Women's Rugby Comes Up Short in Wild Finish Against Dartmouth

Coming off a comeback win at home against Princeton in the last minute, the Harvard women’s rugby team (3-2, 2-2 Ivy) saw itself in a very similar situation at Dartmouth (4-1, 4-0) this weekend. With the clock winding down and down by a score of 20-15, it seemed as if the match was over when the Big Green attempted to put the ball into touch to end the game.

With seconds left on the clock, freshman Susie Clements blocked the kick to allow the Crimson one last attempt. Senior Ann-Marie Barrett made one last push, but the Dartmouth defense would make a pivotal tackle and hold on to the lead as the clock ran down.

“It was one of the most exciting finishes I’ve seen despite the fact that we didn’t score the try,” Harvard coach Sue Parker said. “Ann-Marie Barrett was the final ball carrier who was her way into the try zone for the game tying try when she got hit by a Dartmouth player, and that pretty much ended the game.”

In its first year of varsity status, Dartmouth came in hoping to remain undefeated in Ivy League play after a big win against Princeton last week. In what turned out to be a close match, it was the Big Green’s defense that ultimately decided the game. Harvard was limited to only 15 points, with two of the Crimson’s three tries coming late in the second half.

“I think we had a lot of chances,” co-captain Hope Schwartz said. “The momentum at the end of the game had really shifted in our direction. We scored two really quick tries to get within five and we were on the goal line when the game ended.”

Despite being shut out for much of the game, the Crimson defense would also hold its own after a difficult start. The defense shut down the Big Green after two early tries in the first half, holding the Big Green at 10 for the rest of the first half. Harvard stayed within two tries for much of match, but couldn’t come through with the tying try at the goal line when the game ended.

“It’s a really tough place to have run out of time,” Schwartz said. “But you have to credit Dartmouth for holding us for the whole first half and most of the second half.”

The match would start with a quick Dartmouth try. Despite keeping possession throughout much of the first half, the Crimson couldn’t seem to score. After gaining possession again, the Big Green pushed the ball to the try line where the Harvard defense would make a strong stand before Dartmouth would finally score to make the score 10-0.

“They went up pretty quickly in the first half. The biggest thing was that they dominated the point of contact,” Schwartz said. “They stole some of our balls out of our own hands and used those turnovers to put the ball in the hands of some of their stronger runners and capitalize on our mistakes.”

Despite going down early in the match, the Crimson closed out the first half with a quick try from freshman Grace Chao off the assist from classmate Genevieve Quirion to close the half with a score of 10-5 in favor of Dartmouth.

In the second half the Big Green would again dominate early on, scoring two consecutive tries to take a 20-5 lead before the Harvard defense would stop Dartmouth. Following the Big Green’s two tries, the Crimson would rally again, scoring two tries within five minutes of one another to put Harvard within five.

The first try would come courtesy of freshman Caitlin Weigel off a successful scrum at Dartmouth’s 22 yard line. The second would come from Quirion off the assist from Chao. All of the Crimson’s tries on the day would come from freshman.

Despite the loss, Parker was positive about where the team is as the regular season comes to a close.

“What we did really well this time was we improved our play at the point of contact, we were much more intense,” Parker said. “What we need to improve on is getting the ball to our outside backs for wide, fast running strikes.”

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