Women's Rugby Excels in 63-0 Triumph Against UMass

Poughkeepsie, NY - This was about as perfect as it gets as the Vassar B-side ran out at the Farm to take on their counterparts from U.Mass., Amherst. It was a sunny, chilly and blustery day but aside from the cold and occasional gusts, conditions were ideal for rugby. The Vassar grounds crew were out early to replace divots from the 7s Tournament on Saturday and a good crowd was on hand. The UMass team had some complete novices playing their first rugby game and the majority of the team had only played a handful of games, so this was always going to be a stiff test.

Vassar College Women 63 v 0 University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Tries: Sabine Weil (1), Dea Edwards (2), Mo Regan (2), Rahmat Gambari (2), Ava Rowland (2), Jo Ellis (1) & Dora Chen (1).
Cons: Chloe Ellis (4).

Vassar's up and coming players took control of this match right from the start and some solid tackling rocked the inexperienced UMass team backwards. The visitors were keen to offload the ball in contact and with the Vassar defense swarming it was no surprise that the first try came when the ball was intercepted. Vassar had Sabine Weil starting at 10 and her A-side experience was evident as it was she who scored and it was clearly a gift from heaven! Thanks Auntie Tobey. After 11 minutes Vassar had scored 3 tries as first year student Dea Edwards added 2 more in quick succession, scorching the earth, stiff arming tacklers and crashing over. UMass players were slipping off tackles but in fairness Edwards is a difficult customer to bring down.

At the eleven minute mark Vassar rang some changes with Weil, McKinney, and Bardsley-Cutler coming off. Not long after Pointer Mace was substituted and later Rosie Perkinson departed.

The shape that Vassar managed to show was all the more impressive as Ava Rowland moved to scrumhalf for her first game in that position with Chloe Ellis bumping out to flyhalf. Ellis really did a lovely job taking the ball to the defensive line and distributing to runners. Ellis needs to develop as a scrumhalf as well because Sophia Bailey is about to graduate. Vassar has Leah Dourmashkin able to play that position and Maisy Richardson but not only will competition sharpen everyone's game it could be that Richardson and Dourmashkin will play elsewhere.

Vassar focused on one out runners to get go-forward ball and when it was moved to the backs there were line breaks aplenty. Mo Regan at 13, playing her third rugby match ever, scored 2 tries and looked very dangerous while Rahmat Gambari also collected a brace.

At the half it was 37-0 as the Brewers had scored 7 tries and held UMass to only 2 entries to the 22.

Four (4) tries in the second half was a fair return as the team began to tire. UMass to their credit contested more strongly in the rucks and disrupted the Vassar scrum. Jo Ellis scampered through and twisted and turned to get over then Rowland scored her second and Gambari got hers before Dora Chen dived in to put the icing on the cake.

The video will help the team learn a lot with regard to team shape and individual contributions. The Brewers next travel to Vermont after the Easter weekend and then it's on to the Beast of the East Tournament in Rhode Island.

Team: 15 Rosie Perkinson 14 Ava Rowland 13 Maureen Regan 12 Rahmat Gambari 11 Sadye Krell 10 Sabine Weil 9 Chloe Ellis 1 Cae Bardsley-Cutler 2 Annika Szturma 3 Gabby Gitau 4 Dea Edwards 5 Meg Carpenter 6 Gus Pointer Mace 7 Mette McKinney 8 Elle Carr.

Subs: Dora Chen for Sabine Weil, Sydney Oren for Cae Bardsley-Cutler, Jo Ellis for Gus Pointer Mace, Emi Mitchell for Mette McKinney, Sylvie Lipskar for Dea Edwards, O. Arteaga-Johnson for Rosie Perkinson.

Did not play: Yasmeen Kassem-Scott & Julia Wolff.

Unavailable: Sophia Bailey, Jude Robinson, Maisy Richardson, Sarah Towne, Tate Wagner, AC Smith, Gemzi Tinoco, Zoey Ojalvo, Grace Rich, Chloe Bilger, Ella Maniatis, Makaela Weldon, Lydia Hong, Emma Niehaus, Leah Dourmashkin, Nadya LaMarr, Kiki Takata, Maggie Nealis (JYA), Matty Sumrow, Ina Zaslavsky

Record: 14-2-0

Next: Sunday April 11th , 2026 Vassar College Women at the University of Vermont 15s Tournament, kickoff 12:00 pm

Print Friendly Version

Players Mentioned

Leah Dourmashkin: Sophomore

Lydia Hong: Sophomore

Nadya LaMarr: Sophomore

Ella Maniatis: Sophomore

Maggie Nealis: Sophomore

Emma Niehaus: Sophomore

Zoey Ojalvo: Sophomore

Jude Robinson: Junior

Kiki Takata: Sophomore

Makaela Weldon: Sophomore

Players Mentioned

Leah Dourmashkin
: Sophomore

Lydia Hong
: Sophomore

Nadya LaMarr
: Sophomore

Ella Maniatis
: Sophomore

Maggie Nealis
: Sophomore

Emma Niehaus
: Sophomore

Zoey Ojalvo
: Sophomore

Jude Robinson
: Junior

Kiki Takata
: Sophomore

Makaela Weldon
: Sophomore

Vassar College Athletics

Players Mentioned

Players Mentioned