Ags top Cougs in overtime

Brooke Lambert scored all of the Utah State women’s rugby club’s points in its 10-3 overtime win over BYU Saturday at the HPER field.

Tied 3-3 going into overtime, the Aggies marched straight down the field to set up Lambert’s game-winning try, just a few minutes into the period.

“Everybody came out harder for sudden death,” Lambert said. “It was good for our team.”

Head Coach Michele Olpin said she was pleased with the way her team stepped up in the extra period.

“I gave then five minutes to score and they went out there and dominated,” she said. “And when they go out like that, they do dominate.”

USU took a 3-0 lead late in the first half on a penalty kick and held it until about 10 minutes remaining in the game when the Cougars hit a penalty kick of their own to tie the game.

“When [BYU] scored, we dropped our heads,” Lambert said. “We showed that we can come back when we get scored on at the end of the game.”

Olpin said the Aggies didn’t play with enough intensity once they took the lead.

“When I played, we’d get up and then we played like we already won it,” she said. “We played like that today. A 3-0 lead is nothing in rugby.”

Lambert said Saturday’s game was much closer than last year’s with BYU.

“Last year, we beat them like 37-0,” she said. “But there’s brand new teams on both sides and they have a new coach.”

Olpin said the game was sloppy, but it was understandable given all the inexperienced players on the team.

“Most of the players played their first or second game of rugby today,” she said. “Most of them had never played before [this season]. Based on that, I thought they did very well. But I expected to win by a lot more.”

USU will play in the Snakebite Tournament in Boise next weekend, which Lambert said the team won last year.

-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu