Photo courtesy Vassar Athletics •
On a September day like this one it is blatantly obvious why the Roosevelt and Vanderbilt families decided to build homes in the Mid-Hudson Valley. The weather was simply perfect with sunshine and a light breeze – oh, to be away from the heat of the city! It was also perfect for the Vassar Women as they went just a tad further north to engage the University at Albany in their second conference game of the year. As is always the case with Albany, the players were aggressive and direct. The home team led 7-5 after about 20 minutes on account of Vassar being bullied at the breakdown and some missed tackles. These were the clouds spoiling the perfect day and must be remedied if the team has any post-season aspirations.
Vassar College 31-12 University of Albany
Tries: Kayla Lightner (1), Nathalie Freeman (2), Rachel Elson (1), Sarah Mawhinney (1)Cons: Mary Margaret McElduff (3)
The University at Albany have consistently produced aggressive and hard-running performances against Vassar. Their forwards are always competitive, and in their back division they usually have a couple of standout open-field runners.
Last season Vassar prevailed in the fall 37-12 and in the spring 26-15, so looking at the final score one might feel that it was business as usual. What was worrying was the number of missed tackles particularly in the first quarter of an hour. The Brewers did not get out of their own half for the first 11 minutes and struggled to get a grip on the game.
It was a simple enough first try with Kayla Lightner skipping through to give Vassar a 5-0 lead but Albany bounced right back and scored under the posts to make it 7-5. Vassar’s backs came up and Abigail Alexander was nowhere to be seen with the result a clean line-break and seven points conceded. This was Vassar’s undoing in the Fall Final 4 last year, a failure to tackle. To her credit Alexander recovered and put in a strong performance in attack and defense as the game progressed. But the fact remains that all the squad need to get a lot better at tackling.
The forwards tightened things up and Nathalie Freeman went over to make it 10-7 and that is how it stayed up to the halftime stoppage. Vassar might have been further ahead had fullback Rachel Elson managed to hold on to the ball when in behind the defense. The sophomore ran well but just dropped the ball with acres of green in front of her and the try line beckoning!
The second half got off to an awful start with Vassar missing straight-up tackles and the Albany women getting down to the Vassar 22. But Albany did not capitalize, and as the Vassar players warmed to the task of being more destructive at the breakdown, better quality ball was won. This enabled Jyen Wong to serve her runners quicker ball, and line breaks were more frequent.
It was a game where one felt that the dam would break at some point as Vassar kept coming at Albany time and time again. Rachel Jones battled hard, Kayla Lightner was consistent and dangerous and apart from some silly running lines Nathalie Freeman was a threat. All the players had some good moments but there were also too many flaws to let the former be of focus.
Vassar established good field position and when flyhalf McElduff pushed the ball wide Rachel Elson was put away for try number 3, the conversion was good. Then Freeman notched her brace and it was 24-7 after another conversion. Try number 5 was scored by flanker Sarah Mawhinney and at 31-7 the result was in the record book. But Albany did not go quietly into the night for they scored a consolation try to make it 31-12.
It’s a cliche but defense wins a championship and the Vassar Women need to take ownership of this priority now.
Team: 15 Rachel Elson 14 Abigail Alexander 13 Laila Blumenthal-Rothchild 12 Kayla Lightner 11 Rachel Jones 10 Mary Margaret McElduff 9 Jyen Wong 1 Kate Sworden 2 Marron McConnell (Claire Fondrie-Teitler) 3 Mariah Ghant 4 Miranda Scarlata 5 Lauren Workman 6 Nathalie Freeman 7 Sarah Mawhinney (Oshana Reich) 8 Amanda Saich