The women’s portion (which is produced by The Rugby Breakdown) of the USA Rugby club recap of games that occurred Oct. 19-20. Click here for USA Rugby’s full original article.
ATLANTIC NORTH
There’s a nice battle occurring in the top half of the Empire GU, and the top-four teams all earned standings points last weekend. Leader Monmouth defeated Long Island 57-17 and Brooklyn beat Danbury 38-12 for the five standings points apiece. Brooklyn wing Margaret Ewen continues to be the team’s most effective finisher, logging another three tries in the victory.
Morris took a 17-point lead over the Village Lions, earning a penalty try near the 20-minute mark and then sending flyhalf Wytnee Riley across for a brace of tries. Lions flanker Michelle Dimitri scored immediately after Riley’s second try to build some momentum and then two quick scores from hooker Katie Hopkins and Rachel Elson tied it up at 17 with more than 10 minutes to play. Neither side broke, and the draw held for two standings points apiece.
Last weekend marked New England’s final regular-season round, and three teams ended up 3-3 and vying for those berths to the GU semifinals. Hartford did its job in beating second-place Worcester 19-14; however, the Roses didn’t get the bonus point it needed to overcome Albany for fourth in the standings.
“This was definitely a peaking-at-the-right-moment situation for us,” Hartford forwards captain Meg Hann explained. “We started the season off with a lot of new players who had talent and experience, so it took some time to integrate all the different playing styles to come together and be on the same page. We progressed each week and were happy with our success as the season wrapped up. Unfortunately, it may have been a little too late. … Overall, it was a successful season for us with continued growth and team continuity each game.”
Providence locked up first in the standings with a 38-19 win over Portland, which is also heading to playoffs as the third seed.
In DIII, the South Shore vs. North Shore match took center stage, and the Sirens took home a 31-15 victory. The teams were within a conversion of each other in the first half, and then South Shore’s Serena Amado, Madison Reilly and Kelly Kryzak finished tries in the final 20 for the more comfortable win.
BRITISH COLUMBIA
The Seattle Saracens play its 15s in the British Columbia Rugby Union, which changed up its format this year. The fall is broken into regional tiers, and then the spring will divide into the more traditional Premier, Division I and Division 2 competitions. Seattle is currently 5-0 in the Mainland Tier A and posted a 67-0 win over Kamloops last weekend.
“During the fall we’re trying to develop numbers and foundational skills. We also adopted a new pattern of play, so we’re trying to introduce new nuances, and we’ve been working on our defense tremendously, trying to shore that up,” Seattle interim head coach Liz Kirk talked fall focus. “We’ve adopted a developmental mindset and look forward to being as competitive as possible in league season.”
The league will run until Nov. 23 but Seattle will finish up play on Nov. 2 against Abbotsford.
EAST
Philadelphia has played the most games in the new Division I East and improved to 2-2 after defeating visiting Atlanta 32-17. The teams went into the break tied at 12, as Rebecca Silver and Jessica Leggett dotted down and Kate Hallinan added the conversion for Philly, and then the Harlequins evened up through Carolyn Mackey and Janay Peacock tries and a Hannah Twilley conversion. There the scoreboard sat for the third quarter, and then Philly put down four-straight tries through Katie Cardone, Lucy Dawson and Taylor Wuerker (2). Laketa Sutton ended the game with a final Atlanta try.
FRONTIER RED RIVER
The Utah Vipers played its first league match in the expanded Frontier Red River competition and hosted Glendale, which has defeated Black Ice and Houston Athletic so far this season. An absolute thriller with multiple lead changes evolved, and both teams scored six tries apiece: Malissa Tabbey, Justine Wypych (2), Elizabeth Dominguez and Allison Schrenker (2) for Glendale; and Mary Fisi, Ana Perez, Hannah Makasini (2), Sophia Karlsson and Dallas McKee for Utah. Justine Perl’s three conversions, however, afforded the 36-32 win to Glendale.
FRONTIER
The Kansas City Jazz and St. Louis are both 2-0 in DII Mid-America and both posted big bonus-point wins over opponents last weekend. The Jazz beat Queen City by 95 points, and inside center Hannah Reid led all try-scorers with five, while scrumhalf Alex Zupan added 27 points on a try and 11 conversions. The Sabres took down the Boulder Babes 73-10, and spread the scoring throughout the forwards and backs. Fullback Kate Closter and hooker Kayla Hernandez had multi-try performances. KC Jazz and St. Louis play each other this weekend.
