Arizona State Women Take Rivalry Match Over Arizona
Arizona State Women Take Rivalry Match Over Arizona
It’s still early days in CRAA’s women’s D1 action, but a classic rivalry match did get played this past weekend.
Arizona State defeated Arizona 22-12 in what was a useful match for both. The Wildcats did lose, but they took a lot of positives out of the game, said club president Aspen Wresinke.
“It was overall a great game with rookies playing on both sides,” Wresinke told GRR. “Personally I love playing ASU because the rivalry makes the competition so much better.”
Forwards captain Adrienne Emma, who plays No. 8 and hooker, was a key leader up front and with Lena Boucher also working well, they were able to open up some opportunities for center Molly Chisholm and outside back McKenna Whisenant.
So yes Arizona lost, but they took a lot out of it.
Arizona State, meanwhile, saw Lily Morrison scored two tries and thumped some Wildcats with huge tackles. She earned player-of-the-game honors among the backs and was also named the 8x8 Sports / CRAA Women’s D1 Player of the Week.
“This is only her third 15s game and she’s really become an asset,” said Mulliniks.
Sailor Van Middendorp is back from a semester abroad and thundered her way to a forwards player-of-the-game award. Julia Bognar has moved from No. 8 to center and not missed a beat.
“We have a lot of new players,” said club president Eli Mulliniks. “So our main goal was to win, of course, but to play our hardest and get some playing time for our newest players. For a lot of our players this was their first or second game.”
This was a good start in team-building for the Sun Devils and Mulliniks said they feel they can put enough together to return to the CRAA regional playoffs.
