The women's rugby club completed its spring season this past weekend with a win over the DWRC alums. The undergraduate DWRC team won the annual Green Key Alum game for the first time in recent memory.
The alumnae team, which was composed of a panoply of coaches and former rugby All-American athletes, lost 36-0 despite its fierce dedication.
The match proved a great way to finish the season for the DWRC, a squad that cumulatively outscored its opponents 291 to 30 on the year.
The season was an intense one for the team, with many weekends consisting of multiple games. The first weekend of the term, the team faced both Brown and Army and notched its only tie of the season, finishing the game against Army with a 5-5 score.
On the other side, Brown, fresh from their spring break, proved unable to muster enough offense to challenge the Big Green, resulting in a 20-0 Dartmouth victory.
The next weekend, with lucky last-minute scheduling, the women went up against Williams, who had previously defeated them in the fall during regular league play.
Dartmouth handed Williams a swift defeat and moved on to the next week, excited to reclaim their Division I championship at the Beast of the East competition in Portsmouth, R.I.
The DWRC was entered in a pool of 16 Division I teams, and won its first game against Buffalo with a convincing score of 61"7.
They next moved onto the quarterfinals, where they shut out Amherst, and the semifinals, where they shut out Yale. They then advanced to the final against Plymouth State. There, Dartmouth was handed its only defeat of the season in a hotly contested match.
Both the Plymouth backline and inconsistent refereeing proved challenging for the Big Green, and, needless to say, Dartmouth was highly unsatisfied with the result.
Dartmouth was then slated to match up against Plymouth State again in a New Hampshire Select Side Tournament the following week.
Players from all over the state would be chosen to represent New Hampshire in the New England Select Side Tourney. Unfortunately, the weather caused the tournament to be moved at the last minute and to ultimately be cut short before Dartmouth could take on Plymouth State, but not before it shut out the University of New Hampshire 33-0.
The following weekend, Dartmouth was allowed the pleasure of a rematch with Army, who came from five hours away to play. Dartmouth beat Army 50-0 in what was one of the more physically aggressive games of the season.
The team treated Army to a pasta dinner and both teams look forward to meeting again in the future.
Dartmouth finally hosted Middlebury at home for its final game of the season and played without the graduating seniors to experiment with lineups for the fall season.
Dartmouth defeated Middlebury 14"8 in the final regular game played at Sachem Field. The game clinched Dartmouth's winning record and, with the win, Dartmouth finished its season undefeated at Sachem.
The game was emotional as, though Sachem has hosted the DWRC since its conception, next fall both the men's and women's rugby clubs will move to their new clubhouse and begin a new tradition of home domination.
Many DWRC and DRFC alums are expected for the opening of the clubhouse in September, when the women will take on Radcliffe and the men will take on Army.
The DWRC, after a disappointing fall season of rebuilding and a spring season that surpassed anyone's hopes, looks forward to fall league play and to dominating New England.
