The Harvard women's rugby team didn't defend its Ivy title, but did enough to capture third place.

One year ago, the Harvard women’s rugby team overcame Dartmouth in the Ivy League championship to take home the title in its inaugural varsity season. This weekend, the Crimson travels to Hanover, N.H. to defend that title.

Fourth-seeded Harvard (3-3, 3-2 Ivy) will take on an undefeated Brown (6-0, 5-0) squad on Saturday. If victorious, the Crimson will face the winner of the Dartmouth-Princeton semifinal on Sunday.

“We are excited as a team,” co-captain Kaleigh Henry said. “We were excited last year going into Ivies, so going back into that arena, we’re taking a step back, looking at what mentality we need to bring. I think a good word to describe the team right now is very focused.”

Harvard is familiar with the Bears, having lost to them, 24-15, earlier in the season in what was Brown’s closest game of the year.

In that Sept. 13 meeting in Cambridge, the Crimson held a 15-12 lead over the Bears late in the second half before conceding 12 unanswered points to the visitors while playing a man down due to injury. Outmatched in size, Harvard still proved to be Brown’s toughest opponent of the season.

In last year’s Ivy League championships, the Crimson rolled past the Bears, 31-5, in the semifinals before pitching a 29-0 shutout against a Dartmouth team that, like Brown, was previously unbeaten and had defeated Harvard earlier in the season. The Crimson hopes for the same results this weekend.

Harvard is a very different team than the one that brought home the championship last season and the squad that suffered a defeat to the Bears last month.

For many Crimson rookies, Saturday will represent their first playoff experience and first time facing off with Brown.

These rookies have increasingly shouldered key roles for the team and have earned more playing time as the season has progressed.

“We have acquired a lot of new players,” co-captain Brooke Kantor said. “There will be new faces on the field. These rookies have a lot of heart, a lot of drive. They love the game, and I think that’s going to be apparent to everybody that watches them. They’ve got a lot of talent.” 

Even with the injection of young talent for Harvard, defeating the Bears will be no easy task.

Brown has outscored its opponents by an average of almost 48 points per game and has not lost a contest since it fell to the Crimson in the Ivy League championship semifinal last November.

A key component of the Harvard game plan for Saturday will be containing the Bears’ strong offensive front line, a task that is much easier said than done against a squad that has averaged nearly 58 points in its six games this season.

“Practices have been going well,” Henry said. “The team has been working hard [and is] very focused on our goals for this weekend.… We’re focusing on ourselves and on our game plan. If we play our game, that’s all we can ask of the team. I have every faith in the team that if we come out and play our game, we will be rewarded.”

This weekend represents a test for the Crimson’s six seniors, who have seen the team grow from a club program into a varsity sport over their four years. Henry, Kantor, Aniebiet Abasi, Moyia McTier, Lenica Morales-Valenzuela, and Taz Ramirez hope to fill the void of the ten Harvard seniors who led the team to the title last year.

For this group of veterans, the Ivy League championships present an opportunity to demonstrate they can lead the team to its second title in as many years.

“It would mean the world,” Kantor said. “There is nothing more that I want in the world right now. Every day I am thinking about this Ivy championship. I think it would be such an accomplishment because it would make me feel as though I, as a senior and as a captain, was able to inspire my team to work that hard and to earn that title of champion.”