On what was a cold and snowy weekend, the Wayne State women’s and men’s rugby teams braved the freezing conditions to advance in the National Small College Rugby Organization national playoffs after hosting regional action over the weekend.
The Wayne State women are set to defend their national title from a year ago after winning the West Region championship Sunday afternoon at the Wayne Rugby Park, beating Mira Costa College of California 53-10 to advance to the NSCRO Final Four Dec. 1-2 in Atlanta, Ga.
The Wildcat women staked themselves to a 31-0 halftime advantage as five different players found the try zone. Anna Fleecs scored about 14 minutes in, with May Hoesing scoring again five minutes later. Tries by Brook Hoesing, Kennedy Jones and Lauren Nelson came late in the first half.
Wayne State continued to dominate into the second half. Jones scored her second try about 10 minutes into the second half and Cassie Pickerl added another one nine minutes later to make it 41-0. Fleecs scored two more times in the final 20 minutes to help the 11-0 Wildcats punch their ticket to the NSCRO semifinals, where they will face Minnesota-Moorhead, winners of the Central Region.
The Wayne State women advanced to Sunday’s regional championship with a 55-10 win over Northern Michigan, building a 20-5 halftime advantage on the strength of two tries by Isabelle Robinson and scores by Nelson and Jones. Wayne State put it out of reach in the second half as Brook Hoesing sandwiched scores around Robinson’s third try of the game. Jones and Holly Schupbach also scored for Wayne State.
The Wayne State men reached the Elite Eight in their region with two wins, capped by a physical 30-12 win over Nebraska-Omaha on Sunday afternoon.
It was a very physical matchup between the two teams, with Zack DeTaegnese’s score 7 1/2 minutes into the contest the only mark on the scoreboard in the first half.
Wayne State put up two tries in 15 minutes early in the second half with scores by Cole Eaton and Joe Bauer. After UNO got on the board in the 70th minute, Wayne State scored a penalty kick by Joe Edie to make it 18-5.
UNO would get within one score with four minutes to play, but Eaton found the end zone in the final seconds and Deionia Williams scored in injury time to close out the win for the 11-1-1 Wildcats, who will play their regional final on the final weekend of March 2019 against the survivor of the Texas/Louisiana/New Mexico sub-regional, scheduled for the second weekend in March.
Wayne State advanced to Sunday’s game with a forfeit on Saturday, as Creighton forfeited the game due to the cold conditions. The forfeit came after UNO defeated John Brown 47-17 in the first game of the day Saturday, and Creighton also forfeited their consolation game Sunday to John Brown.
In other women’s action, Mira Costa defeated Colorado College 37-27 to advance to Sunday’s final. Northern Michigan defeated Colorado College 36-19 in the women’s consolation game.
