Huskies, Panthers, Boilermakers, Hawkeyes Survive Saturday in Women’s DI Club

On day one of women’s Division I Club competition, both number one seeds advanced to the semifinals, but the lower half of the bracket contained a pair of surprises. Out West, top seed Northeastern will take on No. 6 seed Northern Iowa at 11:45 a.m. E.T. while the East semifinal features top seed Purdue taking on the No. 3 seed Iowa Hawkeyes.

Purdue opened its day with an easy 24-5 victory over Boise State and followed that up with a 24-14 triumph over UMass. UMass advanced to the quarterfinals with a 15-14 win against Arizona State. In the bottom half of the draw, Iowa started its day with a 32-0 shutout of Baylor and then closed out the afternoon with a 17-5 triumph over Florida State.

The West Region saw Northeastern begin its day with a 29-5 win over Howard before edging Notre Dame 20-15. The Fighting Irish advanced to the quarterfinals after upending Oregon 19-12.

The bottom half of the bracket saw a pair of upsets as No. 6 seed Northern Iowa shocked Colorado State 15-10 before defeating No. 7 seed Central Florida 26-5. The Knights advanced to the quarterfinals after stunning No. 2 seed Claremont 36-12 in the opening round.

After one day of play, there is a tie at the top of the scoring tables among two players with four tries each. Kourtney Bichotte-Dunner of Northeastern started with a try against Howard before picking up a crucial hat trick against Notre Dame. Her teammate Mia Blocher also recorded four tries with a brace in each game.

All matches are streamed on The Rugby Network+ and YouTube.