Met NY’s women’s DII college was rife with surprise this past Sunday. Quinnipiac in its first-ever season defeated Marist 23-7 (read more), Rutgers nearly hit the century-mark against New Paltz, and Vassar fell 28-27 to Stony Brook.

To put things into perspective, Stony Brook’s lone win came against last-place Hofstra (60-0) the weekend prior, and the Seawolves had tied New Paltz 3-3 before that. Vassar was certainly favored in this match on Sunday, and actually outscored the visitors five tries to four.

Conversions made all of the difference, however, and it’s a shortcoming that Vassar remembers all too vividly from last year’s postseason.

Vassar sidelined several starters due to injury, and certainly could have used their influence as Stony Brook ran out to a 14-0 lead on tries from Katherine Foran and Nikki Tang. Cathy Tang handled the extras.

It was only a matter of time before Vassar got its offense going, and two unconverted tries from the hosts pulled the scoreline to 14-10. But a final try from Lexi Slavin widened the gap to 21-10 by the break.

Stony Brook didn’t take any chances and continually challenged Vassar’s back three with territorial kicks. It proved a savvy strategy, as Vassar struggled to counterattack well. The Vassar forwards responded well and had the edge in set pieces in rucks, but possession was surrendered too often in the open field, and more scoring opportunities were lost.

Vassar dotted down the first try (21-15) of the second half, but Slavin’s second five-pointer gave Cathy Tang the opportunity to slot the winning conversion. She was four for four on the day.

Vassar did rumble back with two more tries, but fell a point short. Vassar had sent Chelsea Boccagno, Nichelle Jackson, Natalie Ward, Shanaye Williams and Hannah Fink across the line, and Julie Maltby added a conversion. The team did earn two bonus points, however, for scoring four-plus tries and losing by less than seven points.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Rutgers ran over New Paltz 99-0.

“The score pretty much sums up this game, all one way traffic with Rutgers having the majority of possession and controlling the set pieces,” Rutgers coach Mike Ross said. “As a coaching staff it is difficult to take something away from a game such as this, and no disrespect to New Paltz, however it was nice to see players run with confidence with ball in hand.”

Even though New Paltz has been struggling this season, it isn’t for lack of numbers.

“New Paltz showed tremendous character and never gave up,” Ross continued. They traveled with a large squad so their future looks bright.  The most difficult job for any coach is recruiting players and creating interest among the student population. It was evident from the 35+ players that traveled for New Paltz that they are not having a problem doing this.  That is wonderful to see for the sport.”

Below are the current standing in Met NY women’s DII college.