Plymouth State Women’s Rugby Club Qualifies for the Upcoming Regional Tournament

Brunswick, ME- This past weekend Nov 6, the Plymouth State Women’s Rugby Club placed second in the division II tournament with a win over Bates and a close loss to Providence College. Plymouth took on highly ranked Bates College in the first game of the tournament. Bates came out strong and scored twelve points right away. This left Plymouth a little shocked because they were not used to people scoring on them that quickly. But they soon recovered and proved to everyone just how far a little heart can take a team. Andrea Clark crossed the tryline five times while Jenny Larochelle scored twice and Kelly Williams tallied up one. Meaghan Callahan made six of her eight kicks which finalized the score at 52-12. It was one the best game the Plymouth State Women’s Rugby Club has ever played. Everyone played with so much aggression and knowledge. Bates came out with one of the best runners in college rugby. They would give her the ball and she would run all around the field. Once Plymouth realized she was Bates only weapon they focused on her and the rest fell into place. Players were hurt but that did not matter to them because they kept playing just as hard and just as fast. Rucks were low and the scrums were clean as Plymouth left their mark on Bates. On Sunday morning, Plymouth dragged there bruised bodies back to the pitch for the championship game. Due to injury new players were representing Plymouth in the starting line-up and others were playing new positions in hopes of beating longtime rival Providence College. A lot of players were thinking back to the year before when the two teams met up on the same occasion and Providence walked away with the win. This time however, Plymouth hoped it would be different. Plymouth, despite all the adrenaline and hype, came out slow in the first half. No one was focused and they were just off their game. This little lapse proved to be just what Providence needed to get an early lead of seventeen. Plymouth was getting discouraged and down on themselves because they knew how much better they could play. After some brief words from the captains everything changed. Before Providence knew what hit them Plymouth was pushing thier way down the field with confidence. Larochelle was the first person to score for Plymouth with a perfect pass from the scrum. Now Plymouth was starting to get back into there rhythm from the game before. Clark soon followed with two more trys and it brought the score to 15-17. Plymouth was just three points away from beating Providence with ten minutes left in the game. I’ve never seen a team work so hard or want to win so badly as those Plymouth girls did Sunday. There faces were locked in concentration and they had Providence scared into a frenzy because they felt like the game was slipping through their fingers. But alas, the whistle blew and the game was over, leaving Plymouth to congratulate themselves on coming so close to taking the game. It just proved that Providence was beatable and that when Plymouth gets another shot at them this weekend the outcome will be much different. With their second place finish in the D-II tournament, Plymouth has qualified themselves for Regionals. A win this weekend advances them to the National Championships in May. Plymouth has been working all year for this chance and they are determined to take what is rightfully theirs.