Women’s collegiate rugby is back on in the West Coast, and here’s a look at what happened last week and where we are going forward.
Pacific Desert D1
Grand Canyon opened their Pacific Desert D1 account with a well-taken 43-3 win over Arizona.
Tries from Lucia Pogue, Micaiah Thornton, Mariah Tuitasi, Kloe Williams and Angel Lucero all scored tries. But the player of the game was flanker Ixel Sanchez, who scored two tries and was a terror all over the field.
Arizona State moved to 2-0 with a 41-28 defeat of UC San Diego, while Claremont Colleges opened their account with a 34-0 shutout of San Diego State.
Pacific Mountain South
Stanford rolled past UC Santa Cruz paced by two tries from Hope Adganom-Shipman and an impressive showing from their back row, anchored by Sydney Davis. That put Stanford 57-7 past the Banana Slugs. Cal won big over Chico State 90-7, with captain and center Mariah Overby scored five tries. Cal Poly won even bigger, 119-0 over UC Davis, paced by fullback Azalea Kubic’s four tries.
D2
UC Irvine put down a bit of a marker with a 64-0 shutout of Occidental. Got a hat trick from lock Karly Kovaleff, who had a bit of a blinder, while No. 8 Ashley Aidama added two.
It’s very early days in the Pacific Desert D2 but UCI has made a bit of a statement.
Further north in the West Coast Conference, Nevada Reno beat San Jose State 47-15 in what was a result that made several sit up and take notice. This was a big turnaround from late September when SJSU edged the Wolfpack 39-38 in Northern California.
UNR has welcomes some talented rookies to augment a good veteran core. Scrumhalf Sarah Jeanne ran the tempo well and zipped over for three tries, and she was matched by wing Rachel McLasky, who also got a hat trick. Flyhalf Ally Jens has been very classy at #10 and score tries. She and Jeanne set up the opportunities for others, with McClasky, wing Aleigha Wheeland, fullback Talia Marini, and No. 8 Ellah Olson all featured on the scoreboard.
Santa Clara hammered University of San Francisco 65-5 to improve to 1-1.
Lurking around is Cal Poly Humboldt, who beat Santa Clara in December, and return to league play this weekend.
They host Nevada this coming weekend and that is looking to be a big game.
So currently in the West Coast, here’s the standings (unofficially):
