Truro, NS – On Saturday the StFX X-Women rugby team began defense of their 2018 U SPORTS national title with a pair of pre-season exhibition games against conference rival Acadia. The two teams split their squads and the X-Women came out on top of both games, winning 46-29 and 36-0.
The scoring in the first game from the StFX 'white' team was handled by seven different players. Veteran prop Sam Lake scored a pair of tries, while singles came from Kate Flanagan, Katie Pentz, Alex Hamilton, Courtney Maines and Sarah Hoerig. Freshman Maddie Ross scored six point as she booted three converts.
In the second game the X-Women shut out the Axewomen 36-0. Jaiden Weinrauch handled the kicking chores in this match and had a trio of converts for six of the StFX points. Five different X-Women scored tries in the game including Claudia Fulton, Sammy Nadeau, Carleigh Walters, Meghan Buchanan and Madison Suart.
X-Women head coach Mike Cavanagh noted, "I thought both our teams played well today. We started out slowed but as each game but as each game went we played much stronger."
"Acadia had a stronger team in the first game but I thought we played very well offensively. Freshman Maddie Ross played well, and Alex Hamilton and Hannah Ellis had outstanding games for us."
"Our defense was strong in both games, but I found they played very well in the second game as we were able to get the 36-0 win, the defense played very, very well."
Looking ahead to AUS regular season play, the X-Women will open on the road on Saturday, September 7th when they travel to Charlottetown to take on the UPEI Panthers in a 2:00 pm kick-off.
Coach Cavanagh said "We are expecting tough game at UPEI, but we have a lot of depth this year. We will have some tough selections ahead for starting positions as we have some good rookies on an already solid team. I am excited about this team and looking forward to the season."
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