Women's Rugby Opens Spring Season at Crimson 7s

Saturday, March 25

Cambridge, Mass.

9:00 AM

Princeton University

Harvard 7s

Photo by: Shelley M. Szwast

March 25, 2023 | Women's Rugby

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - It was a cold and windy day in Boston for the Princeton University women's rugby team during its first 7s tournament of the spring season. The Tigers were 0-3 for the day but put up some tough fights and certainly showed some moments of brilliance and connection.

"In conclusion, there are many learnings to take away from this tournament and the Tigers are ready to get back to work," said Head Coach Josie Ziluca. "This coming week we will be preparing for the WCU 7s tournament and are looking forward to seeing improvements for the team. Thank you to Harvard for hosting a wonderful tournament. Go Tigers!"

The Tigers kicked off the day with a match against AIC, playing mostly defense but proving to be lethal when we had the ball in our hands. Princeton had Sofie Grouws stun the outside with her speed leading to a first try for the Tigers. Sophia Villacorta minutes later scored a quick try by sneaking past the defense in a ruck. The final try of the match was from Kathryn Alexa-Kennedy, accomplished through her footwork and sightings of gaps in their defensive midfield. Elizabeth Polubinski had critical efforts on the field that enabled all of those scores to happen. Unfortunately, it was just a little too late in this game as AIC won 29-17.

Princeton faced Harvard's top side for its second match and knew that it had a lot to contain with their talented attackers. Leilani Bender and Laura Esguerra defended their speed on the edge and even managed to gain a turnover in one of those bouts. The score does not reflect the almost two and a half minutes of Tiger possession at the end of the first half. In the second half Alana Ferguson made her debut appearance for the Tigers and provided lots of communication and hustle on defense. The Tigers were outpaced for this game with Harvard winning 48-0.

During the last matchup of the day, the cold rain began to come down and there were errors from both Princeton and LIU. The Tigers were down 12 at half but managed to keep LIU scoreless in the second half. Without much possession, Princeton defended well but didn't see much opportunity to attack. The Tigers ended the day with a 12-0 loss to LIU.