Women’s Rugby begins their fall season with back-to-back wins
On Sunday, Sept. 15, the Geneseo Women’s Rugby team had a 15s style home game against Ithaca College and came out victorious with a 24-12 win and some exciting try scores. With a large senior class and an even bigger class of new players, the Warthogs’ future looks bright.
With nerves high, the Hogs wasted no time as senior fullback Ava Spottek scored a try in the first half of the long game and successfully kicked the conversion. With some tough pods from Ithaca, the Hogs held their own with communication from forwards such as senior flanker Maria Netto, senior eight-man Maddie Sepcaru, and junior flanker Sophia Bobeck took on these large groups and slowed down Ithaca’s offense. The game grew closer and closer as Ithaca’s fast, strong offense gained yards, but junior wing Anna Taylor put on the speed to run the ball over the try line, and once again, Spottek made the conversion—stopping Ithaca’s momentum. Both senior scrum-half Sophia “Joey” Weik and senior scrum-half and Flanker Claire “CJ” Lewis got the ball out quickly of messy rucks and aggressive scrums to the forwards in solidified fronts, then out to the backs to spin it to the wing.
Going into the second half with heads high, lineouts were awarded to Geneseo and junior hooker Jess Leonard, who successfully threw to jumper Bobeck to maul the ball closer to the try line. Towards the end of the game, senior center Caitlin Schirmer ran the ball over the try line after a great pass from freshman fly-half Rileigh Madden for a quick try, followed by another kick from Spottek.
Moving on to this past weekend, Sunday, Sept. 22nd, the Hogs traveled to Brockport to put the heat on, and before the end of the first half, a mercy rule was enacted. When the first half was over, the score was 38-7. In the first half of the 80-minute game, the ball was at the back of a ruck when Sepcaru saw a gap, asked for the ball from Weik, and burst to score a try that would propel the Hogs into a momentous game. With the ball moving closer and closer to the Hogs’ try zone, the forwards were under pressure as they performed front after front when finally Lewis found a gap and quickly ran it over for a try. No surprise Spottek made the conversion kick.
Within the first half, freshman wing Jill Cynar scored the first try of her rugby career with uproar from the crowd and a proper cheer-on from fellow teammates. With powerful rucks and strong drives in scrums, the Hogs had no problem getting the ball back from Ithaca to pass it out to the backs to have some fun with set plays. Before the whistle was blown, freshman Nissa Kamara held onto the ball and picked up speed as she sprinted over the try line for her first try.
Overall, the weekend was good for the Hogs after rebuilding the team from barely having a full A-side to having both an A-side and a B-side. Great job Hogs! If you are interested, the team’s next game is at the University of Rochester on Sunday, Sept. 29. If you are interested in joining, you are encouraged to come to one of their practices, which take place Tuesday-Friday 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. with a Sunday time to be determined.