The Mavs traveled to Golden for the Rocky Mountain Rugby conference championship Saturday. Coming off a big winning weekend against CSU, the ladies started slow. Going down by two trys early to Mines making the score 0-12 at the 29 minutes marker. CMU hung in there despite the sun in their eyes and the literal uphill fight throughout the first half. CMU came alive offensively as co-captain Nallely Robles touched down 34 minutes in. She was able to convert on her kick as well, narrowing the Mines lead to 5.
This opened the offensive game for CMU. They moved the ball well off of the kickoff and hard runs and solid rucking lead to another CMU try by Amery Chavez going into halftime. With a conversion by Ryleigh Blatnik, the Mavs took the lead 14-12 with a massive CMU flip of momentum. Just on the other side of half, solid off loads and quality ball movement led to another Robley try and Blatnik conversion. Stretching the CMU lead to nine. Mines bounced back with a quick try of their own, shrinking the lead to just 4 points and bringing the score to 21-17. CMU literally laid everything out on the line. After only making two substitutions the entire match, the team fought for a full 80 minutes. Hard tackles, aggressive defense, and poaching in the rucks led to several Mines injury substitutions. After a strange turn of events and unlucky offsides call, Mines received a penalty just inside the Mavs 22m. Their heads up play and quick attack led to a Mines try and conversion with just 6 minutes left in the matchup. Mavs lost this one 24-21.
The Mavs end the regular season DII Rocky Mountain #2 and will head to DII Nationals Nov. 19 where they will take on the Mid Atlantic Conference #1 team, Location TBD. In an interesting and exciting turn of events, there is potential for CMU to take a third crack at Mines as the teams are in opposite pools. This crossover matchup would be for a National Championship. Stay tuned for the latest.
Trys
Nallely Robles-Velazquez (2)
Amery Chavez (1)
Conversions
Ryleigh Blatnik (2)
Nallely Robles-Velazquez (1)
