Just two games into their regular season, the Queen’s Women’s Rugby team achieved their second win in a row with a score above 100 points when they faced off against the University of Toronto Varsity Blues last Saturday.
The team shut out the Varsity Blues 105–0 in their home opener on Nixon Field. While Queen’s has won each game against U of T over the last 15 years, this game saw the largest margin of victory.
Right from kickoff, the Gaels’ pressure and physical dominance proved insurmountable for the Varsity Blues.
The Gaels exercised their will to win over the Varsity Blues, laying bigger hits, faster runs, and crisper es. Powerful and fast runs from starters fifth-year Maggie Banks and first-year Robyn Baker ignited the Gaels’ offence—a flame that would burn violently throughout the game.
In the defensive end, performances from first-year Kyleigh Chandran, fourth-year Sophia Tafel, and fifth-year Lizzie Gibson assisted the Gaels in shutting out the Varsity Blues in the 80-minute game.
As this was the third game of the day for the Gaels, Banks spoke about the challenges posed by playing a triple-header.
“We work to play under fatigue,” Banks said in a post-game interview with The Journal. “It’s a big goal for us because when we get deeper into the season we want to be conditioned to play for as long as it takes.”
Head Coach Dan Valley was pleased with the results he saw on Saturday, citing the exhibition games at 1:00p.m. and 1:55 p.m. against ‘heavyweight’ rivals, the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees, as providing momentum for their commanding performance against the Varsity Blues.
“I thought we were very clinical at the point of ,” Valley said. “Something that in the first game, we let get away from us a little bit, and so we did a really nice job of correcting it and making it a point of emphasis for what we wanted to do.”
According to Valley, the Gaels aren’t planning on changing their approach as they look to grow their current season point differential of 207-0 when they travel to London next Saturday to face off against the Western Mustangs.
“Mindset for us doesn’t actually change, regardless of who’s next on the schedule for us,” Valley said. “We’ve got a plan. We’ve just got to keep riding it.”
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