Geneseo Women’s Rugby Takes on the UNYCRC Qualifying Tournament

Photo courtesy of Shari Nichols

The Warthogs battled hard at the UNYCRC qualifying tournament, securing dominant wins over Siena, Rochester, and Cortland before falling in a close match to Clarkson.

This past weekend, women’s club rugby attended the Upstate NY Collegiate Rugby Conference (UNYCRC). Here, they played against Siena College, the University at Rochester, SUNY Cortland, and Clarkson University.

Starting the weekend out with their kick-off against Siena College, senior fly-half Caitlin Schirmer had an impressive kick to Siena’s forwards. Still, senior prop Maddie Sepcaru caught up to the ball and gained possession for Geneseo. With trailing support, Geneseo was able to ruck over the ball and get it out quickly to a settled back line to gain yards. 

With clean passes, Geneseo kept possession of the ball as Sepcaru quickly offloaded to senior Center Ava Spotteck, who ran through Siena’s defense for a satisfying try. 

After kick-off, the ball went through the hands and got to Spotteck, who took the corner on Siena’s wing and sprinted to the try zone for her second try of the day. 

Before the end of the first half, senior scrum-half Sophia “Joey” Weik got the ball quickly out of a scrum and through hands to Spotteck, who recognized a large gap in Siena’s defense and burst through to score her third try of the game for the Warthogs. At the start of the second half, the ball went to Siena, but not for long, as junior prop Sophia Bobeck gave a hard hit clean enough for junior scrum-half Anna Taylor to get the ball out to freshman fly-half Rileigh Madden. Madden took the ball down the field, fending off Siena, to touch it down for her first try of the game. 

With good rucks from players like sophomore hooker Gloria Hodge and junior prop Rachel Dennie, Geneseo was able to get the ball out of the rucks with ease and through the hands of the back line. Madden picked the ball out of the back of a ruck to run it down the field and score the game's final try. 

The second game of the day was against the University of Rochester, and once again, the Hogs pulled through with a win. At kick-off, Geneseo was on the receiving end and quickly gained yards, as sophomore wing Charlotte Sanson ran the ball up the field before getting taken down with a quick ruck from freshman Jill Cynar and a pick from Sophia Bobeck, who ran through Rochester’s defense to score her first try of the day. Shortly after, Cynar had a try of her own after a pass from Madden and made it down the field with support from the team. 

In the second half of the game, Madden got a quick offload from Sanson and broke through Rochester’s defense to dive into the try zone, bringing Geneseo up by 7 points after a conversion. Out of a ruck through Schirmer’s hand, Weik got possession of the ball and took advantage of a gap in Rochester’s defense for the game's last try in favor of Geneseo. 

For the day’s third game, the Hogs went up against the tough Cortland team. Spotteck scored her fourth try of the day off the ground. On the defensive side, Geneseo came up strong together to stop Cortland from gaining yards, and with powerful counter rucks and poaches, the Hogs kept Cortland at bay. 

At the second-half kick-off, Cortland kicked it right to Sepcaru, who broke through their defense for a successful try. Out of a quick ruck, junior hooker Jess Leonard ran through Cortland’s tackles with a strong run through the try zone. Quickly after, Sepcaru scored again with a poach from Cortland’s ruck and took it 40 yards for her second try of the game, winning the game. 

In the game against Clarkson, Geneseo did not end up victorious, but had a close game. Spotteck scored her fifth and final try of the day from Taylor out of a ruck during this. Specaru got a pass out of a ruck, shed a tackle from Clarkson, and dove through the try zone to end the game. 

Geneseo faced up against Siena yet again, but took some momentum to gain yards as Madden took the ball from a ruck and plunged over the try zone, followed by a successful conversion kick. To end the game for Geneseo, Cynargot got a clean pass from freshman center Carolin Menon and broke through Siena’s strong defense to end the game. Unfortunately, though, Geneseo lost the game after a tough weekend.