Women's rugby drops first game to John Carroll

The women's rugby team started this season off on Saturday in a remarkable game against John Carroll University. It was an amazing first game for the Rhino Ruggers, especially considering that over half of the team had never even seen a rugby ball three weeks earlier.

Practice started during the second week of classes and since then, Liesl Strickler, the Assistant Director of Major Gifts and the team's volunteer coach, has been vigorously training the team.

Strickler said, "The veterans have really improved and the rookies are catching on fast. It was a really close game all the way to the end. The Rhino Ruggers have really started off this season well."

The game started off well when Tina Barksdale, a senior and three-year veteran of the team, scored the first try within the first five minutes. Within the rest of the first half, Tara Ikenouye and Becca Barnes, both seniors, scored two more tries, making the score even with John Carroll, who also scored three tries in the first half.

In the second half, Ikenouye scored once more, while the other team scored two more times in fluke break-away plays. Jen Kew, a sophomore, the fullback and kicker, scored three out of the four kicks taken after each try. The final score was John Carroll, 36 to Oberlin, 26.

Throughout the game, the whole team played extremely well, pushing the other team all over the field. The Rhino Ruggers dominated in scrum-downs, rucks and mauls. The majority of the game was played in John Carroll's half of the field, showing that Oberlin was able to maintain possession and dominate the game.The only way John Carroll was able to score any tries was through lucky break-away plays.

One amazing thing about this game was that there were so many people who were new to the game, but played extremely well. The team as a whole maintained possession of the field and really dominated the game. There were lots of wonderful fans who helped the Ruggers keep the pressure on. The team hopes to see everyone out at North Fields Saturday when they play Ohio Northern University.

But we've still got the ball: A John Carroll rugby player tackles a Rhino Rugger, but doesn't gain possession. The team lost their first game Saturday. (photo by Laren Rusin)