Lindenwood and Life look the business in the Women's CRC Saturday, with both teams winning comfortably as they rolled through the first day of competition.

Life shut out Allegheny 45-0 and Iowa State 46-0 to make it to the semifinals. Life was very physical in contact and it was often their defense that produced their scoring opportunities.

Lindenwood logged two shutouts as well, cruising past Northern Lights 38-0 and Iowa 54-0. Lindenwood's combination of power and pace made field position almost moot. Both Northern Lights and Iowa had situations where they could have pinned Lindenwood in their own 22 and created a scoring chance. But Lindenwood had players who crashed through tackles, and they could also burn you on the outside, and they did.

Really the story was in the other brackets, with Northern Iowa being very polished in shutting out SARC, and then putting away Bryant 29-5. Northern Iowa's physicality in the tackle was imposing. They repeatedly knocked the ball loose with their tackling, and they worked those turnover counter-attacks nicely. They also showed some superb skill, the pick of those being a breakaway and chip that resulted in a try under the posts in a very well-executed piece of skill.

Wayne State had to battle for it. After beating a tenacious Baldwin Wallace team 26-0 (Baldwin Wallace is a brand new program that has plenty of potential but is young), Wayne State faced a Davenport squad that got by SARC 2 17-0. 

This was easily the most dramatic game of the day. Wayne State used good ball movement to put players in position to take the angle to the line, and good kicking to open up a 14-0 lead.

Davenport had the edge in pace and twice punished Wayne State turnovers to come back and tie the game 14-14. Then, with the time winding down, Wayne State worked their way down the field. They executed a nice misdirection/loop move twice during this period, hit the rucks quickly, and continued to keep the offloads going. Finally the gap opened up and Wayne State was able to get over for the winner, 19-14.

Of the ten games played in the women's bracket on Saturday, eight were shutouts, and one was was 29-5. Only this Wayne State vs Davenport game was even remotely close, and it was a nailbiter.

Next up, Life takes on Wayne State in one semifinal, and Lindenwood plays Northern Iowa in the other. The winners go for the title.