September 5, 2017

OUA Women's Rugby Roundup September 2-3

Sept 3

McMaster 50, York 26

Her sisters have excelled as Marauders for the past three years, but on Sunday, Tia Svoboda announced her presence at McMaster.

The rookie had a pair of tries in her team's eight-try performance, as Mac easily cruised past York 50-26 under the lights at Ron Joyce Stadium. Tia's sister Sara added a try of her own to go along with five converts, while Taylor Price, Monique Sluys, Britni French, Maddy Seatle and Brii English also crossed the try line in the victory.

Tobi Olvotomo answered with a pair of tries for the Lions in a losing effort, with teammates Petra Woods and Tia Anderson-Hudson also touching down. Catherine Belanger converted on three of four attempts. The first try of the night came in the seventh minute, as French slashed through the York defensive line to touch down near the posts. Six minutes later, Price repeated the feat, with Sara Svoboda notching her first convert to push the Marauders ahead 12-0.

Tia Svoboda's landmark first try as a Marauder followed in the 21st minute, as she launched a long solo run down the left wing and curled in to touch down under the posts. Her sister duly made good on the resulting convert. Another pair of tries, from Seatle and Sluys, powered McMaster ahead by a commanding 33-0 margin, and a stout defensive stand on the eve of the halftime break ensured that they retained it into the interval.

Just four minutes from the restart, English jump-started the scoring again with a try of her own, and the youngest Svoboda would follow just four minutes later, as Mac's lead swelled to 45-0. Sister Sara crossed the line for her lone try of the night to complete the Marauders scoring and bring the margin to 50 points, before the Lions began chipping away at their deficit.

Anderson-Hudson got her team on the board in the 60th minute, with Olvotomo following with a pair of tries and Woods capping the night with one of her own on the stroke of the final whistle, as York salvaged some offensive spark in a losing effort.

NEXT UP: The Marauders enjoy a week away from competition, before travelling to London on Friday, September 15 for a clash with the Western Mustangs.

Source: mauraders.ca

Sept 2

Guelph 38, Queen's 31

GUELPH - The 2017 OUA women's rugby season is officially underway. And the defending champion Gryphons are off and running. Saturday afternoon at Varsity Field on the campus of the University of Guelph, the Gryphons defeated the Queen's Gaels 38-31 in a thrilling season opener between two of the OUA's top teams. With the score tied at 31-31 in the 80th minute, the Gryphons broke through with third year centre Alexandra Everett powering her way through from a few yards out to score the match-winning try.

"That was an excellent rugby match today, on both sides," said Gryphons head coach Colette McAuley. "I thought our veterans performed really well. And our first and second year kids stepped up their level of play as well. We've lost some size from years past, but we played with speed and attacked really well," added McAuley.

"We'll need to shore up some things defensively, but it was definitely an encouraging start to the season. The Gryphons, who defeated McMaster in Hamilton last season to capture the OUA title, had five different players score tries on the day, including two in the second half from Alexandra Everett (Brockville, ON). Gryphons third year fly half Julia Schell, last year's OUA Shiels Division MVP, finished the day with a team-high 13 points (1 try, 4 converts).

With Guelph leading 31-17 in the 2nd half, the Gaels battled back to tie the match at 31-31. In the dying moments, the Gryphons had possession deep in Queen's territory. Despite the fact that the Gryphons were in chip-shot range for a penalty kick to take the lead, the players had their mindsets on pushing through for the winning try. The determination would pay off when, after a penalty, the Gryphons would execute a quick tap and plough through for the winning try.

For McAuley, there were several standout performances on the day, "Kylie (Shaughnessy) was exceptional for us today on defence with a number of big tackles and poaches. "Zana (Alexandra Everett) got us into good attacking positions with some width, and Emilie (Nicholl) and Amara (Hill) had a tremendous work rate around the pitch all day."

The Gryphons (1-0) will be in action again on Friday night (Sept. 8) under the lights when they travel to Toronto for a match with the York Lions. Game time is set for 7pm.

Source: gryphons.ca

Laurier 29, Toronto 25

The University of Toronto Varsity Blues women's rugby team fell 29-25 to the Laurier Golden Hawks in their 2017 season opener on Saturday night (Sept. 2) in Waterloo, Ont.

Fourth-year winger Julia Cicconi led Toronto with two tries on the night. 2016 OUA all-stars Lauren Van Dyke and Jordyn Orlando, as well as second-year winger Khadi Dako each added single tries in the loss.

Cicconi opened the scoring with her first try of the game just six minutes into the contest. Laurier evened the score eight minutes later, but back-to-back tries from Van Dyke and Orlando put the Blues up 15-5. The Golden Hawks added a late tally with one minute remaining and Toronto took a 15-10 advantage into the half.

The home team came out hot in the second half, scoring and converting two unanswered tries to take a 24-15 lead with 21 minutes remaining.

The Blues responded with back-to-back tries of their own as Dako and Cicconi found the end zone to take a one-point lead (25-24), but Laurier's Juliette Lewis scored with two minutes remaining for the game-winning try.

Source: varsityblues.ca

Brock 82, Waterloo 0

The Brock University women's rugby team opened the 2017 OUA regular season with an 82-0 victory over the Waterloo Warriors on the road Saturday afternoon.

Jenna Rainville led the Badgers offense with 20 points adding four tries while Taylour Hurd contributed with 14 points collecting two tries and two converts. Kelsey Smith and Lauren Wilks both added two tries each with single tries going to Danielle Hammith, Alanna Mercer, Amarije Barnes and Sara Shaw. Meagan Hart recorded three converts while Taylor Knezevich rounded out the scoring with a single convert.

The Badgers host the Trent Excalibur Saturday, September 9th at 3pm on Alumni Field.