With their victory over Sacred Heart University on Saturday, the Dartmouth Women’s Rugby brought their record to an undefeated 3-0.
The game was an “exciting back-and-forth battle,” according to center Annie Henrich ’28. Dartmouth and Sacred Heart fought hard, with both teams holding leads in the first half of the game. However, the Big Green pulled ahead in the second half and clinched the win with a final score of 43-29. According to Henrich, the close match provided the team the opportunity to “respond to challenges and adapt.”
“It certainly wasn’t a perfect game, but I am incredibly proud of how we responded to mistakes,” Henrich said. “We have grown already and we’re still getting better from here.”
In the weeks before facing off against the Pioneers, the team also beat Quinnipiac University 59-0 and Navy 52-7.
Head coach Katie Dowty said that these games also allowed players to work on being able to “play fast” and “be in control.” New recruit Marley Larkin ’29 agreed, saying these games allowed the team to get their “feet wet” as the season ramps up.
“It feels so great to be here executing what we have been training for throughout the weeks,” Larkin said.
The team has long been working on increasing their “pace of play,” Dowty said. The caliber of the players — many of whom play for national and international rugby teams — lets them work on applying their skills to the game’s nuances, she said.
“It’s really a young team this year, and incredibly talented,” Dowty said. “It’s really just fine-tuning. 15s is a very elaborate game of chess.”
The young talent on the team has been taken “under the wing” of the upperclassmen. Apart from veteran leadership on the field, Larkin emphasized the value of the community-building between ’29s and upperclassmen that has occurred from preseason until now, with veteran players acting as mentors for the freshmen.
“We have had lots of help from the older players who have taken me and the other ’29s under their wing,” Larkin said. “They made sure that we had our classes figured out, that we’re doing okay and that we were all settled in during preseason.”
Larkin also said that the team was helped by a cancelled game against Princeton. The free time in between playing Navy and Sacred Heart provided the team the opportunity to “emphasize what we want to work on and how we want to play.”
The team is now preparing to face Harvard University, who will arrive in Hanover next Saturday for a showdown at Brophy Field, where the Big Green will look to stay undefeated.
