Saturday morning we set everything up expecting a bit of a blowout. Sac State has definitely been one of the most consistently good teams in our league and looked the strongest (taking 2nd) this year but this was Western Oregon! We had swept Sac State in league play 31-5 back in February. We had a bye that day due to Utah backing out, and Central Washington lacking the advanced info, and our league couldn't muster a third competitor.
Anyhoo, the match started at 11 with some of our famous rolling fog and slightly greasy pitch and Sac pulled out all the stops, playing the gutsiest match I've seen all year. Arlene and Georgi held it down at prop (being tough grizzled vets), their jumper stealing it all, #20 pirating at every breakdown, Lorae Simpson intense as all hell at scrum-half, their fly and inside cutting through everything, and their fullback rounding out with some calm collected hands. Western Oregon was their typical selves, fast, aggressive...always the first ones to the breakdown, ready to poach and ever willing to grind it down any channel given a sign of weakness.
Jeez they gave a good show against Western Oregon. WOU was ahead at first and then Sac finally broke their try line and the crowd was silent...just starting to hope. WOU scored two quick ones at the very beginning of the second half, one after the other, the first being a lightening quick intercept try. Then Sac came back! They scored the second try to tie it near the ending moments of the game and everyone was screaming. They needed the conversion to tie it up...supposedly the kicker was shaking so hard she tripped as she went to kick the ball. She split the sticks and the crowd howled!
Overtime consisted of five minute halves. WOU subbed in their resting A-side fullback and she made 60 meters with her first touch of the ball. They scored shortly thereafter and made the conversion. Sac state didn't really threaten them until the 2nd half of overtime and their inside center ALMOST made a clean break through the inside, given an inch of more space and she would've been through the gap. But the trap snapped shut without enough support the ball was smothered and they never really had another viable chance. The final score of 26-19 doesn't reflect how tight of a match this really was.
Sac State played their heart out and had an amazing match into overtime against Western Oregon (which has been a tough ass team since its fairly recent inception). Sac State sure as all hell made NorCal proud, it's great to see them do so well. We'll try and bring the national title back again this year so they can take the second seed next year!
Sorry I had to add this sick picture of yours truly...'cause c'mon there has to be some benefit to running a consistent blog yeh? We played our game on Sunday. We've had a shortage of props this year so our tighthead was a lock who hadn't propped in a while which threw off our scrums quite a bit. I COULDN'T THROW A LINEOUT WELL TO SAVE MY LIFE. Our backs had issues passing forward in the last quarter but overall we managed to play a solid game and keep them to a single score. Alas I didn't score a try but managed to set up two trys for my teammates. I can't rightly tell more then that due to a few knocks I got with their lock's noggin'. We had two scores in the first half, scored two quick ones after the half...and then they dotted the line, and we came back with a few more. Final Score was 36-7. Pretty damn good for a team of rookies.
So we'll be taking the 1st seed going into the Elite 8 tournament in Sanford, Florida. Of course we're scrambling for funds to send more then 18 players to Florida (unlike last year!). Our first game is set against the College of Charleston (South #1). To compile the brackets...
Division II Women’s College Club Match Schedule, Sanford, FL
Saturday, April 21
9:00 am: UC Santa Cruz (PCRFU #1) v College of Charleston (South #1)
9:30 am: University of Arizona (SoCal #1) v Bowdoin (North-East #2)
1:00 pm: Mary Washington (Mid-Atlantic #1) v Iowa State University (Mid-West #1)
1:30 pm: Western Oregon (PCRFU #2) v Norwich (North-East #1)
Sunday, April 22
9:00 am: Pool B Consolation Bracket
9:30 am: Pool A Consolation Bracket
1:00 pm: Pool B Championship Bracket
1:30 pm: Pool A Championship Bracket
I got to talk to WOU's coach, Chris Ruffolo after game which was pretty neat. She was an All American flanker, and U-23 Eagle who went on tour to the British Isles. It was cool to hear that my blog is being read by real people and I hope it encourages more people to pick up the hobby. The more press women's rugby gets, the more involved, aware, and appreciated our players and coaches get...and well shit that can't hurt can it? My only advice is to use blogger ('cause it's easy), to get started now ('cause what's more exciting then championships), and to stick with it ('cause it's really cool to realize that I've been blogging for a full season!).
Now as thanks for sticking with this REALLY long post...here are some links...
Pictures from Sunday
In Local News
Goff mentioned us in the final paragraphs of "Who is Rested Could be Key in PCRFU Playoffs" but I don't wanna quote it 'cause you should pay the subscription to read it! (jk) but it includes a sweet picture of our flanker and her crazy hair.
Oh and real quick in D1...Stanford beat Chico in the Finals taking back the #1 seed 43-30. So Chico takes PCRFU #2. UC Davis did well and beat Cal 26-5, and for the first time in my memory the Bears aren't in Sweet 16s. Chico snagged the worst pool for playoffs though...playing Army first and then the winner of Penn State vs Ohio State. Basically every single team in the pool has been a top four finisher in recent years (ok so army wasn't top for last year but they're ranked #2 right now). I still wouldn't count Chico out of the top four. Good Luck to all Cali teams (not the Cal mens need any help in D1) but the same well wishes go out to Humboldt State in DII mens. Last year three of the four national collegiate champion teams were from California =]
Just for comparisons sake here are the scores from the PCRFU playoffs this year and last:
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2007 PCRFU Collegiate Women's DII:
Host: Santa Cruz
April 7-8, 2007
WOU
DAY ONE: WOU over Sacramento 26-19
DAY TWO: Santa Cruz over WOU 36-7
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Women's Collegiate Second Division
Host: Western Oregon
April 8-9, 2006
Match A - Western Oregon (22) vs St. Mary's (0)
Match B - UC Santa Cruz (45) vs St. Mary's (5)
Match C - Western Oregon (24) vs UC Santa Cruz (34)
PCRFU 1 = UC Santa Cruz = USAR 3 = 2006 Finish: 1st
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