The Concordia Stingers suffered a heart-breaking 13-8 overtime loss to the St. Francis Xavier X-Women in semifinal action at the CIS women’s rugby national championship in Vancouver this afternoon.
Concordia dictated the pace of the first half, opening the scoring on a Jackie Tittley penalty goal eight minutes in and extending the lead to 8-0 when the Stingers were awarded a penalty try as the first half expired. St. FX’s Jess Jacobs was carded on the play, leaving the X-Women shorthanded for the first ten minutes of the second half.
“It was a really defensive battle,” said St. FX head coach Mike Cavanagh. “The field was pretty mucky so we couldn’t do too much offensively.”
The X-Women came back from an 8-0 deficit to tie the game on a last-minute penalty goal by Courtnay Malcom.
Ghislaine Landry ended the game midway through the second overtime period. She received a pass on the right wing and turned on the jets, streaking 30 yards down the sidelines and through two tacklers for the try.
The players of the game were: St. FX’s Ghislaine Landry and Concordia’s Sarah Nesbitt.
St. FX’s win sets up a rematch of last year’s CIS finas, when the X-Women lost against the Lethbridge Pronghorns in the national title game.
The Stingers will play the Guelph Gryphons in the bronze medal game tomorrow at 3 p.m.
