the rankings started, but we’ll be tracking the leagues and adjusting the order as playoffs get underway, beginning this weekend.
There are two elements in which we’re particularly interested: the new conferences and hybrid leagues. NSCRO has grown this year and has welcomed conferences like Excelsior, which transferred from DII. The New York-based league contains DII playoff veteran Colgate, so we’re eager to see how it measures against the NSCRO field. Same with Denison in the new Ohio Valley conference. The Ohio squad has seen DII post-season as well.
Stanford Duo Get WPL Experience
For those college teams that compete in spring leagues, the fall is often filled with recruitment, 7s, and tournaments. But some student-athletes have been intensifying these friendly seasons and taking advantage of higher-level women’s clubs in the area.
During week three of the Women’s Premier League, two Stanford players – junior Dani McDonald and sophomore Olivia Bernadel-Huey – appeared on Berkeley’s roster against Glendale. The two highlighted the Cardinal’s back three last season as fast, gritty, adventurous ballcarriers.
DII Fall Playoff Brackets
The USA Rugby Women's College Competitions Committee (WCCC), with the help of a few ACRA members, have finalized the Women's DII College Fall Championship brackets (click here). While the regional and championship sites won't be announced until Oct. 16, the post-season path has been determined.
The DI post-season is trickier. The new varsity league removes a significant chunk of DI teams from consideration, and now the DI Elite competition will be held in the spring only (teams cannot compete in both the DI and DI Elite championships), so the competition will likely begin at the quarterfinal round (Nov. 21). Those details will be circulated once a decision is made.
Bowdoin Still King of NESC
Bowdoin is 3-0 in the New England Small College (NESC) conference, and there’s little doubt that the Polar Bears will repeat as league champion again this fall. Bowdoin’s most recent win came against Amherst, which forfeited due to numbers and combined with the Brunswick, Maine, side for a friendly.
“Playing in a relatively weak conference has its challenges, so we scrimmaged Harvard and University of Prince Edward Island, and may look to practice or scrimmage with a local women’s team,” Bowdoin coach MaryBeth Mathews informed.
Those collegiate scrimmages occurred at the beginning of September, and since then, Bowdoin has defeated Tufts 80-5 and Middlebury 43-0. Three more matches against Colby, Maine-Orono, and Williams are slated before the NESC championship on Nov. 7.
4 Undefeated in MARC
The undefeateds remain undefeated in the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Conference, and the top four are starting to come into focus.
In the Pennsylvania Division, Bloomsburg improved to 4-0 after a 118-17 win over Lock Haven (0-4). The team has scored 49 tries this season, and 18 were dotted down on Saturday.
“This was our best overall team performance so far this season,” Bloomsburg coach Kevin Castner asserted. “Our depth continues to grow as we add new players to our match day roster. This was another match where we were again able to use all available reserves.”
AIC Matures in Army Loss
In what has become the standard, the Army (4-2) vs. American International College (2-3) game came down to single digits. Saturday’s game was the tightest contest to date, as the Black Knights went ahead 19-17 in the 70th minute and held on for the win.
Army’s Kirsten Redmon scored first, and Nicole Heavirland’s conversion put the host up 7-0. AIC answered with back-to-back tries from freshmen Anne-Laurence Harvey and Bulou Mataitoga. Harvey handled the conversion for the 12-7 lead into the break.
Heavirland opened up the second half with a try, tying it up, and then a third AIC freshman, Shanell Rosso, dotted down for the 17-12 lead after 55 minutes.
“We played a lot of defense,” AIC coach Dimitri Efthimiou said. “We spent, maybe, 40% of the second half on our 22 trying to stop Army. We’d kick it away, and then they’d come right back.”
Lindenwood Returns East for 2 Wins
Lindenwood went 2-0 during its second East Coast double-header, this time traveling farther south for matches against Virginia Women’s Rugby (UVA) and North Carolina. The Lady Lions dominated both matches to the tune of 118-5, and were able to exercise their depth during the Friday/Sunday schedule.
Friday evening, Lindenwood lined up against UVA and won 57-0. Amanda Divich led all point-scorers with a hat trick, while McKenzie Hawkins followed with 13 points on a try and four conversions. Lia Illi, Joyce Taufa, Hannah Gauthreaux (also had two conversions), Carly McPolin, and Laura Enk all scored a try apiece.
Despite the nice distrubition of scores, Lindenwood coach Billy Nicholas wasn't thoroughly satisfied with the team’s performance.
