Cornell Outshines Columbia at Baker Field

After 80 minutes of heart-stopping rugby, Saturday night’s game ended with a win for the women from Cornell. Visiting Cornell scored 41 points to Columbia's 7 in front of an enthusiastic home town crowd under the lights at Baker Stadium.

Cerullo (CC ’13)  started the game off with a beautiful try. Columbia and Big Red went back and forth for the first half, with one try by Ullman (CC ’15) and another by Cerullo resulting in a tied score of 17-17 at the half.

Cornell came back strong in the second half,  running all over Columbia's defense and scoring three tries in the first twenty minutes. Columbia rallied and fought 15 as 1, leading to two beautiful tries by Peterson (CC ’13) and Cerullo in less than two minutes. It wasn’t enough to stop Big Red, who managed to slip past Columbia’s defenses once more on the last play of the game.

Despite the scoreboard at the end of the game, Columbia played 80 minutes of brilliant rugby. The team’s hard work all season culminated in one of the best games ever played by Columbia – every single player on the team has much to be proud of.

The Cornell victory put the Big Red on top of the White Division of the Ivy Rugby Conference setting up a Challenge Match this Saturday at Dartmouth. Dartmouth finished fourth in the Green Division. The Challenge Match winner will earn the right to the 4th seed in the Ivy Rugby Conference playoffs this spring. The winner of the 4-team playoff will represent the Ivy Rugby Conference in the 2013 USA Rugby national championship playoffs.

Challenge Match: Cornell @ Dartmouth Saturday Nov. 3rd »

Scoring Summary

Columbia try Cerullo, 5-0
Cornell try Hannah Smith '16, 5-5
Columbia try Ullman, 12-5
Cornell try Hannah Smith, 12-10
Columbia try Cerullo, 17-10
Cornell try Hem Ramtahal '13, 17-15
Cornell conversion Ashley Benson '13, 17-17
Halftime Columbia 17 - Cornell 17

Cornell try Hem Ramtahal, 17-22
Cornell conversion Ashley Benson, 17-24
Cornell tryAlyssa Garcia '14, 17-29
Cornell conversion Ashley Benson, 17-31
Cornell try Hannah Smith, 17-36
Columbia try Peterson, 22-36
Columbia try Cerullo, 29-36
Cornell try Hannah Smith, 29-41
Final Columbia 29 - Cornell 41