BU Women’s Rugby wins conference title

Huskies win 5th consecutive MARC championship

Sarah Emily D'Agostino

The Women’s Rugby team at Bloomsburg University has officially won the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Conference (MARC) for the 5th year in a row. Their first game of the conference on Saturday Nov. 2 destroyed the University of Delaware’s team 82-7.
On the second day of the conference they continued their brilliant strategies and obliterated the women’s team from Temple with an incredible score of 84-3. The Bloomsburg team is going to be moving on to the National games for another opportunity to show off the evidence of their hard work and determination.
Co-captains Christiana “Deo” Deo (No. 5) and Jaqueline “JQ” Smiths (No. 9) lead the team onto Millersville’s field on Sunday Nov. 3 facing up to Temple.
Early into the first half of the game the score was 5-3. Temple scored 3 points for a penalty kick but Bloomsburg scored a try and so outweighing them.
Bloomsburg broke through this close score by gaining an early lead of 19-3 thanks to key players Victoria “Tori” Schafte (No. 1), Sydney Cope (No. 13), and Sarah “Sav” Van Cise (No.15), as well as all the other women on the team.
Within the rest of the first half the game Deo was injured after numerous trys made, and a real sense of control and determination was coming from these women.
Finishing the first half of the game, Bloomsburg was in a clear lead of 36-3 versus Temple.
Early in the second half, Bloomsburg continued to defend their side of the field and keep it primarily on Temple’s, preventing any more trys from Temple while raising their own score.
Defending players Hannah Gough (No. 4), Sydney Main (No. 8), Schafte (No. 1), Clarissa “Cammy” Murray (No. 23) scored numerous trys alongside offensive players Sav (No. 15), JQ (No.9) and Cope (No.13).
Only 20 minutes into the second half the score was 63-3. After this, Sav was viciously body slammed by a Temple player but continued on without a complaint.
The game intensified even with more as the minutes went by, but ultimately Bloomsburg won with an 84-3 score, demolishing Temple.
After this well-deserved win, the women will be going to Nationals.

For any women interested in joining the women’s rugby team, you can email JQ at [email protected] for more details.