After winning the regular season title of the Tri-State Rugby Conference with a 9-0 record, the Quinnipiac women’s rugby team took home the tournament championship with a 22-14 win over Albany this afternoon in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. at Vassar College.

The win puts the team in the national tournament which will take place in the Spring. Quinnipiac women’s head coach Becky Carlson led the team to a 3-6-1 record in its inaugural season last year. This year they built on that and finished with a perfect 11-0 record.

“Today was a great day. We came out on top with not only a win but a well fought win. Albany did not go quietly and even after a first slow ten minutes, we were able to pick up the tempo and maintain it,” Carlson said. “We are miles away from where we were last year and it feels good to go into nationals undefeated.”

The teams leading scorer, freshman Natalie Kosko continued her stellar season, scoring the first try of the game to put the Bobcats up 5-0. Seniors Jacqueline Maclearie and Nancy Dunn then powered Quinnipiac to a 15-0 lead to go into halftime after scoring back-to-back tries later in the first half.

The Great Danes opened the second half with a try to make it a 15-7 game before Krystin Orrico extended the Bobcats lead to 22-7 with a try as well as a successful conversion attempt.

Albany scored one last try as time ran out to end the game at 22-14 and finish as the tournaments second place team.

The Bobcats conclude their Fall 2012 campaign with a +563 point advantage. They gave up just 42 points all season, with more than half of them coming in the two meetings against Albany who tallied 24 points on the Bobcats this season. They shut out six teams this season including Marist in the semifinals of the Tri-State Tournament.