Rainy Saturday Brings Victory to Brown Women

Despite the rainy weather in Ithaca, the final score for the Ivy League debut match of Brown against Cornell was 10-5. 

Brown women weathered an opening storm beating a tough Cornell side 10-5. The match was played in intermittent rain - at times a cold downpour - which turned parts of the field into a muddy mess. The forwards struggled to find footing in the mud and the backs found themselves slipping and missing some line breaks. Cornell played tough, flooding the rucks and destroying platforms. Brown started the match well and 4 minutes in flyhalf Michelle Van derPloeg '13 found a nice seam and darted through the Cornell defensive line to score. After that score the rain started and Brown seemed to lose their footing at at times organization. Cornell began to dominate the rucks and the scrums and 20 minutes in were able to capitalize to tie the score 5-5 with a try by 8-man Nicole Bonilla '13. The half was a seesaw affair and with less then a minute to go wing Patti Ekpo '14 got loose on the weak side and raced 60 meters for the score to put Brown on top 10-5. The second half improved a bit but Brown still suffered lapses on defense and struggled to find their footing on the attack.

Brown 10 - Cornell 5

The Brown's Second XV took the field for the second match with a number of enthusiastic rookies playing their first game. Brown showed good defensive organization and tenacity and Cornell countered with strong rucking. Cornell scored first 7 minutes in - and again to end the half - but the Brown B's roared back in the second half. Katherine Reardon opened the second half with a beautiful cut back through the Cornell line, knocked down at the line Kat made a nice lunge for the line extending over for the score. The match went back and forth with both teams showing great defense. Brown got a scrum on the Cornell 25 with seconds left in the match, scrum half Allison Gale '13 was able to clear a nice ball to the line, Ebony McCaskill '16 took a nice short ball and ran through the Cornell line, breaking tackles she scored and salvaged a tie.

Brown Second XV 10 - Cornell 10