The CIS defending X-Women rugby team will travel to New York state this weekend to play the NCAA Division 1 defending champion West Point (Army) women’s rugby team in a battle for bragging rights as arguably the best intercollegiate team in North America.
The X-Women won their second CIS national championship last fall as they defeated the Concordia Stingers 17-12 in overtime in the championship game played in Peterborough, ON. West Point defeated two-time defending NCAA national champion Penn State 33-29 to win their first national title in team history. They followed up with an additional national title at the USA Seven’s Collegiate rugby championship, 14-5 victory, also over Penn State.
West Point is led by head coach Will Riddle, they hold a 2-0 record in regular season play to date and also recently lost a 14-5 exhibition game to Penn State. The X-Women, under the direction of head coach Mike Cavanagh, are 5-0 in first place in AUS regular season play.
Coach Cavanagh is looking forward to the exhibition match up, commenting “it is such a prestigious university and it is going to be a good experience for our team to go there to play.”
“With everything that I have heard about the school and the program, they have a great team and we should be in for a close match. It will be a good opportunity for our players to get out of their comfort zone.”
West point head coach Will Riddle states, “We don't get a lot of competition in our regular league season, so this is a rare opportunity to play against a top quality side. We don't get that kind of opportunity often, and we're excited about it.”
“We struggled with our technique in the contact area against Penn State last weekend and didn't finish some of our scoring opportunities. Friday night will be our chance to learn from those mistakes and make improvements. We're using this match to develop our players and to foster an ongoing relationship with a first class Canadian side. I'm grateful to Coach Cavanagh for making the effort to set this match up.”
The X-Women and West Point will play this coming Friday evening at 5:30 EST in West Point, NY. The X-Women will also be playing an exhibition game against Brown University in Providence, RI on Saturday.