Scoring Record Broken Again in Women's Rugby's Blowout Win

Harvard’s newest varsity team continues to make history on the offensive side of the ball.

For the second time this season, the Crimson women’s rugby team scored a team single-game points record, this time en route to a 132-5 win at the University of Pennsylvania on Saturday.

Playing against a squad it hasn’t faced since going varsity, the Crimson (4-2, 3-2 Ivy) came out with a big win against a team that made it to Sweet 16 of the American Collegiate Rugby Association Championship Tournament just two years ago.

The points record came less than six weeks after Harvard set its previous record of 111 points against Yale earlier in the season.

Although the Quakers (1-3, 1-3 Ivy) have yet to obtain varsity status at Penn, the match was pivotal last test for Harvard before the Ivy League tournament on Nov. 7. Saturday highlighted the Crimson’s underclassman strength, as three freshmen scored their first tries of the season.

“Obviously it feels good to get that big of a win in our last game before Ivies,” said co-captain Hope Schwartz, who is a former Crimson sports editor. “This is our last opportunity to be in a really competitive setting before two weeks of practice and then Ivies. We were definitely less focused on the outcome today and more focused on some of the stuff we’re looking to perfect before the tournament.”

With the Crimson heading to the Ivy League tournament in two weeks, junior Rachael Stein felt that the team is in a good place following their last regular season game, especially with the team’s rookies making significant contributions early and often in the weekend contest.

“Yesterday’s game was really exciting,” Stein said. “We got to score a lot of points, we got to have a lot of our rookies really step up in the game and take a central role in the game plan, so yesterday was a really good opportunity for us to really practice and emphasize our game plan.”

On a squad that now features nine freshmen, Harvard’s rookies have proven integral to the team’s success and winning Ivy League record. Harvard scored its first points within the first minutes of the contest with freshman Virginia Miller, who is a Crimson sports comper, completing her first career try.

“It was a good developmental opportunity for some of our rookies who got their first minutes today,” Schwartz said. “A few people got the start, and a few of our rookies also scored for us, so that was really exciting to see.”

From the start of the match, the Crimson dominated all aspects of the game. Freshman Sarah Lipson and classmate Caitlin Weigel both added tries off successful scrums in the first half, and freshman Susie Clements converted both for a quick 19-0 lead.

From there, Harvard ran away with the match and never looked back. Freshman Rachel Harkavy tallied her first try of the season and classmate Grace Chao added another for the Crimson. The onslaught continued with Weigel, Chao, and Clements all adding tries before the end of the first half.

In the second half, the Crimson continued to press despite the huge lead that had mounted. Lipson crossed the line a second time, and Clements produced another successful conversion. In ensuing possessions, Wiegel scored again, and Harvard received tries from freshman Genevieve Quirion, Stein, and classmate Claire Collins. Lipson and Weigel each tallied another try before the end of the match.

Despite the record-setting outing, the team remains focused on the goal it set before the season even started: winning the Ivy League Championship.

“It was definitely an important win for us to be able to practice the way we plan to play at the Ivy League championship,” Stein said. “It was also really important in that we got to really get all our players on the field…. It really helped us get ourselves together in preparation for this big event that’s coming up in two weeks.”

—Staff writer Troy Boccelli can be reached at tboccelli@college.harvard.edu.