KINGSTON, Ont. (CIS) – The fifth-seed Concordia Stingers began their CIS women’s rugby championship journey by knocking off the No. 4-ranked Victoria Vikes 34-12 in quarter-final play at Queen’s University’s Nixon Field, Thursday evening.
The RSEQ finalist Stingers, who are looking for the first national title in program history, will face the host Queen’s Gaels Saturday at 5 p.m. in the semifinals
“I thought our forwards did a really good job,” said Concordia head coach Graeme McGravie. “We started to dominate, got a little bit more comfortable in the scrums, got into our rhythm.”
Rookie bench boss Brittany Waters knew her young Vikes team was outmatched. “This is just the beginning for this team. We did extremely well this year and we are a very young team.”
Concordia came out of the gates with the early pressure. The Stingers got on the board in the eighth minute when Kelsey Martin broke through for the first try, with Alex Ste Marie adding the convert for a 7-0 advantage.
The Vikes had a chance to answer right back but failed on a penalty kick by all-Canadian Jess Neilson. This proved costly as the Stingers were able to add to their lead in the 21st minute when Erika Ikonomopoulos scored an unconverted try to make it 12-0.
Both teams battled back and forth throughout the first half. The Vikes had another great opportunity in the middle of the period when they drove down and were inches away from a try, but the Concordia defence stood tall and pushed them out of contention.
Lianne Bragg then broke through multiple tackles and pushed her way to the middle of the try zone to put down the score. Tessier once again added the convert to give Concordia a 19-0 lead at half.
Facing a 19-point deficit, the Vikes started the second half with the momentum they needed to get back in the game. Ciel Arbouer-Boehme got dragged down by multiple Concordia defenders but she was able to push herself into the try zone to put her team on the board.
Only a minute later however, all-Canadian Frédérique Rajotte stamped out that momentum as she picked up a pass out wide from fellow all-Canadian Alex Tessier and ran untouched for half the field to put down a try.
The Vikes once again chipped away at the Concordia lead as Nikisa Lavale scored a try halfway through the second to cut the lead in half at 24-12.
From there the duo of Tessier and Rajotte took over. First it was Tessier with a try to make it a 17-point lead, then Rajotte followed with a big run, pushing away Vikes all the way down for another try.
Rajotte was selected player of the game for Concordia. Back Row Pam Buisa received the same honour for Victoria.
