November 3, 2017
20th U SPORTS Women’s Rugby Championship: Day 1 Recap
U SPORTS
No.3 Calgary move on to semifinal with convincing win over Queen’s
LETHBRIDGE, Alta. U SPORTS – Battling snowy and cold conditions, the third-seeded Calgary Dinos opened the U SPORTS Women’s Rugby Championship with a convincing 41-5 victory over the sixth-seeded Queen’s Gaels
The win moves the Dinos into the first semifinal Friday afternoon, facing the winner of the Ottawa Gee-Gees and Acadia Axewomen. The Gaels will face the loser of that game in the first consolation semifinal.
“We are really happy with the win, especially in those conditions we had,” said Calgary head coach Simon Chi. “The girls dug deep and found a way to win this one.”
Ottawa punches ticket to semifinal with win over Acadia
The second-seeded and RSEQ champion University of Ottawa Gee-Gees scored early and often, advancing to the semifinals with a dominant 65-5 win over the Acadia Axewomen.
“We just executed our game plan perfectly, we used the conditions to our advantage,” said Ottawa head coach Jennifer Boyd. “We have been talking about this for two weeks and I could not have asked for a better performance.
“We got 25 kids in, no injuries, we really look forward to playing Calgary tomorrow.”
Big first half leads Rouge et Or to semifinal berth
Scoring in the opening minute and playing solid defence throughout the match, the fifth-seeded Laval Rouge et Or advanced to Friday’s semifinals with a 35-5 win over the OUA Champion Guelph Gryphons.
“Before the game we talked about defence with this kind of weather as our main point,” said Laval head coach Kévin Rouet. “For the first half we played well in defence, very aggressive and tackled well.
“Again tomorrow it will be a defensive game and if we could start the game like we did today it would put us in a good position.”
StFX quest for repeat moves into semifinal with win over host Pronghorns
Looking to repeat as U SPORTS women’s rugby champions, the top-seeded StFX X-Women exerted their size and strength, moving on to semifinals with a 39-12 win over the host Lethbridge Pronghorns.
StFX will now face the Laval Rouge et Or in the second semifinal, Friday evening at 7:00 p.m. ET. Lethbridge will face the Guelph Gryphons in the second consolation semifinal at 3:00 p.m. ET.
“I am very proud of the girls today, I think all the teams had to throw their game plans out the window with the weather conditions and grind out wins,” said StFX head coach Mike Cavanagh. “Our forwards went forward all day and we scrummaged well, so it was a good win for us.”
About U SPORTS
U SPORTS is the national brand for university sports in Canada. Every year, over 12,000 student-athletes and 500 coaches from 56 universities vie for 21 national championships in 12 different sports. U SPORTS also provides higher performance international opportunities for Canadian student-athletes at Winter and Summer Universiades, as well as numerous world university championships. For further information, visit USPORTS.ca.
For further information, please contact:
Ken Saint-Eloy
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U SPORTS
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Alan Hudes
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U SPORTS
Off: 905-508-3000 ext. 242
Cell: 647-991-5343