POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (October 17, 2015) – This was a bye weekend for the Vassar Women with no Conference game so a fixture with the New York Women's Developmental XV was arranged. New York Women's Rugby is a Women's Premier League team and even though this side did not feature regular starters the women who took the field were for the most part experienced rugby players. Two former Vassar players, Dani Goodman-Levy and Dana Wasserman, were opponents and a number of other former collegiate players completed the team.

Vassar College Women 22 v 24 New York Women Development XV

Tries: Taylor Nunley (1), Darienne Jones (1), Lauren Workman (1), & Cierra Thomas (1).

Cons: Mary Margaret McElduff (1).

The Vassar Women let an opportunity slip through their fingers as they fell to the NY Women on a brisk chilly day at the Farm. The whole team was slow to react when the referee awarded penalties and free kicks. They were also slow to get organized defensively at rucks and it left openings that were exploited by the visitors.

New York, who had kicked off, established the early territorial advantage and they were aided by Vassar losing their first 3 lineouts, giving away a slew of penalties, and the Brewers lost 2 of 3 scrums. Vassar did manage to steal a couple of the visitors lineouts and had the edge rucking in the early exchanges.

Vassar conceded 4 tries in the first half. The first of these came after about 20 minutes of play when, following a quickly taken penalty, two quick rucks produced ball that NY moved to their left. The Vassar defense seemed to be in place with Nathalie Freeman and Abby Alexander to the right of the ruck and Anne Fritzson coming from the inside. But the NY center just ran between Freeman and Alexander and scored.

Vassar surged up the other end with Freeman prominent as a ball carrier. But the ball was turned over and a NY kick for touch took a cruel bounce and the NY wing went almost 70 yards before she was hauled down by Anne Fritzson just short of the line. The NY player offloaded to support and it was 12-5 in the blink of an eye.

Vassar was having problems at the base of the scrum and the connection between Taylor Nunley and Jyen Wong was not working well. NY got possession and from a ruck about 15 yards from the touchline they moved the ball left. Four Vassar defenders had 15 yards to cover from the ruck to the touchline. They probably should have set-up quicker and when they came up the NY flyhalf just ran past Amanda Saich and Darienne Jones. Freeman gave chase and did catch the ball carrier but that was once she was in the in-goal. NY led 17-0.

The next 90 seconds  summed up the Vassar first half performance. Following the re-start Vassar threw the ball in but lost the lineout. The first NY attack was halted and a ruck formed but Vassar conceded a penalty. NY quickly tapped the ball running from their own 10 meter line. Vassar was slow to get back and it only needed one pass to a sprinting center for NY to score under the posts. The halftime score stood at 24-0.

The second half was dominated by Vassar keeping the ball close and trying to monopolize possession. The lineout woes for Vassar continued but NY began to give away penalties at the ruck. Vassar took a leaf out of the NY playbook and tapped and ran. Captain Darienne Jones led multiple charges and Cierra Thomas was drafted into attack. It paid dividends as first Taylor Nunley and then Jones scored. At 24-10 Vassar had re-established belief that they could win and although it wasn't extravagant flowing rugby it was effective. Further tries from Lauren Workman and Cierra Thomas made it 24-20 and after Mary Margaret McElduff kicked a conversion it was a 2-point game.

But time ran out and Vassar will rue the fact that but for quicker thinking this would have been a win. There is no doubt that more was learned today from the mistakes and missed opportunities than had the team played and won by 30 points. 

Getting set up quickly in defense has to be a priority.

Making tackles, destructive tackles, is also essential.

Team: 15 Abigail Alexander 14 Anne Fritzson 13 Laila Blumenthal-Rothchild 12 Cierra Thomas 11 Rachel Jones 10 Mary Margaret McElduff 9 Jyen Wong 1 Darienne Jones 2 Kristina Catomeris 3 Mariah Ghant 4 Lauren Workman 5 Amanda Saich 6 Sarah Mawhinney 7 Nathalie Freeman 8 Taylor Nunley.

Overall record: 5-1-0

Next week: Saturday October 24th, 2015 Tri-State Conference Quarterfinal at Vassar KO 1:00 pm versus Fairfield University or Molloy College.

--VASSAR--