After starting the season with a perfect 6-0 record, the Quinnipiac women’s rugby team easily improved their spotless record to 7-0 over a winless Hofstra team on Sunday. The Bobcats put up a program record 57 points in the first half having eight different players cross the endzone line.
The win keeps Quinnipiac at the top of the Tri-State Conference at 6-0 with a league-leading 469 points for and just 12 points against for a point differential of +457. The Bobcats have scored 248 point since they last allowed a team to score which dates back to Sept. 23, when Vassar scored a try to make that game 36-12.
“We knew going into this game that we were going to have to work on just the fundamentals because we knew it was a game that our opponents were in the lower area of the conference,” Quinnipiac head coach Becky Carlson said. “We wanted to get all the inexperienced players in and really make sure they were understanding the plays and working with the core kids we had out there.”
In the second half, the team broke the record for points in a half that they had just set by putting up 73 points. They also set program records for largest margin of victory as well as most points scored with their 130-0 victory.
Senior inside center Nancy Dunn got the scoring going on the very first possession of the game off a pass from Shannon Durkin to make it a 5-0 lead after the conversion attempt by Krystin Orrico was no good.
Eight different players would end up scoring in the first half for the Bobcats including two tries by senior open side flanker Megan Hannemann.
“After every time we score, coach says 0-0,” Hannemann said. “Anything can happen in the game of rugby. If we make one mistake, they can capitalize on it and that changes their momentum and the whole game can be shifted so we have to play 100 % the whole game.”
Unfortunately for the Bobcats, sophomore outside center Elisa Cuellar was carried off the field with just under nine minutes remaining in the half with an injured left leg. Cuellar would not return but had one try before she exited the match.
The second half was powered by two more tries from Hannemann as well as three tries from Tesni Phillips and three more from Natalie Kosko. Kosko finished the game with four tries.
Raechel Stimson added two tries while Senior captain Colleen Doherty, Allison Gnys, Jacqueline Maclearie, Shannon Durkin and Devon Vieira contributed one try each.
After three consecutive shutouts, the Bobcats expect a better showing against another NCAA team as they take on Westchester next weekend.
“Westchester is a fellow NCAA program and they’ve always had a strong program nationally so we are going to look to some heavy competition,” Carlson said. “Again, it’s going to be difficult to make that jump from the game this week to the one against Westchester. So the intensity in practice has got to stay and get bigger as we go.”
