Rugby makes playoffs

The Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks women’s rugby suffered a tough loss to the Western Mustangs Saturday afternoon at University Stadium, losing 63-10.

As coach Amy Bambury put it, “We played good rugby, but we’re on the wrong end of the scoreboard.”

The Hawks were not on the wrong end of the scoreboard last week, when they defeated the Brock Badgers in a nail-biter, 13-7. The win was the first victory for Laurier since 2009, when they defeated the Waterloo Warriors 7-5.

“[Western is] a strong team and capitalized on our errors,” Bambury added.

A try by the Hawks late in the second half seemed like the beginning of a comeback, but Western proved too feisty, and held on to win the game.

Scoring for the Hawks were Briana Wilson, who scored in the first half of the game, and Laurier’s current athlete of the week Chloe Graves, who scored Laurier’s second try of the game in the second half.

The Hawks finish the season with a record of 1-5. They aren’t done yet though, as they qualified for Ontario University Athletics (OUA) playoffs as a result of a Brock Badger loss to the Guelph Gryphons.

The last time the Hawks were in the playoffs was 2005. They went 4-2 in the regular season and were beaten out in the first round of the playoffs in a close game against those same Badgers.

This time around the Hawks will be playing the No.1 nationally-seeded Guelph Gryphons. Their regular season record was a perfect 5–0 and they have looked good all season. Their last game against Laurier was on Sept. 21 at University Stadium, and was a tough loss for the Hawks, 110-0.

The Hawks head to Guelph to take on the Gryphons team this Friday, Oct. 11. Game time will be 4:45 p.m. at the Guelph Gryphon Soccer Complex South Field.