NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The defending national champion Bowdoin women's rugby team began its 2021 campaign with an authoritative 53-10 victory over Norwich on Saturday afternoon in Vermont. The Polar Bears improve to 1-0 on the year and have claimed three straight wins over the Cadets.
 
Match Highlights

• Bowdoin senior wing Molly Petronzio powered the Polar Bears' offense with four tries on the day, including three in a row during Bowdoin's decisive 34-0 run.
• Petronzio opened the scoring 8:25 into the game with a try and an automatic conversion due to a Norwich penalty to give Bowdoin the 7-0 lead.
• Norwich answered just over 3:30 later to cut the deficit to 7-5 but Bowdoin's Colleen Doucette extended the lead to 14-5 with a converted try from Sage Kashner at the 16:00 mark, and Ella Slaby made it 19-5 just 2:15 later for the Polar Bears.
• Norwich cut the lead to 19-10 before Bowdoin began its decisive run, scoring three tries in the final nine minutes of the half with Rebecca Vakarau, Sara Nelson and Petronzio touching down for tries to take a 36-10 lead into intermission.
• Petronzio scored two more tries at the 53:20 and 55:47 mark to extend the lead to 48-10 with Lauryn Eisenhart picking up a conversion on one of them.
• Eisenhart touched down for a try of her own at the 58:58 mark of the second half to cap the scoring.

 Up Next

• The Polar Bears return to action next Saturday when they travel to play at Colby-Sawyer College at 3:00 p.m.