U.S. Coast Guard Academy / Photo: JJ Fagan
The Northeast is dense with women’s rugby, hosting NIRA (varsity), USA Rugby Division I and NSCRO (small college) competitions in the fall in addition to USA Rugby Division II. Upstate New York, for example, hosts an NSCRO competition that includes 18 teams across three pools. The following recap zeroes in on DII.
Submit your scoring details/results to editor@therugbybreakdown.com.
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NESC
The New England Small College conference has seen Bowdoin align with NIRA, and three teams (Tufts, Williams, Lasell) leave for the New England Wide conference. That leaves four teams competing for the NESC title: Colby, Connecticut College, Maine-Orono and Middlebury. Maine-Orono dropped a friendly match to Bowdoin College (29-15) last weekend, while Colby defeated Conn College.
Maine-Orono is playing another out-of-conference match this weekend against the Rugby Northeast’s St. Anselm. Middlebury is scheduled to play St. Michael’s B side.
NEW ENGLAND WIDE
There are 20 teams in this conference and they’re split between Tier 1 (7), Tier 2 (7) and Tier 3 (6). The top competition is led by the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, which finished fourth at the USA Rugby DII Fall Championship last year and has the goods for another strong run in 2017. Eleven of the 15 players who started against Winona State in last year’s fall semifinal were on the starting XV against New Haven Saturday. USCGA won that game 76-0.
As an aside, USCGA women’s head coach BMC Bill Anderson (ret.) earned the Distinguished Volunteer Award after 11 years of dedicated service with the team.
NESC transfer Tufts dropped a 24-12 contest to Springfield. Hartford took the forfeit win over Vermont. In Tier 2, newcomer Lasell College defeated Mount Holyoke 29-7, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute took the forfeit win over Framingham State. Tier 3 kicks off this weekend.
RUGBY NORTHEAST
Tier 1 Bryant had a big day in its 114-5 win over St. Anselm. Courtney Wheeler (6) and Melissa Mallahan (4) combined for 10 tries, while Nyatasha Jackowicz, Brianna Zemotel, Madison Ruff, Becca Carroll, Dani Crepeau, Emma Dubuc and Kaitlyn Graham also contributed tries. Zemotel made all but three conversion kicks.
Providence defeated Stonehill 42-17 Stonehill. Senior captain Mickayla Roan led all scorers with 22 points, while senior Ashley King (2), junior Hannah Roche and sophomore rookie Jade Arruda also dotted down.
Roger Williams, which will go varsity and join NIRA next year (read more), scored 115 unanswered points against Tier 2 Merrimack. Juniors Loren Sullivan and Lindsey Armstrong scored multiple tries, while seniors Mikayla Pasco, Paige Murphy, Katie Wegener, Brittany Fulgione, Miranda Collard, Amanda O’Brien; juniors Lorena Cambizaca and Stella Gotts; and sophomores Alyssa Valliere, Shelby Ross, Kat Tsiounis and Heather Wrigley all scored tries. Valliere, Tsiounis and Kendall McDonough handled the kicking duties.
TRI-STATE
UPSTATE NY
The University of Buffalo is missing from the conference this year, leaving an eight-team competition. Additionally, Ithaca College has led this league for the past few years, but took a 5-0 loss to Fredonia last weekend. That lone try was scored by Nia Nelms, and we’ll be keeping an eye on the 2-0 squad.
Buffalo State (2-0) started with a 46-7 win over Colgate, and rookie outside center Emily Stefanski dotted down four tries to lead her squad. Flanker Christal Smith (2), scrumhalf Carlee Cockrell and prop Savannah Smith also scored tries.
Cortland is the third 2-0 team after a 48-12 win over Syracuse. Lock Teresa Ricci, scrumhalf
Julianna Matos, flyhalf Julia Guercio, outside center Bailey Workman, and wings Ashley Simoes and Nikita Rosado scored tries.
Geneseo defeated Brockport 44-29.
To submit your team’s results and scorers, e-mail editor@therugbybreakdown.com no later than the Monday following your match.