Women’s rugby falls to SLC Slugs at home
A second-half scoring drive was not enough to overcome a 13-point halftime deficit for the lady Aggie rugby squad as it lost to the Salt Lake Slugs 13-6 on Saturday at the HPER field.
Whether it was the snow or because it was an exhibition game, the Aggies didn’t come ready to play the first half and the Slugs took advantage. After halftime, the Slugs came out less focused, as evident by their cheer to start the second half.
“Twenty more minutes to beer,” they said in unison to break the huddle.
And in the second half, the Aggies finally managed a score as outside winger Angie Winder took the ball down the sideline and made it about 10 yards away from the goal line when a Slug defender stopped her and she pitched the ball out to Annie Wilson for the score.
The Slugs had a definite weight advantage over the Aggies and that’s what ultimately gave them the 13-0 lead to help them cruise to the victory.
“Sometimes they have an overload on my side when I was a winger; and they are big girls,” Angie Winder said. “And I’m a smaller girl, you know like 5-foot-2-inches and 120 pounds, so it was really scary going against some of those girls because they did have a big, huge team.”
In the second half, Utah State came out more focused and the fatigue factor weighed in on the Slugs and the Aggies managed to get the single score in the second half.
“In the end when we finally got the ball and we started getting it out to our backs, the quickness did [help], they were getting tired and they’re these big girls and we just ran through them,” Winder said.
Last fall’s head coach Michelle Olpin graduated in December and left the program. This semester, injured Bryn McMillian has assumed the head coaching responsibilities.
In addition to McMillian, there have been other injuries and the team has added some new players and is looking for more. The team encourages any women interested to come to their practices, which are held Tuesdays at 9 p.m. at the Fieldhouse and Thursdays at 4 p.m. at the HPER field.
“We have a lot of new girls; so the new people will be learning with a lot of other new players,” team president Whitney Doe said.
-cmoffit@cc.usu.edu