Courtesy of Brian Beard

On Saturday, the women’s rugby team (5–1) beat the Bishop’s University Gaiters (1–5) in a hard-fought 45–41 match, capping off a successful regular season.

As the Gaiters are in the Canadian league, a different division than the Polar Bears’ Division II placement, the match was played as a developmental match, featuring four 20-minute periods instead of the normal two 40-minute halves and rolling substitutions. However, even though the match didn’t matter for playoffs, the team still valued the win, especially after its NIRA season finale ended in a 0–43 loss to American International College (5–1), the reigning Division II champions, on October 24.

“It was definitely needed,” Kyra Bishop ’26 said. “We’re gonna be heading into a pretty competitive postseason, so being able to feel confident and good about our last day was important.”

However, the Polar Bears were not in control for the entirety of the match. Bishop’s scored the first two tries to go up 12–0, with a pair of traded tries then putting the Gaiters up 24–14 during the second period.

Bishop, who scored the Polar Bears’ first two tries of the match off of interceptions, emphasized how Bowdoin was able to regain its momentum midway through the game.

“I was just like, ‘Wow, they’re wide and flat and not looking where they pass.’ So I ran up and took it to the house, which I think was a little bit of a catalyst for other people, like, ‘Okay, let’s get this going. We’re in this game,’” Bishop said.

The Polar Bears scored a try at the end of the second period to narrow the score to 21–24 before scoring the next four tries to lead 45–24 at the start of the fourth period. A trio of tries from the Gaiters in the last period narrowed Bowdoin’s lead, but the Polar Bears still emerged victorious with a 45–41 win.

Prop Jesse Vanston ’26 highlighted the team’s momentum during the match.

“We started out losing, and then we got some points on the board, and then spirits were kind of lifting,” Vanston said. “And then I think everyone got really excited, and then with that momentum.… It was a nice change of spirits.”

Bishop emphasized how many of the players stepped up to contribute to the victory despite several recent injuries.

“I was really impressed. I think [the team] had a lot of different people who stepped up and scored. A lot of different people made plays,” Bishop said. “Everyone was really just doing their job to make sure that we were in the best position to win.”

Head Coach Laura Miller spoke on the value of the team securing a comeback win, the first she has seen in her tenure. As a new Division II team that sits in between well-resourced teams and up-and-coming teams, the Polar Bears have previously either won or lost most matches by a large margin.

“There’s not a ton of games that we go into where we don’t know the outcome already. And this is the first game that I’ve been a part of where we actually were down and fought our way back up and ended up winning the match. So that’s just a huge confidence boost,” Miller said.

Miller has sought out a higher level of competition for the team. After dominating the Division III field for the last several years, the Polar Bears moved up this season to DII, now facing new opponents.

“It’s certainly a step in the right direction, and the team is thriving on actual competitive games where we don’t know what’s going to happen,” Miller said. “I think it’s something the team has wanted for a long time, and it’s fun to actually see that come to fruition.”

Having concluded its regular season, the team will next play West Chester University (4–3) in the NIRA semifinals at Pickard Field on November 15. The team previously played West Chester during the regular season, beating them 37–27 on October 4.

Though the Polar Bears beat the Golden Rams once already, Bishop says they are not counting them out.

“They have a great program, and they, I think, underestimated us a little bit last time,” Bishop said. “So I just really want to make sure that the whole team knows that they are gonna come back swinging, and we need to be ready for the challenge.”