Trinity Western’s women’s rugby sevens team

Trinity Western’s women’s rugby sevens team earned a sixth place finish for the third tournament in a row on the Canada West Rugby 7s Series after taking a win and a loss from Day 2 in Victoria.

 

Playing in the final tournament of the series, the Spartans opened Sunday with a 27-5 win over UBC Okanagan at the Vikes’ Wallace Field. However, TWU lost in the fifth-place game for the third straight tournament, falling to Lethbridge, who finished fourth overall in the series, 24-5.

 

Issy Scholtens (Langley, B.C.) and Sara Eskildsen (Mexico City) scored two tries each on the day, while Jensen Schmidt (Nanaimo, B.C.) and Sammi Thiessen (Abbotsford, B.C.) tallied once each.

 

The first-ever women’s rugby sevens team at TWU finished its inaugural season sixth overall in the final Canada West standings.

 

The Victoria Vikes won all three tournaments to take home the Canada West banner, while UBC (2nd) and Alberta (3rd) rounded out the top three finishers in the series.

 

TWU 27 UBCO 5

The Spartans opened the day against a challenging UBC Okanagan side, but TWU prevailed with Issy Scholtens (Langley, B.C.) and Sara Eskildsen (Mexico City) scoring two tries apiece and Jensen Schmidt (Nanaimo, B.C.) adding one. Nicolett Duchesne (Surrey, B.C.) earned the Spartans lone conversion. Eskildsen showed strong support play in her two tries, while both Schmidt and Scholtens used speed to beat their defenders wide. TWU has won both its games against UBCO this season.

 

Lethbridge 24 TWU 5

The Spartans gave up three tries in the first half, as they were unable to maintain consistent possession early on. Sammi Thiessen (Abbotsford, B.C.) got the Spartans within two scores midway through the second half, but a late Pronghorns try snuffed out TWU’s comeback bid.

 

FINAL SERIES STANDINGS

TEAM   ALB Tourney     UBC Tourney    VIC Tourney     TOTAL

VIC                   15                    15                    15                    45

UBC                  8                      12                    12                    32

ALB                  12                    10                    8                      30

LET                  10                    8                      6                      24

CGY                 6                      6                      10                    22

TWU                4                      4                      4                      12

UFV                  2                      2                      1                      5

UBCO               1                      1                      2                      4

 

QUOTABLE

Julia Sugawara – TWU Head Coach

“We were a bit disappointed to not improve on our 6th place finishes, but we’re happy with the series overall. We learned a lot about our strengths as well as areas we need to work on in the coming months. It is great to have a positive full season under our belts and we are excited to build on that experience.”

 

Tausani Levale, Captain

“It was great to see some seriously entertaining rugby played this weekend. We had so much fun playing off of each other and making some magic happen on the pitch with our offloads. We are no longer the new team: we are Trinity Western – the rugby team.”

 

Michelle Veerman Quezada

“There was big improvement from everyone over the weekend. We have come together as a team and we learned how to read each other on the field. We dedicate all of our work to God and that makes us want to push even more.”