USA Rugby Reds and Whites Start Strong in Women’s Rugby Elite Competition – [VIDEOs]

The top 100 female rugby players played the first round of the Elite Competition at the University of Northern Colorado on Sunday.  In hot and dry conditions the 3 teams from the Women’s National Team pool and the All-Americans competed in the first of 3 match days throughout the week with Eagle Reds overcoming the All-Americans 36-22 in the first match and Eagle Whites beating Eagle Blues 42-22 in the second match.

The All-Americans struck first, when an impressive solo try by Kimber Rozier put them on the board first, 8 minutes into the match.  The Reds would not wait long to answer, as Mel Denham was able to finish a break of her own putting down her first try of the day. The All American’s roared back to live, with some well worked ball movement putting winger Megan Bonny over the try line twice, bringing the score to 15-5 at the half.

In the first minute of the second half Reds winger Katie Dowty scored with a conversion by Dee McGillivray, but unbowed, the All-Americans responded 5 minutes later with a great strike and try by Katie Johnson and conversion by Ameial Bizer to pull the score to 22-12.  Denham responded again, dotting down for her second try of the day, and a great weaving run by Dowty resulted in her second try as well. Dee McGillivray’s conversions gave the Reds their first lead 24-22 with 20 minutes to go.  Tries by Sadie Anderson and Jess Wooden in the last 10 minutes allowed the Reds to pull away the game finished 36-22 to the Reds.

The second game of the day was between the Whites and the Blues. The Whites started strong, backing the Blues up against the try line and refusing to let them cross the half.  The Whites were finally able to convert the pressure into points, putting winger Andrea Prusinski over the line to take a 5-0 lead.  Less than 5 minutes later Vanessha McGee put a try into the opposite corner, and Hannah Stolba slotted the conversion, bringing the score to 12-0.  The Whites continued to turn the screws, and the pressure resulted in the Blues conceding a penalty close to their own line, which Stolba coolly converted to extend the White lead to 15-0.  Standout McGee found her way over the line again at 26 minutes to put the Whites up 20-0.

The Blues changed tactics, and used some well placed tactical kicks to back the Whites against their own try line for the first time in the game. The pressure paid off, as Christy Ringgenburg successfully converted a penalty kick to put the Blues on the board.  The last 10 minutes of the half saw the Blues, come to life, and some great support by prop Adrian Acosta resulted in a 30 meter breakaway, which she finished off with a try in the corner.  Vetran kicker Ringgenburg easily converted from the touchline, and the half ended with Blues closing the gap, but still down 20-10.

The White grabbed the momentum quickly at the start of the second half with Tess Kohanski taking the ball in from 40m, but the Blues responded quickly with a nice run by Ringgenburg and finished off with a try by Lucy Croy.  Emily Jone’s conversion pulled the Blues within 3 at 25-23 with 27 minutes to go.

In the final 15 minutes the physicality of the match ramped up, with neither side willing to concede a foot of territory.  As the contest headed up inside, space opened up on the corner, and McGee was to break the stalemate, and then break it again, and again- scoring three tries in the last 10 minutes! With Stolba’s expert boot on the conversions, the final score line saw the Blues on top 42-22.

“Considering that the teams had only practiced together twice, I thought the level of play was outstanding,” said Women’s National Team head coach Peter Steinberg.

“The goal of this week’s elite competition is to put the players, coaches and referees into an international-like environment, and we have worked hard to provide all the participants with the resources that would be available to them in an international tournament.  The level of play on Sunday was good, but what I am really excited to see is what the teams can produce on Saturday with a week’s worth of practices”, Steinberg continued.

The next set of matches are on July 4^th with the All-Americans taking on the Whites at 1:30pm MST  at the Blues and Whites squaring off at 3:30pm MST.

Elite Camp League Table

Team	Won	Lost	Bonus Pt	For	Against	Points
Whites	1	0	1	42	22	5
Reds	1	0	1	36	22	5
CAA	0	1	1	22	36	1
Blues	0	1	0	22	42	0

Collegiate All-Americans

1. K. Onyekwere, 2. M. Krug, 3. J. Davis, 4. K. Armstrong, 5. A. Conrad-Forest, 6. B. Cline, 7. K. Johnson, 8. C. Pheil, 9. B. Houston, 10. K. Rozier (capt), 11. M. Bonny, 12. J. Peterson, 13. B. Ibrahom, 14. A. Okanta, 15. A. Bizer
Subs: E. Cairns, M. Fonua, M. Leanard, E. Cantorna, J. Vanada, H. Zoeller, M. McCarthy

Eagle Reds

1. S. Chabot, 2. J. Kitlinski, 3. L. Poole, 4. F. Bray, 5. A. Brown, 6. Amanda Kingzitt, 7. Ashley Sorenson, 8. M. Denham (capt), 9. E. Trullio, 10. S. Anderson, 11. K. Lundstrum, 12. D. McGillivray, 13. E. Bydwell, 14. K. Dowty, 15. J. Wooden
Subs: K. Weber, L. Butts, N. James, E. Van Gulick, L. Kugler, J. Lui, T. Mastrangelo

Eagle Blues

1. N. Reddick, 2. R. Primo, 3. S. Wilson, 4. H. Miesner, 5. S. Walsh, 6. S. Bridges, 7. E. Snodgrass, 8. K. Daley (capt), 9. D. Peng, 10. M. Sanders, 11. E. Cavanaugh , 12. S. Braaten, 13. D. Owsiany, 14. V. Griffiths, 15. C. Ringgenberg
Subs: Emily Jones, Alicia Gillberg, A. Acosta, T. Gjestvang, K. Wagner, A. Kmiecik, A. Mulford, P. Boone, L. Croy

Eagle Whites

1. L. Berg, 2. J. Zarembinksi, 3. E. Fierman, 4. L. Daly, 5. S. Blaney, 6. S. Turley, 7. K. Bonomo, 8. J. Potter (capt), 9. C. White, 10. H. Stolba, 11. V. McGee, 12. R. Brafman, 13. A. Daniels, 14. A. Prusinski, 15. S. Pankey
Subs: Tess Kohanske, B. Annis, K. Augustyn, A. VanDriesen, A. Baravilala, S. Moreno, E. White, M. Kinsella, C. Meyers

Watch the videos from the entire week here.