Windy weather forecast a turbulent game for the women’s rugby team on Saturday in Hamilton. The Gaels ended their season with a 24-0 loss against the McMaster Marauders in the OUA’s bronze medal match.
Queen’s had a successful regular season overall, capturing four regular-season wins, as well as a their first OUA quarter-final 25-19 victory in five years against the Trent Excalibur.
Four Gaels earned all-star recognition this season, including Andrea Wadsworth, who was the leading scorer in the Russel Division with 10 tries and 50 points throughout the season. Susan Heald, Karlye Wong and Jocelyn Poirier also earned all-star honours.
Head coach Beth Barz said she’s disappointed with how the season ended, but pleased with the team’s overall performance.
“We certainly made some progress from last year, which was definitely a positive,” she said. “I think we can all say that we didn’t go as far as we would have liked to have gone.”
Barz said the windy weather affected the team.
“The weather was more of an issue than anything else, it was very, very windy – enough to make you move when you’re standing still.” Team captain Jocelyn Poirier said the team had difficulty adjusting to the conditions.
“We played pretty well given the crazy winds we had,” she said. “It took a minute or two to get used to the huge kicks they got with the advantage from the wind in the first half…we came close to scoring a few times, but we just weren’t able to put that final push in.”
Poirier said she was impressed her team didn’t get discouraged.
“I think we kept ourselves pretty composed with our spirits high despite their first few tries,” she said. “It wasn’t until the second half, when we still weren’t able to score near the end of the game that things started to get tougher.”
Poirier graduates this year. She said despite finishing the season without a medal, she’s proud of the team’s accomplishments.
“We’ve improved every year for sure, and I think we definitely have a lot to be proud about this season.”
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