Rugby Axewomen on the winning end of lopsided score

CHARLOTTETOWN, PE - In their opening game of the regular season, the Acadia Axewomen rugby team took to the field at UPEI hoping to send a message.  It didn't take long for Acadia to put points on the board.  Nine minutes into the game, fifth year full-back Erin Beazley blazed past several UPEI defenders and scored her opening try of the season.  Within 90 seconds following the restart, Acadia scored again when All-Canadian back-row, and player of the game Janna Slevinsky stormed over the line for the Axewomen's second try of the game.

Acadia took advantage of the wind in the remainder of the half, keeping UPEI pinned deep in their own zone the entire half.  Acadia scored three more tries through wingers Laura Klingenberg and Kelsey Brumm as well as fly-half Shannon White.  Emalee Doyle would slot 3 of 5 kicks in the opening frame and Acadia led 31-5 at the half after allowing UPEI to score in the closing minute of the half.

Though playing into a strong PEI wind in the second half, Acadia would add seven more tries and concede no more points to the Panthers.  Kelsey Brumm and Laura Klingenberg would score another try each, and Janna Slevinsky would score another two en route to her hat-trick.  Makayla Albert, Gillian Bergsma and Rachel Chapman would also add tries for the Axewomen, and Erin Beazley assisted with four converts.

Head Coach Matt Durant was not as happy as one would expect with a final score of 74-5. "It's hard to be too upset when you win by 70 points, but there were a lot of things we didn't do very well today.  I thought PEI played with a greater degree of urgency at the rucks than we did, and we really didn't capitalize on much of the momentum we had in attack at times.  We looked a bit disorganized at times offensively and weren't able to recognize and exploit many of the overlaps we created.  It was our first game of the season, so we have lots of time to work on the things we need to improve.  We come away from this one feeling good about the score, but we'll be much better next week."