Near-Upset for W.Rugby

The buildup to this game was one-sided. "Come see the Radcliffe rugby team challenge Connecticut," the posters read. Not defeat--challenge. That was all Radcliffe could reasonably expect to do against Connecticut, the defending national champions.

But for 45 minutes on Saturday, reason blew away with the stiff wind: Radcliffe held mighty Connecticut scoreless and scored themselves in the second half to take a 5-0 lead.

Unfortunately for this story, the Huskies rediscovered their national championship form late in the game and won, 12-5 but the Black and White effort could not pass unnoticed.

"We're disappointed to lose, but we played really well," senior Club President Katie Mayer said.

Down 5-0 in the middle of the second half, Connecticut tallied its first try by taking advantage of an errant pass by Radcliffe (2-4) inside its 22-yard line. The Huskies broke up the pass and used two quick passes of their own to clear the Crimson goal for the tying score.

The Connecticut fly-half broke the tie by splitting the uprights on the conversion kick for two points.

The score remained 7-5 until the final seconds of the game, when the Huskies blocked a Crimson kick and recovered the ball across the Crimson goal line after a mad scramble.

The Huskies missed the conversion kick just as time expired.

"We just made two mistakes, and that gave them the openings they needed," Assistant Coach Darlene Conners said.

Despite the loss, Head Coach Lisa Gartner was pleased with the team's performance.

"[Connecticut] wasn't able to run as much with the ball as they're used to because we kept the pressure on them," Gartner said. "I think we're improving exponentially with every game."

The scoreless first half saw hard-hitting action on both ends of the field, with Connecticut having the best scoring opportunity on a scrum just yards from the Black and White goal line. But the Black and White, spurred by the crowd chant "peanut butter cookies yum, yum, yum; come on Radcliffe win that scrum," did just that, and advanced the ball out of its zone.

Connecticut Coach Matt Miller could be heard spurring his team on ("You can deal with this or sit around and let them do what they're doing," he screamed at one point) but Radcliffe continually repulsed Connecticut's advances in the first half.

Radcliffe put the pressure on the Huskies early in the second half with two key blocks that kept Connecticut pinned in its defensive end. The second block, by sophomore Liza Studen, sent the ball bouncing towards the Huskie goal where senior Patty Kornfeld and sophomore Patty Seo fell on it for five points.

Kornfeld missed the conversion kick from a difficult angle and the score remained 5-0 until the late Huskie scores.