The big news in the DII Fall College Ranking occurred in the New England Wide conference and it forced some rearrangement as well as an addition in the fifth iteration of the season.
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New England Wide is producing nice competition between the Coast Guard Academy, Hartford and Vermont, and all three will be better for it. Hartford had posted a 10-point win over Vermont and is undefeated, and Vermont beat multi-year conference champion Coast Guard by nine points last weekend. Both home teams were victorious. The two Connecticut teams will play each on Oct. 26, and the league final four should be an interesting one. [Stay tuned for Vermont interview]
In terms of the rankings, we had to split the difference. Coast Guard needed to be ranked below its conference compatriots, but they also deserved a bump. That saw three undefeated Fairfield, Bryant and Colby – all of which won their games last weekend – move up a spot, and forced some teams ranked 14th and below shift down to accommodate Vermont’s addition.
Everyone else won their respective games, but two games in particular drew attention. Bloomsburg and Indiana University of Pennsylvania having been looking for quality competition outside of their conferences and found it in each other. The Huskies traveled to the Scooters with a few reserves and duked out a 30-29 win. Bloomsburg moved up the rankings and emerged with a renewed confidence in its depth that will roll into Saturday’s match against Kutztown. Read more from head coach Kevin Castner.
TRB was also looking forward to the RIT vs. St. Bonaventure match in Upstate New York. Both were undefeated going into the weekend, and Rochester squad beat the NSCRO team 39-33. Playoffs now separate into DII and NSCRO, and DII will see semifinals between RIT and Syracuse, and 19th-ranked Cortland and Fredonia.
Going through the rest of the list … Of the 16 tries that Tri-State’s Vassar scored against Albany, Molly Lynch dotted down four to lead … Theresa Mensah, Erin Minerly and Erin Doherty put in MVP performances during Marist’s 48-point win over SUNY New Paltz … Fairfield won the Tri-State’s southern pool for the second year in a row after Saturday’s win over Stony Brook … Gabbi Constanzo was Player of the Match, Julia Cappellini was Rookie of the Match and Nyatasha Jackowicz scored four tries in Bryant’s shutout win over Franklin Pierce in Rugby Northeast … Emma Hofman and Allison Douma scored two tries apiece in Colby’s win against St. Michael’s … Marquette played its closest game, score wise, against NSCRO’s UW Platteville and the win sealed the #1 spot in Great Waters’ Central pool … Lizzie Randall was named MVP of Grand Valley State’s win over Central Michigan and the Lakers ready for Bowling Green this weekend … Illinois State is looking like the state conference’s rep to playoffs and will play NSCRO multi-year national champion Wayne State College this weekend … Northern Light’s Mankato shut out North Dakota and although it will finish atop the standings, the league will welcome Winona State back into the post-season … five teams were idle.
