It was a weekend of highs and lows for the women's team. The process of getting to Maryland for Nationals turned into quite the adventure as I-70 closed early Thursday morning with a cattle semi flipped over in the Glenwood Canyon. An extended drive over the mountain was delayed further Friday morning as the flight out of DIA to Maryland was delayed due to the need to change planes for safety. Starting the weekend off behind, the team still managed to control the controllable. They rolled into Saturday morning and earned a resounding win against Georgia Tech.
 
The morning match started off with a decisive line break and hard run up the center of the pitch by senior captain Carly Scheck. She tacked on the conversion to give the Mavs the 7-0 lead less than two minutes into the matchup. She would find another gap off a nice offload for the second try of the match to give the Mavs the 12-0 lead going into halftime. Co-captain Ellen Rickerd joined the scoring action with a nice kick and chase in the second half and Scheck added on the conversion to make it 19-0 before Georgia Tech would score a late match try. The ladies put together an impressive first match to move on to the round of eight.
 
The second match of the day saw a formidable opponent in the Coast Guard Academy. This is the second time the team has faced the Coast Guard and unfortunately the outcome was the same. Coast Guard had a deep roster of hard running power houses. They broke the CMU line first and touched down on the outside just over a minute into the matchup, making the game 5-0. It would take another hard fought four minutes before they again burst through the outside with a head full of steam. Rickerd gave the Mavs a quick answer back and Scheck would tack on the conversion to narrow the lead to 10-7, however, Coast Guard played into extra time in the first half and yet again barreled through on the outside furthering the lead to 15-7 at half. Unfortunately, the second half played out much the same as the first. Coast Guard scored an early try and then a try three minutes later. The score was 25-7 before Rickerd could answer back as time expired. Mavs dropped this one to the future DII National Champions 25-12. This loss dropped the Mavs out of the Championship bracket and into the Plate bracket in cascading bracket style.
 
The first match of Day 2 ended up being a heartbreaker. The Mavs came out slow and three minutes in they were looking at a 10-0 hole to dig out of after getting caught off guard on the first kickoff and then getting out ran on the outside by a very speedy Costal Carolina wing. Dig they would. Rickerd would touch down as time expired in the first half with a nice break through run of her own, closing the gap to 10-5 going into the second half. Although the Mavs retained possession of the ball for almost the entire second half and played the second half almost entriely in the attacking side of the field, the ladies could not break the strong Costal Carolina defensive line. After watching numerous scoring opportunities slip away, the clock kept ticking, and the Mavs dropped this one with neither team scoring in the second half 10-5.
 
However, resiliency is the name of the game. CMU was not going to fizzle out of Sunday's matchups. Bouncing back from the early morning loss, CMU entered the Bowling Green matchup with a new surge of energy. Ashley Bollinger showed her speed on the outside with a shifty cut and run to give the Mavs a 5-0 lead. Unfortunately, soon after CMU faced a yellow card which put them a man down and Bowling Green evened up the matchup and pulled ahead 10-5 prior to Kaylee Burns zigging her way to the try line to again even it out going into halftime 10 all. Rickerd would give the Mavs the go ahead try two minutes into the second and Bollinger would add the nail to the coffin with a late match try. Scheck would add on the conversion to finish the tournament off in style with another solid team win 22-10.
 
The young team has a very bright future. Six of the spring squad are freshmen, two more are within their first year of playing rugby. Division I All American Chloe Coop did not play this weekend due to a lower body injury suffered earlier in the season. The team graduates Co-Captain Carly Scheck this May, but will retain the rest going into the fall. Look for this solid squad to be back in action come fall for their 15s season. The team will remain in Division II this fall. As always, follow the team on Instagram @cmuwomensrugby or Facebook for the latest updates.
 
Final Scores:
CMU 19 - Georgia Tech 5 Win
CMU 12 - Coast Guard 25 Loss
CMU 5 - Costal Carolina 10 Loss
CMU 22 - Bowling Green 10 Win
 
Finished 7^th in the Nation
 
Trys:
Ashley Bollinger (2)
Kaylee Burns (1)
Ellen Rickerd (5)
Carly Scheck (2)
 
Conversions:
Carly Scheck (4)