COLUMBUS, Ohio – On March 24, Notre Dame College took on the Big 10 Conference Champion Indiana University. Along with winning the match by a score of 35-15, the Falcons moved into the top-10 in the D1A Rugby rankings.
 
Heading into the match, the Falcons were ranked 16th in USA's D1A Rugby rankings, while the Hoosiers were ranked 10th.
 
According to graduate assistant Tommy Walsh, "Both teams matched up equally in size and skill." However, the Falcons were missing senior center, Zackaree Forro. The match started off in the favor of the Falcons as a quick penalty turned into a lineout just outside Indiana's 22-meter mark.
 
The Falcons went down into a maul, driving for several meters, before sophomore lock, Christian Olsen, broke out with a big run to the corner to dot down the Falcons first and his only try of the match. Sophomore Patrick O'Shea had an immense amount of wind heading East to West, but that did not stop him from slotting the difficult conversion. Falcons went up 7-0 within the first 2 minutes of the match.
 
Around the 10-minute mark, the Hoosiers received a penalty for not releasing, allowing O'Shea with a 40-meter opportunity to receive 3-points for the Falcons. O'Shea slotted the penalty kick with ease and put the Falcons up by 10.
 
From this point forward, everything happened in the favor of the Falcons as the first half finished up 25-0 with tries by senior William Mount, junior August Murphy, and senior Marcus Tupuola.
 
The second half was off to a slow start with Indiana dotting down their first try of the match around the 50-minute mark. The Falcons did not take long to respond with a try of their own from senior flanker Cullen Barelka.
 
Shortly after Barelka put one over, senior full-back Cory Graham side-stepped his way through defenders to put down his only try of the match. That would be enough to finish the match-up between the Falcons and the Hoosiers, even though Indiana ended up scoring twice more before the final whistles were blown. The Falcons won the match 35-15.
 
Last Tuesday, the newest USA Rugby D1A rankings were released and NDC has moved up to No. 10. Indiana moved down one spot to 11th.
 
The Falcons will now wait to see when they will play their playoff game.
 

D1A Rankings
1.	St. Mary's
2.	Life
3.	Cal
4.	BYU
5.	Lindenwood
6.	Army
7.	Penn State
8.	Navy
9.	Arizona
10.	Notre Dame College