The West Chester University Golden Rams womenʼs rugby team took on the Princeton Tigers Saturday for their fi rst home game of the season. The Tigers proved victorious in this match-up, defeating the Golden Rams 54-0.Many fans fl ocked to South Campus Saturday to support the Golden Rams in what should have been an exciting match-up. Last season, Princeton was the national club runner-up. At game time, Princeton was ranked seventh in the nation, and West Chester was ranked eleventh.
The Rams came out strong in the beginning of the game, taking control of the ball. After a quick turnover, however, the Tigers took control of the ball, and scored a try (worth fi ve points) to take the lead. At halftime, the Tigers held a commanding lead over the Rams with a score of 25-0.
During the second half of the game, the Tigers scored five more tries and two conversions (worth two points) to bring the fi nal score to 54-0. The game brought the Ramsʼ record to 1-1 within their division of Eastern Penn Rugby Union (EPRU) and 1-1 overall, improving the Tigersʼ record to 5-0.
Team captain, Jennifer Schwenk, commented on the game saying, “We have a lot of individual talent on this team. We just need to work on team defense.”
This is the fi rst season the Golden Rams are considered a varsity team. The womenʼs rugby program started out as a club program, but after a team vote last season, the girls decided to advance to the next level.
“Being a varsity sport is a lot different from the club program. It is much more organized now, and there is a lot more interest and support from the administration and fans. It was exciting to see such a good crowd today,” said Tony DeRemer, head coach.
DeRemer had an interesting view and perspective on the game, as he was the stand-in offi cial because the hired offi cial was unable to make it.
“The goal for todayʼs game was to win. We knew it would be tough, but we used this game more for experience. The girls have only had three weeks of practice before this game,” DeRemer said. With the transition from club to varsity, practice was delayed due to the immense amount of paperwork that had to be taken care of. While other teams were practicing and even starting to play games, the Rams were fi nishing the procedure to become an offi cial varsity team.
“While most other teams began practicing back in August, we didnʼt start practice until the second or third week into school. Because of this, a lot of other teams have more experience this season, playing more games than we have,” said Schwenk. The match-up between the Rams and Tigers was only the Rams second game while it was the Tigersʼ fourth.
“This game was a learning experience. Princeton defi nitely had more speed. Now we can look at the tapes, learn from our mistakes and be more prepared for next time,” commented DeRemer.
Princeton and West Chester will meet again in the play-offs. On Sept. 25, the Rams traveled to Lock Haven and came away victorious with a score of 17-5. Jennifer Schwenk and Caitlyn Langner each scored one try; Whitney Hartshorne had two conversions and one penalty kick (worth three points).
The Rams will travel to Millersville for a conference game next Saturday at 11 am. They will be back home to face Delaware on Saturday Oct. 30
for their last game of the regular season.