Dartmouth Women Host 7s Festival

The DWRC’s only home event of the 2014 Spring Season was a 7s Festival in which Division I teams Dartmouth, Norwich University, and Brown squared off in a double-round robin while Division II A-sides Middlebury, Bowdoin, and Colgate took on each other and the Division I B-sides. Dartmouth and the Division II teams also contributed several players to two “new player” mixed matches. By the end of the day referees Austin Hall and Charles Cisco had certainly earned their keep, handling 18 fast-paced matches with the much-appreciated help of Bowdoin Coach Marybeth Matthews in the “new player” games.  

The Big Green used the tournament to explore different line-ups and substitution systems and to develop players in anticipation of this weekend’s Ivy Rugby 7s Championship and the following weekend’s ACRA 7s National Championship in Grand Rapids, MI. This development plan included placing a few first team players in leadership positions on the second team to allow them maximum playing time. While it meant sacrificing speed on the first side for the day, the development objective was clearly met, as the second team’s Karampreet Kaur ’15 lead the individual scoring table for the entire tournament with 9 tries and 3 conversions (51 points). The second team kept low point spreads against Colgate A’s (24-10) and Middlebury A’s (24-12), played evenly against Brown’s seconds early on in the day, losing a tough 17-15 match, and were victorious over the Norwich seconds 24-17.  

The DWRC’s first team improved significantly in several vulnerable areas of their game from the past few weeks, including defense on 3–person breaks and offensive rucking. Unfortunately, their catch-pass and movement off the ball was not up to the usual standard, and scoring opportunities were wasted with poor connections. The Big Green lost 27-7 to Norwich in it’s first match, with Michaela Conway ’15 converting sweeper Diana Wise 15’s try for the lone Dartmouth points, but got closer to the Cadets in their second match with Audrey Perez ’17 dotting down Dartmouth’s single try and Norwich mustering 3 tries and 2 conversions for a final score of 19-5. The Big Green tied Brown 12-12 in their first match up, with DWRC handling playing as much of a role in the tie as the Brown defense. Wise and Perez each got a try and Conway converted one of them.  

The final match of the day was Brown vs. Dartmouth again, in what seemed would be a very good match, but the Big Green, taking the field just 20 minutes after their 2nd Norwich match, was gassed. The final score of 34-0 in Brown’s favor was the highest point spread of the day, and the Bears succeeded in putting Dartmouth on notice. But the DWRC returned to the film room, gym, and pitch on Monday with great anticipation for an upcoming re-match with Brown this weekend at the Ivy 7s Championship. With a fantastic work week under our belts, lessons learned from the 7s festival, and midterms now over, we are excited to field our Ivy Rugby 7s Championship team at Princeton and let the tries fly!  

Dartmouth’s pool includes Princeton and Yale, while Brown tops the other pool with Cornell and Penn. Harvard and Columbia will not be participating. The B –side pools will be the same. Matches start at 11:00 am on Saturday, April 25, at West Windsor Fields. Dartmouth kicks off against Yale at 11:00 am.