Women’s Rugby advances to fourth Northeast Championship in five years with Semi Final victory over B.U.

The Women’s Rugby team (9-1) advanced to the Northeast regional Final with a resounding 31-10 victory over Boston University (7-3) in Brunswick Maine on Saturday.  Awaiting the ladies in the final will be old rival Norwich University, 29-12 winners over Harvard.

Senior Olivia Gorab looped outside and on a continued phase and dove into the corner just 4 minutes in for a 5-0 lead.  That lead would hold until the last forty seconds of the half when sophomore Fiona Lunney broke through the tough B.u defense for a forty meter break away romp.  Senior Laura Fischer converted the score and the ladies had a huge momentum burst and a 12-0 lead at the break.

Early in the second half senior Deborah Caruso gave the ladies some breathing room scoring in the corner for a 17-0 lead.  Minutes later Junior Shannon Clancy charged down a kick and alertly pounced on the bouncing ball in the try zone, Fischer’s conversion made the lead 24-0.  It would be Clancy again, moments later breaking through off some nice backline passing for another converted try and a comfortable 31-0.  Boston University would gamely tack on two final tries for the 31-10 final, but the ladies were once again in the championship.  “A great team win,” spoke Head Coach Derek Jenesky after the game, “Defensively they did a great job stuffing our interior backs, so we had to adjust and get scoring from other areas.  This was our most complete game of the year to date.”

The ladies will take on Norwich University at 10:00am in a re-match of the 2010 New England Final, won by Norwich 27-7.