Women’s Rugby 7’s: Cascades conclude campaign with sixth-place finish at UBC
The University of the Fraser Valley women’s rugby program finished sixth at the final stop of the Canada West Women’s Rugby Sevens Series, hosted by UBC on the weekend.
It marked the third time in the three-tourney series that the Cascades finished sixth; naturally, they also finished sixth (out of nine team) in the overall standings, encompassing the entire series.
The UFV squad’s first game of the day on Saturday was a 24-17 victory over the UBC Okanagan Heat, with Mackenzie Fowler, Elyssa Chalmers, Sophia Belsher and Melissa Jongedijk scoring tries.
Up next were the Victoria Vikes, the eventual tournament and overall series champions. The Cascades put a scare into them, building a 15-5 lead at the half behind a pair of Jongedijk tries and one from Jaylene Soegard. The Vikes would rally after the break, however, to claim a 31-15 victory.
UFV would run out of gas as the day progressed, falling 38-0 to the Alberta Pandas and 28-5 to the Lethbridge Pronghorns, with Fowler scoring the lone try.
On Sunday, the Cascades suffered a 29-0 loss to the host UBC Thunderbirds, but bounced back with a better performance against the Calgary Dinos in their finale. The UFV side was pressing deep in Dinos territory on several occasions, only for Calgary to take advantage of untimely turnovers and take the ball back for long tries. The final score was 26-0.
“We have our moments of frustration, because we always feel we’re on the cusp of something great,” Cascades head coach Jen Ross said. “We’re always on the cusp of taking one of these teams down, we just haven’t gotten over the line. But there are always moments of magic in each game. Like I said to the girls, we have to focus on those positives and tip that balance so we’ve got more positives happening each game than negatives. We have to have the ability to maintain it for the full game.”
“We really suffered this weekend from not being able to train properly on the fields,” Ross added, alluding to the fact that Abbotsford’s outdoor fields were closed for several weeks due to inclement weather. “Normally the last couple tournaments we’ve had full-field practices with girls out to run against us, and we’ve been better-prepped. Our first game, we came out kind of flat – playing like we were in a gym. But our second game against UVic was amazing – the girls came out so positive.”
Tournament standings – FINAL
TEAM WINS LOSSES TIES POINTS
VIC 5 1 0 21
UBC 5 1 0 21
CGY 4 1 1 19
LET 3 2 1 16
ALB 2 4 0 12
UFV 1 5 0 9
UBCO 0 6 0 6
NOTE: Teams are awarded four points for a win, two points for a draw, and one point for a loss.
Overall series standings
Team / Tourney 1 pts / Tourney 2 pts / Total pts
VIC – 10 / 15 / 15 / 40 pts
UBC – 15 / 12 / 12 / 39 pts
LET – 12 / 10 / 8 / 30 pts
CGY – 8 / 8 / 10 / 26 pts
ALB – 6 / 6 / 6 / 18 pts
UFV – 4 / 4 / 4 / 12 pts
UBCO – NA / 2 / 2 / 4 pts
REG – 2 / NA / NA / 2 pts
TRU – 1 / NA / NA / 1 pt
