Falcons Women Showcase Solid Defense in Win over Life

08.03.2026Eagles

Tessa Hann was one of those impact players off the bench.

Tessa Hann scored three tries for the Falcons.

Author: Alex Goff

The USA Falcons Women defeated Life University Women Monday evening in Marietta, GA.

This game was a warmup match before the Falcons' tour of Brazil, and it also opened up a bit of debate that crops up periodically—could a top-flight domestic team play and beat a development national team?

The answer is yes, they could play and compete against them, but the Falcons won 40-5.

Life competed well and looked srt to score first as they pressured hard off the kickoff. However, the Falcons defended well. A team brought together from many programs can struggle to play good team defense, but the Falcons did exactly that.

Eventually they got the ball back, and a nifty snipe by flyhalf Bella Vogel, stepping into the scrumhalf role, led her to offload to lock Malia Isaacs. She quickly fed flanker Tessa Hann, and the teams vice captain sped in to score. The Falcons had hardly possessed the ball but led 7-0.

Life had already received another blow, as prop Ariel Chalmers went down injured.

The Falcons then stayed on the front foot, pressing the Life defense. A well-taken lineout by Lissa Salisbury (who, along with Vogel and Nina Mason, normally plays for Life), set up a Falcons maul and they drove over.

With scrumhalf Abigail Paton kicking goals and running the attack smartly, the Falcons were back in the Life 22, and a tap move led to Vogel setting up No. 8 Maddie Hubbell for the try. That was a all-U20 link for the score.

Through the half Life hung in there defensively, but were in trouble when scrums came. Still they were able to work their way out of trouble thanks to some ill-advised Falcons penalties. However, right before halftime Life was unable to win a key lineout at midfield.

Salisbury kicked downfield, a rare move for a lock to take, but the kick was well-weighted and all fullback Alie English could do was kick the ball into touch from under her posts. That kick didn't gain much ground—it couldn't—and from that lineout Life pressured, got another penalty, tapped, and put Hann through in traffic.

Paton converted and it was 26-0 at halftime.

The Falcons rang the changes for the second half, ensuring as many players as possible got significant time. And the second half started like the first, with the team kicking off, in this case Falcons, exerting pressure off the start.

And like in the first half they failed to score.

Eventually, though, a scrum infraction allowed the Falcons to tap quickly and spin it wide for fullback Karina Gauto to speed in at the corner.

Life responded, spending a long period inside the Life 22. The Falcons defended well but committed too many penalties, leading, eventually, to a yellow card for one too many infractions. Life scrumhalf Hattie Greenwood tapped and Olivia Frisby went over in the corner.

So that made it 33-5.

However, the Falcons would have the last word with a nice flat pass from Katelyn Walker to Hann, who raced 50 meters to cap it all over.

Final score 40-5.

Life played hard here and it's worth remembering that they were missing four key players for them: Vogel, Salisbury, Mason, and the injured AJ Haughey.

And it's also worth remembering that Life has just started camp and it is very early days for them. The way they competed has to make their opponents nervous.

For the Falcons, they have to be happy with their defense. It is clear captain Reece Woods and her teammates took shutting out the Running Eagles very seriously, perhaps too seriously, in that they gave up several red zone penalties when a little more patience would do.

Next up for the Falcons will be going to Brazil to take on a full national team, and a completely different challenge.