Gee-Gees will host conference gold medal match for the first time
Photo: Marta Kierkus
A big 38-20 win against the McGill Marlets on Oct. 18 leads the Gee-Gees women’s rugby team to the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) finals with a perfect 7-0 season record.
It’s crazy to think that just last year this team squeezed into the top 10 only for a few weeks of the season. Now, the sixth-ranked squad will host the RSEQ finals for the first time ever.
Overall, the team has become a well-balanced unit on offence and has an incredibly strong defence.
Unlike the Gees’ 10-5 win against McGill earlier this season, the team came out with much more force in the semi-finals.
With three straight penalty goals from fullback Irene Patrious and a try from scrum-half Erin Van Gulik, the garnet and grey captured a 16-0 lead early in the half.
But the Marlets wouldn’t let up. Top centre Caroline Suchorski ran straight through Ottawa’s defence, only being blocked right before the goal line. The Marlets soon made it past the line, and added a penalty kick, making the score 16-13 before the half.
“We were on our heels, and we had stopped moving forward,” said head coach Jennifer Boyd. “I’m really happy with our group defence, other than our lack of focus for about 10 minutes.”
Ottawa regained that focus and continued their resilient defence, keeping McGill off the boards for the majority of the second half. With tries from both fly half Natalie Palmer and prop Danielle Erdelyi, the Gees were able to pull out a solid win.
“It’s a team effort,” said Erdelyi. “You get in good positions as a team and you can’t do it alone. I’m so proud of the girls. We were set back and said to ourselves, ‘Do we want it or not?’ and we turned it on.”
The exciting gold medal game against the 10th-ranked Concordia Stingers will be Saturday, Oct. 25 at 4:30 p.m. at Matt Anthony Field.
