The Penn State Women (5-2-1) (4-0 Big Ten) had another full weekend with Big 10 opponent Rutgers on Friday and and an exciting clash against Army Saturday marking their first travel weekend.

The Rutgers game kicked off under the lights and Penn State’s flanker, Madison McCormick, started the scoring early with only 6 minutes gone. Tess Feury would convert putting Penn State up 7-0.  Additional tries in the first half would go to Outside Center Jamie Wallace, Scrumhalf Sophie Pyrz, Inside Center Gianna Solomon, Flanker Teasia Stewart and 2nd row Alexis Weisser.

An improved Rutgers mounted some good offense but were not able to compete with Penn State’s stifling defense or the speed of their attack.  Head Coach Daley said, “ Sophie [Pyrz] deserves a lot of credit for keeping the pace of the attack high, you could tell she was excited to be back on the field after recovering from an injury earlier in the season.

2nd half would see a determined Rutgers get on the scoreboard after 3 additional Penn State scores.  Rutgers would smartly take advantage of a penalty against Penn State on PSU’s own 5m line to score and follow that with some strong finishing by their wing to end the game 82-10 improving on their initial contest against PSU.

Saturday saw the women suit up against a historically challenging opponent Army at West Point and continued .  Starting Flanker and senior Rachel Campbell said “We struggled with continuity in the first 20 but were able to refocus and finish the half strong. It was an awesome opportunity to play at such a great and well maintained venue. The Army program is a class act and we always appreciate the tough competition.”

Taking advantage of an offsides call against Army inside of their 22, Tess Feury dotted down in the corner after a quick tap by Scrumhalf Robyn Mertz and good ball movement to the edge.  The score would remain 5-0 until the 30th minute after Penn State was awarded a 5 meter scrum for a held up try. The Ball would move from the scrum to Inside Center and Captain Gabby Cantorna who would perfectly place a grubber in the try zone for oncoming wing Elaine Santiago. Penn State would score once more before half with a an excellent team effort eventually creating a hole for senior, Kyla Chipman making the score 17-0.

Penn State would add another try with some beautiful back movement and excellent support lines to put Gabby Cantorna across the line giving the Nittany Lions 24 unanswered points with 25 minutes to go.  Penn State’s Defense would hold for 24 and a half of those minutes before giving up a try to the Black Knights with no time left on the clock and a final score of 24-7.

Coach Daley said “Gabby Cantorna had a spectacular tactical kicking game that kept the defensive line hesitating and inspired all the backs to a great and creative game.  They were fun to watch and showed much more confidence in attacking the defense aggressively. As a whole it was certainly a step forward and we probably played 20 minutes of solid rugby in bits and pieces; our goal by April is to play 80 minutes of magnificent, fast and physical rugby, so we still have quite a ways to go but it should be a great journey.”

The women’s team will enjoy a hard earned bye weekend before facing off against longtime PA rival Westchester University away kicking off at 12pm.

Penn State 82 – Rutgers 10

Tries: McCormick, Wallace, Solomon (2), Stewart, Pyrz (2), Weisser, Fromstein, Canett (3)

Conversion: Feury (7), Fromstein (2), Canett

 

Penn State 24 – Army 7

Tries: Santiago, Chipman, Cantorna, Feury

Conversion: Feury (2)

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