For the third week in a row, the rugby team took down a conference power in convincing fashion. Dartmouth (1-1) was this week’s victim, suffering its first loss of the season at Berylson Family Fields to a Bruno team that has quickly become the class of the Ivy League.
The Bears (3-0) scored the first five tries of the game, tallying 33 unanswered points on their way to a 43-7 victory. Daisy Alvarado-Munoz ’17 led the way with two tries, while Elisha Miles ’15, Saskia Morgan ’16, Sofia Rudin ’17, Melodi Dincer ’17 and Lauren Oxendine ’16 each contributed scores of their own. Rudin also added eight more points on conversions, going 4-for-7.
“Everyone on the team is pretty psyched with how we played,” Rudin said. “We expected Dartmouth to be some of our toughest competition. They are a really good team, and it felt really good to beat them.”
Just over six minutes into the game, Miles notched Bruno’s first try, emerging from a scrum at the five-meter line to put the Bears on the board. Rudin tacked on the conversion to make the score 7-0. Four minutes later, Jasmine McAdams ’16 killed a Big Green drive by recovering a turnover and dished it to Morgan for another try down the left side to put the Bears up 14-0 after another Rudin conversion.
Rudin followed that up at the 21:20 mark with another try from the Dartmouth 10-meter line and a conversion, quickly bringing the score to 21-0.
“I got a pass as I was making a cut,” Rudin said. “I saw a hole open up in front of me, and I just ran. It was definitely exciting.”
Alvarado-Munoz and Dincer both added tries over the next 30 minutes, putting the Bears up 33-0 on a historically strong Dartmouth squad.
“I got the ball on an offload from Lauren Oxendine, stepped past a couple of defenders and dove into the try zone,” Alvarado-Munoz said of her score.
Finally, after 54 minutes of frustration, Dartmouth broke through with a try from the 20-meter line to put up its first points and narrow the margin to 33-7. But the comeback would not continue. Soon after, Miles produced another Dartmouth turnover and set up Alvarado-Munoz for her second score of the game.
“I picked up a quick ball that was turned over by Dartmouth due to a big hit by Elisha Miles and drove past a defender to dot the ball down for a try,” Alvarado-Munoz said.
Oxendine finished Dartmouth off with a 40-meter run for a try at 73:00.
Head Coach Kathleen Flores said she sees many similarities between the two teams. “We both play the same style of rugby,” she said.
This will likely not be the last meeting between the teams this fall. Dartmouth hosts the Ivy League championships in November, and Flores said “it might be a tougher challenge then.”
Saturday was a day of firsts for Bruno. Alvarado-Munoz, Rudin, Dincer and Oxendine all posted their first career tries. In addition, the game marked the first home match Brown has hosted as a varsity team.
“That made it extra exciting,” Rudin said. “We wanted to prove ourselves to our fans and everyone else who helped us become a varsity team.”
“It felt pretty great,” Flores said. “It was nice to have a lot of people cheering in the stands.”
Saturday was the beginning of a four-week homestand for Bruno. It will look to extend its winning streak against Columbia at Marvel Field this week.
“I’m pleasantly surprised with the strength of our wins so far,” Rudin said. “We have big goals, so we’re going to keep working hard and see how far we’re able to push it.”
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