The Penn State Women’s Rugby team beat Stanford on Saturday 24-7 to win their 6th National Title and their first ever back-to-back. Stanford and Penn State have faced off in the National Championship game for the last 6 years, with each team winning 3. Pennn State advanced to the final with a comfortable 30-13 win over Army, while Stanford had to battle Brown 43-32, on Friday.
“It was a very satisfying win,” said Head Coach, Peter Steinberg. “Stanford is a great team and is very well coached. We knew they would battle and make it difficult for us, but our execution in almost all facets of the game was tremendous.”
Penn State’s defense kept the Cardinals on their heels and shut down their vaunted offense which had averaged just less than 50 points a game in their playoffs wins. Centers Meghan Byrnes and tournament MVP Deven Owsiany pressured Stanford’s excellent midfield of Jennifer Cooperrider and Amelia Villinas throughout the whole game, and never gave them any space.
“We have been working on this defense for over 2 years,” said Peter Baggetta, Penn State’s defense coach and the Assistant Director of Rugby. “The work rate and commitment the players have to defense is now ingrained into the team’s culture. It was amazing that we were able to hold out Stanford for so long, even when they broke us and got near our line.” Jess Watkins, Stanford’s speedy wing and USA 7s team player did manage to break Penn State’s defense 3 times, but each time wing Rachael Muir caught her short of the line, and only once, with 3 minutes to go, did that break turn into a Stanford score.
Penn State started well, and while there was a battle for supremacy in the scrum, the Penn State forwards demonstrated more physicality in the rucks. Some sustained pressure by Penn State in the Stanford 22 led to the first score. The forwards won a series of rucks and then the ball moved right and fullback Lisa Henneman, a former captain of the USA U20 National team, broke 2 tackles and scored in the corner. A tremendous sideline conversion by fly-half Sadie Anderson made the score 7-0. Stanford’s Cooperrider made a break and got near the Penn State line, but strong defense held the Cardinals out. That change of momentum led to the next score when center Henneman received the pass from Anderson, broke 3 tackles and passed to Owsiany who scored to make the score 12-0. It remained that way until halftime.
Penn State had the wind in the second half and started well with a nicely worked try for Muir. A driving maul from the forwards set a platform for the backs to move the ball through the hands before Muir wriggled out of the grasp of 2 Stanford players for a great individual try. At 17-0, Penn State looked to have the upper hand and the game was put away by a tremendous try from MVP Owsiany. A cleverly placed kick by Anderson landed between Stanford defenders and Owsiany caught the ball on the bounce, threw a dummy and ran 30m to score under the posts. Andersons’ conversion made the score 24-0 with Stanford’s try in the last 3 minutes finishing the scoring at 24-7.
“The journey for this team was very tough,” said Senior Captain Annie Zeigler. “We have had a lot of distractions, a number of injuries but we were focused and determined to do something that Penn State has never done; win back to back titles. The final was our best game of the year and I am so honored to have played with this team, not just the 25 in Stanford but the squad of 50.”
“We were very clinical in our execution and controlled much of the game,” Steinberg said. “We are already looking to next year, and we only lose 4 players who started against Stanford and we have the deepest and most talented squad we expect to be in a good position to make another run at the title.”
USA Rugby National College Championships
Saturday, May 1, 2010 – Steuber Field, Stanford University
Penn State 24, Stanford 7(halftime 12-0)
PSU Tries: Lisa Henneman, Deven Owsiany (2), Rachael Muir
Conversions: Sadie Anderson (2)
Stanford Tries: Frances Wehrwein
Conversion: Jamie Lawrence
