Central Washington University, ranked #16 among DI women's college rugby programs by Goff Rugby Report, edged #5 Quinnipiac 22-17 Saturday in a clash in Ellensburg, Wash.

The teams were tied with two minutes to go when freshman wing Ashley Rolsma scored the game-winner.

"It was a great competitive match which we were looking forward to." CWU head coach Melanie Denham said. "We have a lot of young girls who stepped up to the challenge today."

With the match tied at 17 CWU marched down the field and were within inches of the tryline. After a few failed attempts to muscle their way in, the Wildcats' Cassidy Meyers and Asinate Serevi set up Rolsma, who drove through a host of tacklers to give the Wildcats the 22-17 lead with just minutes remaining.

"It was an exciting moment and it was exactly what we practiced." Denham said of the game winning score. "We gave it to our forwards but the girls saw space out wide and it was textbook rugby with the way our backs handled the ball."

The Wildcats trailed 17-5 going into halftime as the Bobcats maintained possession for the majority of the half. The Wildcats lone first-half score came from Serevi.

"We knew they [Quinnipiac] were going to come out hard." Denham explained about the first half. "They are fast and fit and it took our players a little bit of time to put everything together. After we got that out of our system we were able to put phases together.

The second half belonged to the Wildcats who held the Bobcats scoreless in the frame. Katerina Long got the scoring started for CWU with a try 14 minutes into the half.

It didn't take long for the Wildcats to score their next try as Tiffani Candler found the try zone three minutes later and a conversion by Meyers knotted the match at 17-17.

"I wasn't surprised that we won," added Denham. "We've been looking at this game as THE competitive game for us this fall. We put in a good effort, though, and I'm happy."

The game was close through the final 30 minutes or so, after CWU came back. Denham chalked up the change in fortunes for her team to the fact that some young players adjusted well under pressure.

"We started getting into the flow of what we wanted to do," Denham said. "Quinnipiac has some really good, hard runners. We try to play a pretty well-balanced game, and what we wanted to do was be physical on defense and put them under pressure."

Along with Meyers, Serevi, Long, and Rolsma, the try-scorers, other Wildcats stepped up, especially a group of young forwards, some making their first starts.

Looking ahead, CWU finishes the first half of their league schedule with Washington State, Oregon State, and Oregon on the docket. They are favored to win all of those.