For years, the women’s rugby team (0-3) has been one of Brown Athletics’s brightest stars. Last year’s roster became the first rugby team ever to win the Collegiate Rugby Championship National 7s Women’s Premier Cup three years in a row. But only three games into the season, the Bears’ magical run seems to have come to an end.
After dropping their home opener 45-21 to Sacred Heart (2-1-1) in late August, the Bears fell 33-14 to Quinnipiac University (2-1) a week ago and lost 47-8 against Harvard (3-0) on Saturday. Still in the infancy of their season, Brown is already facing a massive 0-3 handicap as the Bears try to fight their way back into the NIRA playoffs — a goal that injuries and roster losses aren’t helping, according to Head Coach Rosalind Chou.
“The seniors that graduated were an exceptional class, and were our top-three try scorers last year,” Chou wrote in an email to The Herald. Among the star-studded senior class were Akilah Cathey ’25 and Nikki Lynch ’25, both of whom earned first-team All-NIRA honors for their 2024 seasons. In March, the two players were nominated for the 2024 MA Sorensen award, which is given annually to the top women’s collegiate rugby player in the United States.
A total of nine players — “two of which were the next in line to replace two of the graduated seniors,” Chou wrote — have also been sidelined throughout the early stretch of the season due to injuries. As a result, the team hasn’t had a full roster, requiring the coaching staff to ask the team’s “healthy athletes to play a full 80 minutes,” she added.
Now, the team is looking to three of last year’s star players to steer this season back in the right direction.
After scoring two pivotal tries in last year’s CRC Championship final against Army West Point, Laryssa Barbosa ’26 was selected to be part of the National Collegiate Rugby’s women’s team in the Algarve 7s tournament in Portugal. Yona Allouche ’28, who was recognized as rookie of the year during the team’s annual banquet, is looking to follow up with a dominant sophomore season. And Kate Muldoon ’26, who earned an honorable mention for a prominent NIRA award last fall, is looking to finish her collegiate career strong.
With the change in personnel and pervasive injuries, the team has had to play a “different style of rugby,” according to Chou. “We are using new tactics on attack, so we are still learning these new systems.”
“Preseason has been especially exciting as we transition from a slower, forwards-focused game to a faster-paced, kicking and territorial approach,” Allouche wrote in an email to The Herald. “The new system encourages everyone to be an option, to take initiative and to be flexible.”
Brown sought to put this new system into action during their home opener against Sacred Heart on Aug. 30. But within the first 12 minutes, the Pioneers dashed the Bears’ hopes, trouncing the Bruno defense and scoring twice.
Jenna Lowry ’27 tried to revive Brown’s offense, scoring the first Bear try of the season in the 18th minute. But by then, the prevailing rhythm of the day had already crystallized: For every point Brown scored, Sacred Heart scored two.
“We saw some strong moments from a number of our student-athletes today against an impressive Sacred Heart team,” Chou told Brown Athletics after the 45-21 loss. “We have installed a lot of new systems and have asked a lot of this team in preseason. … We have a lot of great data, so we can improve (in) some areas next weekend.”
Unfortunately for Brown, the following weekend’s match against Quinnipiac brought few improvements. Falling behind by 12 points within the first seven minutes of the game, the Bears played from their back foot for the remainder of the contest.
“We are having lapses in the first half that have put us in a hole,” Chou wrote in an email to The Herald. “Much of it is game management choices and communication.”
Despite a standout performance by Barbosa, who recorded two tries on the day, Brown fell 33-14 to Quinnipiac.
Saturday’s match-up against Harvard was a perfect opportunity to bounce back with a storied Ivy League rivalry. And as the opening whistle blew, Brown seemed to finally flip the page.
After a foul was called on Harvard’s Amber van Meines for a high tackle, the Bears were handed a golden opportunity: a penalty kick within the 22-meter line. Julia Murray ’26 — who racked up 58 points in conversions and penalty kicks last fall — took the shot, and only four minutes into the game, for the first time all season, the Bears had a lead.
But after the 3-0 start, things quickly devolved. The Bears’ defense played with grit and an almost reckless willingness to pursue contact, but in the face of Harvard’s blazing speed and strategic passing schemes, Brown’s defensive holes were laid bare.
The Crimson scored their first try eight minutes into the contest. Only five minutes later, they scored again. And then again, and again, and again, until the referee blew her whistle for halftime, and Brown found themselves in a deep 33-3 hole.
“With key forwards graduating last year, we faced a tough challenge against Harvard’s scrum,” Allouche wrote. “Additionally, we spent a good amount of time in contact, with several players trying to disrupt the opponent’s possession. At times, this commitment around the breakdown left us slightly short in the defensive line for the following phase.”
Coming out of the break, the Bears showed a spark of promise. The offense came out with an aggressive drive to reach the tryline, and within the first 15 minutes of the half, Caitlin Moroney ’28 plowed through a line of defenders and lunged across the endline. But just as soon as the offensive spurt arose, it vanished again, and Brown failed to put up another point for the remainder of the game. When the final whistle blew, the Bears were down 47-8.
“I’m hoping in the next few weeks we can get more of our athletes back and healthy,” Chou concluded. “The team has played with so much heart and tenacity, (so) we hope that we can really start to see some results in the games.”
Brown will next compete on Saturday, Sept. 27 at noon against Army West Point in New York.
“While these last few games haven’t gone the way we hoped, I am really proud of the progress we’ve made and continue to make in adapting to this system,” Allouche concluded. “No game has gone to waste, and we’ll keep analyzing our decision-making, pace (and) chemistry and continue to come up with new ideas and strategies moving forward.”
Lydell Dyer is a sports editor for The Herald. A junior hailing from Bonn, Germany, Lydell is studying nonfiction English and political science, and if he's not off "making words sound pretty," you can find him lifting heavy circles at the Nelson.
