The women’s club rugby team continued its tear through their fall season by defeating the Elon Phoenix with a staggering final score of 76-10.
This margin is the club’s largest of the season and 12 different players scored on a total of 14 attempts to the end zone.
Jordan Jennings, a sophomore in business administration, made three out of 14 conversion kicks in the match.
The club is now holding a 7-0 record and has posted dominating wins over UNC-Asheville , UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-Greensboro and the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.
According to Katy Walls, a senior in Communication-Media and the WRFC Safety Officer, the team came into the match with a high level of confidence and expected to play its best rugby.
“We came out playing hard and we saw it through the entire time,” Walls said. “Every game we go in not necessarily anticipating the win, but anticipating to play our best. I can say with full confidence that we played some good rugby that day.”
The women’s rugby club is also the only undefeated team, club or varsity, on campus. According to Walls and Meredith Grady, a senior in fisheries & wildlife science, so far this season’s ride has been an almost unbelievable one.
“It’s definitely indescribable,” Grady said. “It’s definitely a great feeling.”
“It feels surreal,” Walls said. “My entire four-year rugby career has been a struggle, not necessarily because we’ve been losing the entire time but because we’ve had to fight tooth and nail for every point that we’ve put up.”
According to Walls and Grady, the addition of coach Matthew Cartwright has also had a significant impact on the club’s play. Cartwright has brought professional experience from Harlequins rugby club of the United Kingdom and the USA Rugby Program.
Also, according to Walls, Cartwright has brought technical knowledge of the game to speed up the rebuilding process for the Pack.
“When he first got here he started working on the basics and fundamentals first, giving us a solid building foundation,” Walls said. “After we got those we started working on some more technical things, a few more fancy plays. It’s all coming together extremely well.”
“Matty has definitely had a big role in our success this season,” Grady said. “Last years coaches pretty much taught us the basics, when he’s really gone in depth with the game because he knows the game so well and he’s played it at a professional level.
“That’s something we haven’t had before. He’s bringing a whole bunch of new plays and a whole new skill set that we didn’t have.”
According to Walls, the club now holds a positive disposition as far as its outlook on the rest of the season and beyond for the organization.
“This year we’ve got a bunch of new promising young players and a brand new coach, so we’re coming together quite nicely,” Walls said. “We’re making things happen.”
