September 30, 2016
Notre Dame College Women’s Rugby Downs Life
Photo: Notre Dame College Women’s Rugby and Life Rugby
Doug Coil
On Thursday afternoon, September 29th, two of the outstanding Division 1 Women’s Rugby teams met at South Euclid, Ohio. The rains came and the field was slick, but this did not stop the teams from competing.
Life University Women’s rugby was on a mini tour having scrimmaged Ohio State and then playing against Notre Dame College yesterday.They finish their tour on Saturday when they will play against Penn State. Life narrowly lost last year to Penn State in the D1 Elite Semi-finals of Nationals in the Spring.
Notre Dame College is part of the National Intercollegiate Rugby Association where they won against Norwich before facing Quinnipiac last weekend and suffering a loss. This Saturday, October 1, they play Army.
Both teams are seeking the best available competition to improve their programs and it is working with the leadership of Mark Andrade at Notre Dame College and Rosaland Chou at Life University.
The match was a defensive battle for the entire match. This is likely due to the quality of both teams, with the weather also impacting the playing conditions.
Notre Dame struck first on a Lea Walsh try and held on to a 5-0 lead at halftime. Life University came out during the second half with a fast back line attack and Angelica Owen scored under the posts to take the lead 7-5.
Notre Dame College’s Marcaya Bailous added a try and the Falcons reclaimed the lead 10-7. In the closing minutes, Freshman Hannah Bazemore salted away the win for the Falcons with a try in the corner and a 15-7 win.
Notre Dame College is meeting the challenge of competing against the premier women’s rugby programs in the Nation. Life University is also to be commended for also seeking the best to play.
Rosalind Chou added some post match comments saying “All the credit goes to NDC, they were physical and put us under a lot of pressure defensively. We’ve said the goal of the tour is to get as much data as possible with some new combinations and personnel so we can keep improving every week. NDC is always a tough competitor and outperformed us. We are looking forward to continuing to improve and test out different personnel this fall so that we can be in the best position for spring playoffs.”
Mark Andrade added “We started a great little competition dating back to the CRCs in 2014. We traveled up to Life last fall and will look to return the favor and travel back to Atlanta next fall. It is great for the growth of the game and helps bring up the level of play for these girls when you can play a team like Life on a regular basis.”
