Ottawa, ON – The CIS ranked No. 1 Ottawa Gee-Gees came from behind to beat the No. 6 X-Women 24-19 in CIS women's rugby exhibition action Friday evening.
The first half was hard-fought by both teams, with tremendous hustle to get to rucks first and high energy and tempo on offence displayed by both sides. Thanks to superb execution in line-outs, crisp passing and well-placed kicks that slid behind the Ottawa defensive line, StFX led the Gee-Gees 12-5 at the half.
The X-Women's first half tries were scored by Joanna Alphonso and Jaelei Meyer. Sabrina McDaid converted on the Alphonso try.
Ottawa's only try in the first came from Simone Savary, who would finish the game with 10 points.
A highlight-worthy spinning catch by Patricia Mandon led to a run that punched through the X defence and allowed Danielle Erdelyi to open up the scoring to start the second half, bringing the Gee-Gees within two points at 12-10.
The X-Women responded quickly with a long run and try by Lauren Agnew. The conversion by McDaid was good, bringing the score to 19-10 in favor of StFX.
But the Gee-Gees continued to claw back - a pass from Irene Patrinos got Ashley Strike into the try zone, and the convert saw the visitors hold on to their lead by a mere 2 points (19-17).
But the Gee-Gees offence wasn't the only thing that started heating up: a huge tackle by Erin Van Gulik thwarted what would have been a long run for a score by StFX off of an interception. Dana Sommerville would get a steal of her own in a StFX line-out, leading to a string of runs that ended in Savary's second try of the night, giving Ottawa the 24-19 edge.
The Gee-Gees defence came up big again to hold-up a StFX try-attempt late in the second half and the Gee-Gee's held on for the win.
In the second game of the doubleheader between the same two teams with rested first string squads, the X-Women played to a 17-15 victory.
Ottawa held an 8-7 edge at halftime as they scored a try and a penalty kick. Sam Lake replied with a try for the X-Women in the opening half and Jacqui Salvatore made good on the conversion.
Amelia Hatfield and Salvatore took care of the scoring for the X-Women in the second half of the game and the Gee-Gees one try and conversion weren't enough to catch the blue and white who held on for the 17-15 victory.
The X-Women will resume AUS regular season play with a game in Halifax on Tuesday evening, October 13th against the winless Saint Mary's Huskies (0-4). Kick-off is 7:00 pm at Huskies Stadium.