Women's Rugby Drops First League Contest

Coming off an Ivy League Championship in its inaugural varsity season, the Harvard women’s rugby team (0-1, 0-1 Ivy) entered the opening game of its 2014 campaign with much excitement. But fatigue played a significant role in the final 15 minutes of the contest, costing the Crimson the lead and ultimately the game, as the squad fell to Brown (1-0, 1-0 Ivy), 25-14, in the first ever varsity Ivy League women's rugby matchup.

“It was a very physical match,” co-captain Brooke Kantor said. “It was very tiring early on. We need to work on our fitness to make sure we can sustain that level of high energy that we had at the beginning [of the game] throughout the 80 minutes.”

With 11 minutes left in the contest, Bears’ junior scrum-half Amber Reano found a hole in Harvard’s defense and scored a try in the posts. The score set up a conversion for sophomore fly-half Sonia Rudin, which gave Brown—a team that just turned varsity over the summer—a 19-15 lead. The four-point differential put extra pressure on the Crimson, as the squad needed to score at least a 5-point try in the final 10 minutes to reclaim the lead.

With Harvard rugby alums shouting from the sidelines, the Crimson showed signs of bouncing back. Two consecutive takedowns by Harvard senior fullback Aniebiet Abasi and co-captain Kayleigh Henry at the 50 stopped the Bears’ running game and recovered the ball for Harvard.

But the Crimson could not capitalize. A line-out sailed over Kantor’s head, and Brown quickly recovered the ball, pitching it to the outside to junior fullback Saskia Morgan. Harvard’s defensive line was not spread widely enough, and the Bears broke through to score another try, taking the decisive 24-15 lead.

Despite the loss, Harvard coach Sue Parker was encouraged by her team’s performance, especially since the injury-hampered Crimson was both overmatched in size and outnumbered in the second half.

“I couldn’t be more proud of the 15 players who were on the field for us today in terms of their effort, their heart, and their grit through all 80 minutes,” Parker said.

Brown led off the scoring with a try and conversion in the 20th minute to take a 7-0 lead. But the Crimson responded four minutes later when sophomore fly-half Taciana Pereira raced the ball to the outside and scored a try.

With 11 minutes left in the first half, Harvard sophomore Mariah Turner scored a try to give the Crimson its first advantage of the game, 10-7. After Harvard squandered the lead by surrendering a try on the final play of the first half, Turner scored her second try of the game midway through the second half to give the Crimson a 15-12 lead.

Still in her first year of playing rugby, Turner has already shown the potential to pace Harvard’s offense this season.

“I’ve seen such a growth and development in her confidence as a ball carrier, over even just the past few weeks,” Kantor said. “And I’m so happy that that was reflected in the score today. I’m so proud of her, and I hope that this gives her the confidence moving forward to do even more wonderful things in the fall.”

For the Crimson, which went undefeated in Ivy League home games last fall and decisively defeated the Bears twice last season, the opening loss indicated that the team still needs to make adjustments to replace the 10 seniors it lost to graduation.

Both Parker and Kantor are confident that Harvard can and will make these adjustments.

“We are going to continue to work on our fundamentals and our fitness,” Parker said. “And then we will make sure that results in a more efficient and effective execution of the game plan against some opponents who will be equally as tough as Brown.”

—Staff writer Eileen Storey can be reached at eileen.storey@thecrimson.com.