TROY, NY (September 10, 2011) -- The Vassar College Brewers traveled to Troy, NY on a beautiful hot sunny September Saturday and opened their 2011 campaign with a game against Liberty League school Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The sky was blue, the Vassar Women wore their new maroon shorts, and they quickly set about the dismantling of the Engineers. The hosts had a young and inexperienced team and with less preparation than the Brewers
they shipped 9 tries and went down 55-15.

Vassar College Women 55 v 15 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Tries: O'Mara Taylor (3), Margaret Kwateng (3), Julia Maltby (1), Addie Provenzano (1), Emma Redden (1).
Cons: O'Mara Taylor (5).

Overall Record: 1-0.

Next week: Sunday September 18, 2011 versus Hofsra University Women at Vassar College Farm, kick-off 2:00 pm 

The scoreline might suggest that this was a runaway victory but that was certainly not the case. Much like the first few World Cup games that are currently being staged in New Zealand the losing team gave a good account of themselves and not only defended strongly for periods but also scored tries of their own.

The Brewers had a glorious start as O'Mara Taylor ran a full 75 yards and beat the fullback and covering wing to score in the right hand corner. The senior is only in her second year of rugby but is focused and determined this year. She has also assumed the kicking duties and connected on 5 of 9 today.

The Engineers re-started and launched a couple of attacks before Vassar forced a turnover and went through about 5 phases to get deep into RPI territory. The rucking from Vassar wasn't dynamic or quick and it was to prove a problem all day. Forwards would arrive at a breakdown and not drive through but rather stop over the ball. RPI counter-rucked and stole ball in this manner. But Vassar's second try came from a ruck and pass to Taylor so she had garnered a brace after just 12 minutes.

A great scoring opportunity was squandered when Taylor linked with Kwateng and then the former right wing put Naomi Dann in the clear but the speedy winger was unable to hold the pass and 5 points went begging.

Vassar continued to press and there were encouraging signs as the scrum looked solid with the front row of Nichelle Jackson, Alyssa Bell, and Shanaye Williams in control. In addition the back 5 of the forwards were working hard and that meant a steady supply of ball to the back division.

Hannah Bober had a good game at 10 and will dazzle when she gets slightly better service. As it was she ran the show and knew when to hold and when to set her outside backs away. The main beneficiary was Julia Maltby who made several line breaks an later in the game got a deserved try.

Vassar's Margaret Kwateng scored a hat-trick of tries and Taylor added her third before the 80 minutes was up and the Brewers were off to a promising start to the Fall.

Of course in a high scoring game there were magic moments for all the players. Chelsea Boccagno "bosched" and barged her way up the field. The defensive work of Dallas Robinson and Maddie Zapalla was good, although the latter needs to be quicker off the side of the scrum. Addie Provenzano looked threatening in attack and scored a lovely try near the end of the game coming into the line. Rookie Emma Redden showed a clean pair of heels to the RPI defense and went over for 5 points. Nicole Guerrero made some thumping tackles, Sandy Pogarcic ran intelligently, and Nat Ward looked dangerous particularly when she came in at 10.

So the Brewers have much to build upon and if they put in some hard work over the next 2 months they will probably be able to look back with qui some satisfaction and pride. But there is a lot of work to do and it's going to take the entire squad to contribute.

Next week it's the first divisional game as Hofstra come to the Farm.

Team: 15 Addie Provenzano 14 Naomi Dann 13 Chelsea Boccagno 12 Julia Maltby 11 Natalie Ward 10 Hannah Bober 9 Margaret Kwateng 1 Nichelle Jackson 2 Alyssa Bell 3 Shanaye Williams 4 Sandy Pogarcic 5 Nicole Guererro 6 Maddie Zapalla 7 Dallas Robinson 8 O'Mara Taylor Subs: (All played) Meg Slattery, Maddie Little, Mia Chatterjee, Zoe Stern, Hannah Fink, Emma Elbaum, Emma Redden, Yael Schwartz, Kyle Higgins, Manola Fortun, Rachel Harth, Samantha Merrill.