MID-ATLANTIC
There are two more weeks of regular-season play for the fall portion of DII, and Doylestown (4-0) and Harrisburg (3-0) remain undefeated. Severn River was undefeated until last Saturday, and then an away trip to Harrisburg produced a 35-7 decision to the Pennsylvania team. The Harlot center pairing of Nikki Snyder and Michelle Kirk was particularly effective and accounted for four of the five tries, the fifth coming through prop Maddie Brenner. Flyhalf Lauren Schissler connected on all five conversions as well. Harrisburg will round out the fall against 2-1 Phoenixville and then Doylestown on Nov. 2
James River remained in striking distance of Doylestown through the first half, but then the Dragons opened it up in the second half for six unanswered tries through Rachel Dayton, Nicole Fairman, Morgan Stiffler, Sarah Ross, Alexandria Dowdy and Britta Gamache. With Elyse Garcia’s conversions, Doylestown won 58-13.
Similarly, Brandywine’s game against Northeast Philadelphia did not get away from the Riot until the second half. Northeast Philly established its lead two minutes into the game through Victoria Crosier, and its most efficient finisher on the day was Hannah Bratzler, who collected five tries in the 68-33 win. Three second-half tries allowed Brandywine to collect a bonus point in the loss.
For Division III, it was a good day for the Philadelphia club, which added a 73-5 win over Wilmington to its DI success. Coryn Rank and Gillian Gehri featured often in the box score, while Remy Bremner and Ariel Blanding also had multi-try days. In the South competition, the Maryland Stingers improved to 3-0 with a 59-7 win over NOVA. Prop Diana Roman and wing Celestine Pere scored a brace of tries apiece.
MIDWEST
With their victories last weekend, the Chicago Lions and Metropolis Valkyries have secured the top-two spots in the Division I standings. The Lions bettered Chicago 36-12, while the Valkyries topped Wisconsin 76-14. There is still one more week of the regular season, but the aforementioned have the standings points to withstand a week-eight loss.
Heading into last weekend, the Cincinnati Kelts and Columbus Squirrels had also secured their spots to the DII Midwest East playoffs, but last Saturday’s game still had major stakes.
“The rivalry with Columbus has become ‘The Game’ for us in our season,” Cincinnati Kelts veteran Gina Fanelli explained. “It is always the truest test of where we stand and what we need to work on. [Saturday] didn’t go perfectly for us, but showed that we are willing to dig deep on defense, keep calm and trust in the game plan and each other.”
After multiple lead changes, the Kelts came away with a 21-12 win and home-field advantage for the first round of playoffs against East Gold’s Pittsburgh Forge.
“At this point the team is extremely well gelled with the majority of the roster having played together for four-plus years. We have a lot of trust in each other and that translates positively on the field,” Fellow Kelts vet Monica Christian noted. “We generally have a field of 26 to select from on a game-to-game basis, which allows us to pick a roster that will be most competitive against who we are playing, and we know that we will have no drop-off when substitutions come on.”
Columbus will now travel to Buffalo, the East Gold leader, which finished its regular season with 40-15 win over South Buffalo. Pittsburgh also had a solid outing against Akron, winning 65-0, before heading into playoffs.
The DII West saw Milwaukee Syclla shut out County Will Morrigans, while the Minneapolis Menagerie and Chicago Sirens drew at 17. There’s one more week of league play and then the post-season scenario will become clear.
PACIFIC NORTH
The DII Pacific Northwest produced two competitive games. Tacoma held off Portland in a 19-14 victory, getting its points from try-scorers Emily Pitman and Blaine Martin (2) and kicker Shannon Parker. And Budd Bay logged its second-straight victory with a 29-14 decision over Eugene. The league will now enter its winter break and resume in the spring.
SOUTH
Savannah is the only undefeated team in the Carolinas-Georgia GU, but it looked like Eno River was going to serve the Shamrocks its first loss as it ran out to a 19-point lead after 30 minutes. Savannah then rallied with six tries from Leandria Ates (2), Katherine Smith, Erin Schwenning, Rebecca Floto and Danielle Deshaies to take an 11-point lead. Eno River scored once more through Jasmine Griffin, but a final try from Heather Mazur afforded the 40-29 win.
Augusta hosted Southern Pines and took the first lead through Owen Crosland (who scored all three of the team’s tries). The visitors then answered with two Tatiana Rubow tries and a penalty kick from Stephanie Taylor to jump ahead 13-5. Augusta kept chipping away at the difference, but two more tries from Rubow and Taylor afforded the 25-15 bonus-point win.
In the DII True South, Battleship and league newcomer New Orleans were tied at 10 heading into halftime, and then the Alabama squad posted seven unanswered tries in the second stanza for a 51-10 win. Inside center Nine Henricksson scored five tries to lead.