Women's Rugby Defeats UMW for Title

By John Graham
Community SubmissionThe Longwood University women's rugby team defeated the University of Mary Washington (UMW) Sunday 7-5 to claim their first ever Ed Lee trophy and Virginia Rugby Union (VRU) championship. In Saturday's semifinal against VCU, the women won easily 42-0. The team's eight tries came from Bridget Dykes, Kaelynn Nill (2), Erica Rhodes, Alea Newman, Nikole Widder-Varhegyi, Ninamarie Elliot and Ashley Irby, and Katie Jo Prince contributed a conversion. In the other semifinal, UMW had little trouble defeating William and Mary 24-10 in a strong performance.
 
The finals were a rematch of a game played two weeks ago where LU won over UMW 14-13 on a last-second kick from Prince. This game between the two nationally-ranked teams (LU 15th and UMW 16th ) would prove to be just as close. The first half ended in a 0-0 score with both sides having good periods of play but no real scoring threats. At the 55-minute mark, UMW scored on a quick throw in from 40 yards out that caught LU by surprise. The missed conversion left UMW with a 5-0 led with 25 minutes to play. With LU pressuring the UMW goal line, Nill was finally able to put down a score, and once again Prince was center stage for a conversion kick. The kick sailed true and LU had the lead 7-5 with 15 minutes left in the game. Unfortunately, LU would have to play those last 15 minutes a player short due to yellow card suspensions. With desperate defense LU was able to hang to claim their first VRU title.
 
The win leaves the team undefeated (7-0) for the fall season and sends them into the playoffs with a #1 territorial seed. Their likely opponent will be LaSalle University in a game to be played in Farmville in March. For more information see longwoodrugby.org