No big changes in round three of the USA Rugby DII College Spring Ranking, as half the field was either idle per the season or had its games canceled or postponed.
The top-three teams, however, got league games in. Claremont wing Anastasia Lavongtheung scored four tries in the Foxes’ 41-14 win over UC Riverside. Fellow Pacific Desert mate Long Beach State also rebounded with a 60-0 win over UC Irvine, and put flanker McKenna Martin away for three tries on Saturday.
Fresno State MVPs Chetna Kumar and Megan Oleski led the Bulldogs to a 95-0 over UC Santa Cruz and combined for five tries, while Regan Garner added 20 points on 10 conversions. St. Mary’s College posted a big 79-14 win over CSU Monterey Bay, and saw wing Erin Walsh and outside center Ashley Torrecillas scored three tries apiece. San Jose State, which had tied St. Mary’s earlier in the season, joins the rankings after a 21-5 win over Cal Poly. The Spartans then get a three-week break and resume against UN Reno, which has had its previous two league games (St. Mary’s, Santa Clara) cancelled.
Tulane beat UT Chattanooga 17-7 to finish atop its South Independent pool, and both will head to the conference crossover semifinals. UGA had its game against Emory cancelled, and with Kennesaw State withdrawing from league play, will be idle next week, too. Bulldogs haven’t had much field time to evaluate this year and fall onto the watch list this round.
Kansas State is a similar scenario but has five-straight weeks of games coming and has also been a consistent post-season program. That streak was supposed to start last weekend against John Brown, but weather postponed that highly anticipated match.
Eckerd College played Florida Gulf Coast to a 66-12 victory. Stephie Franz, who was named NSCRO’s Player of the Month, scored four tries in the effort while Kat Scheerer added 24 points on two tries and seven conversions.
All of the Capital teams remained idle, although William & Mary had a friendly against DI UNC that was canceled, and both Carolinas teams also took a break after their 1-point thriller the weekend previous.
