#14 Women’s Rugby suffers season ending setback to St. Michael’s, misses out on post season for first time in 6 years

With one game left and a 4 game winning streak behind them, the #14 ranked Women’s Rugby team (5-2, 4-2 RNE)traveled North to Vermont to take on St. Michael’s, with the winner advancing to the RNE championship game.  “We had a great week of practice, so I really thought we were going to be firing on all cylinders in this one,” spoke Coach Derek Jenesky after the game “The ball was in their end the whole first half, but we kept making crucial mistakes when we needed big plays”

With the game played in St. Mikes end for the majority of the first half, the ladies had their chances, but could not break through their opponent’s stingy defense.  Late in the half a turnover and a few phase balls resulted in a score for the away team and a 5-0 halftime deficit.  “I really felt we should have been up at the half, but our lack of intensity had hurt us” continued Jenesky “And when you let a good team like St. Mikes hang around they will eventually make you pay.”

And sure enough the home team did.  Ten minutes in a turnover ball led to a long break and score for the home team to take the lead to 10-0.  Senior Shannon Clancy broke through the defense and converted her own score with 20 minutes to go and the ladies were back within three with the whole final quarter of the game to go.  St. Mikes again capitalized on mistakes and turnover balls however and scored two converted tries in succession to put the nail in the coffin in the final ten minutes.  Senior Fiona Lunney would score the final try of the match with minutes to go and in the end the ladies would go down 24-12, missing the post season for the first time in 6 years.