Women’s rugby club powers to second-place finish at Pacific Coast Playoffs
Not only did the Utah State women’s rugby club represent the university at the Division II Pacific Coast Playoffs, it represented the entire state.
The Aggies became the first team from Utah to qualify for the Divisional Playoffs, taking second place out of three teams, March 29 and 30 in Palo Alto, Calif.
After hammering UC Santa Cruz, 53-5 on March 29, the Aggies were one game away from qualifying for Nationals. However, USU was forced to play a woman short when Rebeca Olsen broke her collarbone, and fell to San Jose State, 25-17 on March 30.
Despite being disappointed on just missing out on a trip to Nationals, inside center Becca Ogden said the team made Utah rugby proud.
“We feel we made a pretty good showing for the state,” she said.
Utah State certainly made a good showing in its first game, applying constant pressure on the Banana Slugs early and often.
“We scored in the first 30 seconds of the game, and kept going from there,” Ogden said.
With momentum on their side heading into the SJSU game, the already short-handed Aggies were dealt a huge blow with the injury to Olsen – giving USU only 14 players for the game.
Being short-handed was especially costly against what Ogden said was a very physical Spartan squad.
“They were a really physical team that hit hard,” she said. “They had big, physical forwards.”
Nevertheless, Ogden said Utah State was able to stay within striking distance of the bigger, deeper Spartan squad.
After trailing for the majority of the game, Ogden said the Aggies were able to tie the game at one point and had several missed scoring opportunities in the second half.
“We kept the ball in their half of the field the last 15 minutes [of the game], but just had a hard time scoring,” she said.
Playing San Jose State should serve as a good warm-up for USU’s next match, Ogden said, as the Aggies will host the Salt Lake club team Saturday at 11 a.m. on the HPER Field.
Ogden said SJSU and Salt Lake are similar teams – both in skill level and physical nature. Finding motivation will not be an issue when the Aggies take the field against Salt Lake, as the Slugs defeated the Aggies in two closely contested games during the fall.
“After this last weekend, we have a lot more confidence, and we owe them [Salt Lake] one,” Ogden said. “We feel we’re playing really well right now.”
The Aggie men will also be in action, hosting in-state rival Weber State on Saturday. Saturday’s match will start at 1 p.m., and will also be played on the HPER Field.
-jasonwturner@cc.usu.edu