Troy, NY - On a sunny warm day, more like summer than the fall, the Vassar Women went on a tear and scored 12 tries, 7 in the first half and a further 5 in the second, racking up 66 points with 3 of these converted.
Vassar College Women 66 v 0 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Women
The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute team is never short on hard running and hard hitting players. The Engineers started well enough but kept forcing offloads or passes that undid any work they had done. Vassar was up to the task tackling the RPI runners and the first 10 minutes of the game was played in the RPI half. Eventually,
Sophia Bailey crashed over and it was 5-0.
Vassar's Number 8
Yasmeen Kassem-Scott was getting through a mountain of work both carrying the ball and making tackles and the team as a whole was putting multiple phases together. There was real purpose and direction about the attack although on a few occasions the ball should've been moved more swiftly from the base of the ruck.
It was something of a surprise when, from an RPI lineout and subsequent ruck, the center broke through and only had Vassar's
Jude Robinson to beat. But the Vassar fullback cut her down with a scythe-like tackle as she crossed the halfway line. It sent a clear message that Vassar meant business and any encroachment into its territory would be met with the stiffest resistance. Moments later after a few more phases Robinson went over in the right hand corner and it was 10-0. The team seemed to be bubbling with confidence.
The Vassar pack was starting to drive the RPI scrum backwards and when the latter opted to stand up they were penalized. At the 23 minutes mark Robinson scored a second try in the left hand corner and Vassar was starting to pull away at 15-0. Apart from two minor sorties into the Vassar half play was all in RPI's end.
At about the half hour mark Vassar lost fullback Robinson after a hard tackle and
Rosie Perkinson came on to play fullback. Fortunately the team maintained its rhythm and
Yasmeen Kassem-Scott went over in the right corner giving Niehaus another difficult conversion opportunity.
The Vassar back division was punching over the gainline and causing the RPI defense all kinds of problems.
Ella Maniatis and
Makaela Weldon consistently made yards which allowed for the forwards to win front foot ball. RPI was having to repel attacks around the fringes, through the middle of the field and out wide. It must have seemed relentless.
RPI had the opportunity to regroup at the half and they came out all guns blazing. A line break took them deep into Vassar's half and then another clean break saw the ball carrier dragged down just short of the line and Vassar was able to prevent a try by getting under the ball. RPI continued to press from the goal line drop-out and exerted about 6 minutes of territorial pressure with ball in hand before Kassem-Scott broke through following a penalty. After a series of strong forward drives with Vassar getting into the RPI 22, Kassem-Scott scored to snuff out any hope RPI had of a revival.
Twice in the next 15 minutes Vassar got over the goal line only to be held up but the pressure on RPI was constant. The home team was living off scraps of possession and usually deep in their own half.
Emma Niehaus scampered through the middle and scored under the posts obviously mindful of her having to take the conversion!
Vassar added tries from Bailey,
Matty Sumrow and
Leah Dourmashkin but the last 15 minutes was also a tribute to RPI who kept hustling, defending and tackling.
The Brewers move on to next weekend and a matchup against Fairfield University at Vassar Farm. The mood is good but there is still plenty to improve upon.
Overall record: 5-0-0
