The NIRA season kicks off this weekend with DI teams already deep into their conference season.
While the lower divisions kick off their league seasons in a few weeks, it's all on for DI right now. With Dartmouth having graduated some players and other contenders getting more experience, this could be a wide open season.
Dartmouth at Penn State (Non-Conference Game)
All NIRA teams are NCAA varsity but they do have the NCAA OK to play a couple of non-NCAA teams. Not every teams takes advantage of this but those that do can certainly benefit from it. Two-time defending champs Dartmouth visit Penn State on Friday evening. This is the first time that Dartmouth's varsity team has visited State College. Riding an 18-game winning streak Dartmouth has graduated a pretty special group of leaders and talented players, including Ariana Ramsey (MVP of the 2022 NIRA final), flyhalf Kristin Bitter, capped Eagle Emily Henrich, and the powerful Lauren Ferridge and Sophia Haley.
So this will be an important leadership opportunity for the new cadre of seniors. Nicole Ihensekhien, Nyah Cordero, and Sadie Schier are the captains this year. Penn State is in D1 Elite and struggled in that league last year. However, they responded by taking on bigger and bigger challenges. A spring trip to France was hugely beneficial. They lost their two games there but they were very competitive and the returning players will embrace this opening week challenge with confidence as a result.
Harvard at Quinnipiac
A couple of Harvard's best players last season we freshmen. Now sophomores Tiahna Padilla, Cameron Fields, and Lennox London bring speed and intelligence and now a year's worth of experience to the team. That trio, by the way, accounted for 18 of Harvard's 43 tries in 15s rugby last season. They are bolstered by key seniors such as Brogan Mior (who, it seems, something like a week ago was one of those up-and-coming freshmen) and junior fullback Chloe Headland.
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Harvard has a nice crop of new players, too, and are potentially poised for a very good run for the next few years.
Fully conscious that they haven't beaten Harvard since 2013, the Quinnipiac Bobcats will be leaning on a solid group of older players, with all-NIRA forward Gracie Cartwright back for a grad year, and all-NIRA lock Anna van Dyk back for her senior year. And really it's that forward pack, with seniors Grace Dagenais, Hannah Pfersch, and Taylor Lea all there, that could turn the game Quinnipiac's way.
Princeton at Brown
Having worked their way through their first varsity season in 2022, Princeton is looking for some improvement steps this year. Are they favored against Brown? Probably not. But Head Coach Josie Ziluca has been focusing on team unity and teamwork, and working from the building blocks installed last year. It will be step-by-step, but that's OK. They have plenty of players who are returning with some NIRA experience, headed bby current sophomore Amelia Clarke, who suited up for the USA U20s this summer. They have added 12 freshmen in what is their first real recruiting class.
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Brown sees the terrific Mahdia Parker graduate but with Nikki Lynch, Akilah Cathey, Noelle Lewis, and the goalkicking skills of Julia Murray they have plenty of experienced talent.
"I think it definitely will be a collective effort of trying to all piece together her skill set," Murray said of Parker. "All of us working together to create a Mahdia but I don't think one person's going to be able to take her place."
That might actually be a good thing.
Head Coach Rosalind Chou said the team has started to adopt their systems and adjusted to the new coaching staff. The new players are all ready to contribute, she added in a preseason interview.
"What I'd really like them to do is for them to start establishing a kind of swagger," added Chou.