Wellesley proves no match for Women's rugby under the lights

Playing at home on a Friday night in front of a huge crowd, the Stonehill Women's Rugby team, (4-0), stayed undefeated with a 20-0 victory over Wellesley College (2-2).  Back on their heels for most of the first half, the ladies struggled with Wellesley's slow game pace, continually losing rucks and scrums leading to a major field advantage for the visitors.  Looking for spots to counter-attack,  Junior Fly-half Laura Fischer's timely kicking, tilted the field position back to the purple and black, and led to the first try of the game.  Fischer taking a an off-load from junior Inside center Katie O'Malley, burst through the defense for the games opening points.  The advantage would be doubled just five minutes later as some nice forward phases were strung together, allowing Junior hooker Olivia Gorab to dive across the line in the corner and at the half the ladies clung to a 10-0 lead.

The second half was much of the same as the visitors continued to push towards the ladies goal line, only to be stuffed by some timely tackling each time.  Senior outside center Alyssa Bibeau would give the home team some breathing room as she broke free from the defense after some timely passing in the backline.  Fischer's conversion would sail inches wide, but the ladies had regained the lost momentum.   With 10 minutes to go Fischer would salt the game away, looping outside and taking a feed from sophomore wing Katie Jablonski, she would beat the defense to the corner for the final score of the match.  "it was alarming, how many scrums and rucks we lost," commented Coach Derek Jenesky after the game, "but that falls on the coaching.  We need to get the girls better as we head towards the playoffs.  I thought we played outstanding team defense however against a tough opponent." 

The undefeated Stonehill women travel to Southern Connecticut next week to close out the regular season campaign.