It was a cool, overcast day, but the torrential downpours that plagued most of the East Coast, stayed away from Boston!

The first couple of minutes started out rough for the NOVA Women - Boston recovered their own kick-off and ran a series of plays to get within 10 meters of scoring. The NOVA women were able to poach the ball and then went for the kick to get it out of their territory, but Boston blocked the kick, picked it up, and scored. However, the NOVA Women were able to regroup and used the advantage of having the wind at their back in the first half. In general the NOVA women were able to outpace Boston in the backs, and held their own in the scrums and line-outs. The first half saw tries by NOVA's two winger's 7's Eagle Dana Creager and former U23 winger Jenn Starkey. The NOVA Pack put in one later off of a driving line-out, with #8 Kristen "Chicky" Stephen touching the ball down. Stephen then scored another one in the half, after she followed her pass to #7 Stacy Bennett off of a number 8 pick-up, got the ball back, and dove into the try-zone for the score. However, the Boston women came back and capitalized on a series of NOVA off-side penalties to punch one in before the end of half.

The end of the first half was 26-10.

NOVA scored two more tries in the 2nd half. The first was an 80 meter run, of exceptional individual effort by Starkey. The last try for the NOVA women came when fly-half Liz King took a gap, passed off to Bennett in support, who connected with Creager for the score. The Boston women never gave up and scored a try in the last minute of the game off of a rolling mall from the back of a line-out.

Player of the Game (NOVA): Kristen Campbell

Defensive Players of the Game (NOVA): Liz King and Stacy Bennett

The final score was 36-15. This result means that MARFU now has two slots in the Women's Club Round of 16!! and the NRU now has three slots. The MARFU slot earned is seeded at #16. The Philadelphia Women will challenge Chicago on April 22, in Chicago, for a possible 3rd seed for MARFU.

 

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