WOLVILLE, N.S. – The CIS ranked No. 6 StFX X-Women captured first place in the AUS final standings with a decisive 24-10 win over the CIS No. 4 Acadia Axewomen on Raymond Field in Wolfville.
Lauren Agnew (Stittsville, ON) scored the eventual game winner 17 minutes into the game – the X-Women's third try of the day, while Sabrina McDaid (Scarborough, ON.) added the conversion.
The X-Women dominated early in the game, keeping the Axewomen deep in their end in the first 20 minutes of the game. StFX struck three minutes into the game when Joanna Alphonso (Ajax, ON) scored the X-Women's first of four trys. It was Alphonso's ninth league leading try of the season.
Jayme Ward (Kingston, ON) added as second try four minutes later to give StFX an early 10-0 lead over Acadia.
Agnew's try was the last of the X-Women's point run in the first half. For the most part of the last 20 minutes the Axewomen struggled to score as they stayed deep into the X-Women's end. This continued for the balance of the second half but Acadia was unable to score on a stingy StFX defensive corps.
A deep X-Women kick in the 67th minute came free for Keely McCuish's (Trenton, NS) try that put the game out of reach. McDaid added the conversion to give StFX a 24-0 lead.
Not giving up and somewhat reminiscent of Acadia's come-from-behind win at StFX early in the season, the Axewomen finally connected the dots on a Courtney Foster (Berwick, NS) scamper with eight minutes remaining. Tamara Dondi (Caledon, ON) added her sixth try of the season with a minute remaining the game to close the gap to 24-10.
With the win, the X-Women clinch first place in the AUS standings and the right to host the Subway AUS championship game, despite being tied with the Axewomen with 5-1 records. The tie-breaking formula – after head to head matches (in this case each has a win) is the team with the best point differential in head-to-head competition is declared the higher ranked team.
Acadia will host third place UPEI (2-4) on Saturday, October 24th in the Subway AUS semifinal game. The champisonship game is scheduled for Friday, October 30rth at 7:00 pm at StFX Oland Stadium. The X-Women are 17-time defending conference champions.