Women’s Rugby advances to second DII Final Four in three years
The Women’s Rugby team scored an impressive 37-7 victory Sunday over UNC charlotte to advance to their 2nd final four in the past three years. Their semi final opponent will be The University of Notre Dame on Saturday April 30th in Pittsburgh, PA. “We just look like a different team at the moment,” spoke Head Coach Derek Jenesky after the game, “We are playing at a very high level, even key injuries are not slowing us down.”
In Sunday’s Elite 8 game against UNC Charlotte, the ladies came out flat, making several ball handling mistakes inside their opponent’s 22 meter line, but Senior Ashley George broke free after a nice off load from junior Fiona Lunney to score the games first points 21 minutes into the half. Fellow Senior Deborah Caruso dove into the corner of the try zone for the team’s second score with minutes remaining in the half for a 10-0 lead at the break.
“The beauty of this team is we all were not happy with our first half play,” continued Jenesky,” but the sign of a good team is they take the adjustments made at half time and implement them on the field.” In the second half the Purple and Black began to attack the middle of the field and it began to pay dividends, gaining ground in massive chunks. Senior Brittany Roy got the second half under way scoring from in close for a 15-0 lead with 35 minutes to play. Freshman Shannon Etherson received a pass from George 5 minutes later to score under the post. Senior Laura Fischer converted the Etherson score and the ladies had some breathing room at 22-0. UNC would not go away, scoring on a long run to cut the score to 22-7, but Senior Laura Fischer would expand the lead, scoring off a weaving run to put the ladies up by 20. George scored again with 13 minutes to go, and that was followed by Senior Katie O’Malley picking the ball off a ruck, and scoring in the corner for the 37-7 final.
“We are all so proud of this team,” finished Jenesky, “We have worked so hard this spring to get where we are now, and the ladies deserve everything they have earned.”