BYU women’s rugby got a 26-14 victory over Lethbridge, Canada Saturday afternoon.
The first half was low scoring. BYU missed a penalty kick a few minutes in and struggled to get a try for the first ten minutes. BYU’s Sia Skipps scored the first and only try of the half to give BYU the lead 7-0.
“We started slow and we could have done better with our offense,” said head coach Tom Waqa. “That’s understandable when you play a really good team. Credit to Lethbridge, they gave us a really good game.”
The second half brought a higher level of intensity from both teams. BYU opened the half with a try by Amber Ah Sue. Players Analise Arnold and Alyssa Parko contributed two more consecutive tries to build up BYU’s momentum. Lethbridge responded with two tries towards the end of the game but it wasn’t enough to bring them above BYU. The final score was 26-14.
“We were more energized in the second half,” Arnold said. “We decided we needed cleaner passes and we needed to make our tackles.”
Ah Sue said she remembered losing to Lethbridge by just two points her freshman year. She said she knew they would need to put everything into this game in order to come out on top.
“Lethbridge is a really good team,” Ah Sue said. “We don’t get this calibre of competition as often as we like.”
Next week, BYU will face No. 2 ranked Central Washington. Ah Sue said this game was a great confidence booster to prepare them for that game.
“This game was so important for our team,” Ah Sue said. “We put a lot into our practices for this game and so we know that we can follow through with what we practice.”
