Dartmouth Wins Ivies, D1 Playoffs shape up
Final: Dartmouth 31 - Harvard 0, Final: Brown 26 - Yale 14
Final: Columbia 41 - Cornell 12, Final: Penn 29 - Princeton 25
By kickoff on Randel's Island in NYC this afternoon, with three final Ivy League Rugby scores in, Columbia players, supporters, coaches and alumni alike had already worked through the playoff scenarios and realized that the rugby gods had shined on the Lions. Columbia needed a Dartmouth win and no bonus points for Harvard. Got it. The Lions also needed an unlikely victory by 2-4 Brown over 4-2 Yale with the addition of no bonus points for Yale. Got it. So with the stars aligned, Columbia needed a victory over Cornell and they needed to score at least 4 trys. Columbia scored 5 first half tries on route to a 29-0 halftime lead, winning 41-12. Got it!
see Columbia defeats Cornell 41-12
Columbia sneaked right into second place in the League and into the top seed for the USA Rugby Division One playoff bid. Columbia will host the Ivy League Wildcard four team playoff on November 6th and 7th. In the first Wildcard round, Columbia will play Brown and Harvard will take on Yale at Baker Field on the campus of Columbia University. The winners will play in the Wildcard final earning for second place in the league and for a bid to the USA Rugby Division 1 playoffs in the Spring.
The rest of the action
Harvard kept it close against Dartmouth but were unable to put points on the board finally falling 31-0.
see Dartmouth blanks Harvard 31-0 - Wins Ivy League
Brown took it to a favored Yale this afternoon scoring 3 tries on the way to a 19-0 lead before Yale's Ryan Vandersloot scored, then converted. Brown was too much for Yale punching the last try in in the final minutes to win 26-14.
see Brown 26 - Yale 14 - Earns a Playoff Spot
In the match of the day and the only one without playoff implications, Penn held off a late surge by Princeton to win 29-25. A total of nine trys were scored in the contest, five by Penn and four by Princeton.