The MSU Women’s Rugby Club traveled to Gainesville, Fla., on Nov. 2 to participate in the Knockout Sportswear Gator Invitational Rugby Tournament. The Lady Bulldogs went 2-2, placing fifth in the tournament.
The tournament, which consisted of 12 teams, is one of the premiere tournaments in the South. Teams from Rhode Island, North Carolina, Florida and Georgia participated.
The Lady Bulldogs faced Clemson, Florida Atlantic and Naples Women’s Club on Saturday. On Sunday, the Lady Bulldogs took on the University of Georgia.
In the first round, MSU dropped a tough match to Clemson 27-15. MSU struck first on a midfield scoring drive led by Trish Curtis. Curtis went on to score once more while Cassie Newell capped off the Lady Bulldog’s offensive drive.
Clemson answered back by scoring five times and completing two conversion kicks.
“We went into this tournament knowing that we had a pretty good shot at winning it,” said Jennifer Gray who plays and serves as assistant coach of the MSU Women’s Rugby Club. “It was a little disappointing when we lost to Clemson. They’re the top team in the South, and we held them to a pretty close game.”
In the second round MSU defeated Florida Atlantic 20-5. The leading scorer for the game was Trish Curtis who scored four times.
The third and final game on Saturday found the Lady Bulldogs taking on a very strong Naples team. Naples won the close contest.
“The two losses on Saturday were a bit of a setback. We were disappointed, but it made us refocus and prepare to take on Georgia on Sunday,” Gray said.
The fourth and final contest of the tournament found the MSU Lady Bulldogs taking on a very determined University of Georgia club.
In a very physical game, MSU pounded the ball down the field to score twice. The score remained 10-10 until the last seven seconds of double overtime.
Janeyh Walker score the winning try by finding a hole in the UGA defense and diving into the tryzone.
“I am extremely proud of the way our team played. We were playing teams who have full-time coaches, sponsors and pretty large funding from their universities. Several teams also had All-Americans, and Naples even had a player on the United States National Team,” Gray said. “We have two player-coaches, we do all our own fund-raising and receive very little help from MSU. All of our players but one have only been playing for two years. This tournament showed a lot of people that MSU Women’s Rugby Club is a force to be reckoned with.