Women’s rugby team wins
The Utah State women’s rugby team converted a penalty kick in the final minutes to beat the UVSC Wolverines 25-24 and win its final home game of the season.
Brooke Lambert had two trys and 17 points to lead the Aggies.
“I’m proud of the team,” Head Coach Michele Olpin said. “They played well today. We had a nice crowd out today. It was nice to win in front of them.”
The Wolverines led 10-5 at halftime, but the Aggies opened the second half with 14 straight points to take a nine-point lead. UVSC then rallied to take a 24-22 lead with a penalty try and kick with two minutes to play before USU’s penalty kick sealed the win.
“Being up nine is not a lead in this game at all,” Olpin said. “There was still 25 minutes to play.”
Lambert said the quick start to the second half allowed USU to control most of the second half.
“It’s a lot easier to score after you’ve already scored,” she said, talking about USU’s two tries at the beginning of the half. “It always takes us about a half to get ready.”
Jana Christensen scored the first try of her career in the second half to start the Aggie rally.
“That had a lot of momentum behind it,” Olpin said. “It was her first try and it was her birthday. It boosted our level of play and attitude. It made me feel a lot better about the game.”
The win helped USU’s chances of advancing to nationals, but the Aggies will have to beat the Wolverines again when they meet later this season in order to qualify.
Olpin said if the teams split the two games they play against each other then the team with the most total points gets to go to the national tournament.
“We only won by one,” she said. “It was a really close win. If we don’t win next time, UVSC will go.”
In the first half, the Aggies nearly scored first but the Wolverines held strong and marched down the field and scored a try to take a 5-0 lead. Less than one minute after that, Lambert would find a seam in the UVSC defense and run 40 yards for a tying score.
UVSC added another try to take a 10-5 lead and were only 3 yards shy of another try when time expired in the first half.
-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu