Women's Rugby Heads to Hanover To Compete for Ivy Title

After breaking yet another record, the Harvard women’s rugby team is set to play Brown again. This time, the Ivy League title is at stake.

The Crimson put up a program-record 111 points against Yale in September, but went on to lose its first regular-season game to Brown a week later. In its latest outing, the dynamic Harvard offense did it again, setting a new high score by pushing across 132 points in a blowout win over Penn.

The Crimson (4-2-0, 3-2-0 Ivy League) will now travel to Hanover on Saturday to open the Ivy Tournament with a rematch against the defending champion Bears (5-2-0, 4-1-0), looking to even up the season series against a team it has gone 2-3-1 against all-time.

The last time the two teams played, Brown held a 22-5 halftime lead that Harvard was able to cut to 22-12. The Bears then pulled away for a 44-17 victory.

“We went into [that first game] a little underprepared mentally,” freshman Susie Clements said. “Throughout the week, we focused on certain players and the aura of Brown, rather than the actual game plan and the way that we were going to play. That’s something that’s changed this weekend—we’re much more confident about our game plan and our game focus.”

The top four teams of the conference—Dartmouth, Brown, Harvard, and Princeton—will compete for the Ivy Conference title in the two-day event hosted by the Big Green.

The winner of Saturday’s semifinal will go on to play the winner of the Dartmouth-Princeton game for the Ivy Tournament title on Sunday.

The Crimson finished the regular season third in the Ivy standings with 15 points, one spot behind Brown with 21 points. Host Dartmouth finished atop the Ivy League with 24 points and a perfect 5-0-0 conference record. The three universities are the only Ivy members that currently sponsor women’s rugby as a varsity sport.

Harvard’s newest varsity team features a talented crop of underclassmen—seven different freshmen have started at least once this season, and five of the Crimson’s six games have featured a try scored by a freshman.

“It’s exciting—it’s the first year we’ve gone on a recruitment drive,” Clements said. “A lot of the freshman coming in are very exciting. It’s a pretty young squad, but everyone’s got a lot of potential.”

Clements scored a try in the route against Yale, part of an offensive attack spearheaded by the Harvard freshman class. Caitlin Wiegel and Sarah Lipson led the charge, each scoring three tries apiece for the Crimson.

“The freshman class has been critical for us—we depend a ton on them all over the field,” senior co-captain Hope Schwartz said. “All of the freshman who’ve gotten playing time have all stepped as playmakers on the field, and it’s been amazing to see them develop and watch them integrate into a team.”

Schwartz also noted how the freshman have made an immediate impact on the team.

“Having the talent and the fresh eyes out there has allowed us to elevate our level of play to a place that I haven’t seen in my four years on the team,” the veteran said. “It’s really exciting to know that they still have so much time in front of them.”

Harvard is coming off a stretch of alternating wins and losses, sandwiching big wins over Yale, Princeton, and Penn with losses to Brown and Dartmouth. The team also features an explosive offense that has been historic at times. The Crimson is the only Ivy team to have surpassed the 100-point mark this season, and the first in Ivy history to do so multiple times in a season.

Harvard won the Ivy Tournament in 2013, but was eliminated in 2014 by the eventual champions Brown. It has not beaten Brown since the fall of 2013, when it swept the season series 2-0. This will be Schwartz’s, and the senior class’, last Ivy Tournament in the Crimson uniform, a tournament they’re looking to finish on top of.

“We were happy with last year’s performance,” Schwartz said. “But it always leaves you hungry not to finish first.”