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Last updated: Thursday, Feb. 9, 1:34 a.m.
Sports

Women’s Rugby: Radcliffe stops high-flying Bears

By Laila Sholtz-Ames
Posted on Sept. 28, 2009, at 2:23 a.m.

Last weekend, the University of Maine women’s rugby team scored a remarkable 103 points against Northeastern University, proving their will and determination for the upcoming season.

On Saturday, the Black Bears looked to continue their domination against the Radcliffe College rugby team, but dropped the game in a close match 27-12.

Radcliffe, a tough Division I team, turned heads two year ago when the team qualified for the national tournament and competed at Penn State. They made headlines again last year when they went to Florida for the national playoffs and finished the year ranked 15th in the nation.

Going into the game, UMaine knew the Crimson would be a difficult team to garner a win against, but they refused to give up and played hard for the entire 80 minutes.

The Radcliffe offensive proved to be too explosive, and scored five tries — the first time a team has scored on the Black Bears dating back to the spring season.

Despite the loss this week, the team will continue their daily practices and hard work, and look to progress forward with the remainder of their season.

“Even though we lost, it was still a really nice day outside and it was a lot of fun,” said Lindsey McKenna, a veteran who scored her first try last week.  “I think we need to work on rucking … that was our downfall but everyone hustled and we put up a good fight. It definitely was not an easy win for Radcliffe.”

Despite the loss, UMaine’s offense was able to put together a few tries. Thanks to powerful work by the forwards in the scrums, the backs were able to execute two successful scoring opportunities, one by senior Kelly White and the second by Alice Berry, who was able to break through the Radcliffe defense.

Despite the two scores from the Black Bears, the Crimson put together a dogged defensive effort and held on to win the game.

Caitlin Losi, one of the rookies this season, said she thought the team played really well together.

“We lost, but overall, I thought we played a really great game. It was pretty exciting, because I got to play the entire game, which was eye opening.”

The Black Bears look to rebound and garner their second victory this season when they take on their first Maine school, Bowdoin College. The game is slated for this Saturday at 1 p.m.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 28th, 2009, 2:23 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.

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  • Ana Mendy

    “Radcliffe, a tough Division I team, turned heads two year ago when the team qualified for the national tournament and competed at Penn State. They made headlines again last year when they went to Florida for the national playoffs and finished the year ranked 15th in the nation.”

    Radcliffe is a division II team and did not finish 15th in the nation last year. Nor did Radcliffe travel to Florida, or anywhere outside of the Northeast, and did not compete in nationals or make any headlines. Two years ago, the team did not compete at Penn State for nationals either, making their undefeated record this year all the more impressive.
    The team is also not called the Crimson and they don’t attend “Radcliffe College”. They are the Harvard University Women’s Rugby Team, whose team name is Radcliffe Rugby Football Club.

    This information was probably gotten from the Radcliffe team website, which has not been updated in a while and therefore is outdated in terms of how many years ago they went to nationals and what division they are.