Axemen punch ticket to AUS & U SPORTS championships

WOLFVILLE, N.S. – The Acadia Axewomen rugby team will head to Antigonish next Friday to take on the defending AUS champion StFX X-Women in the AUS women's rugby championship final for the eighth season in a row.

The Axewomen handed the UPEI Panthers a 53-18 loss in AUS Semi-final action and have punched their ticket to the U SPORTS National Championship hosted by the University of Lethbridge. Two teams from the AUS will gain berth to the national championship tournament including the eventual AUS champion and the AUS finalist.

The Axewomen were the first to score, despite being locked down in their end for the opening 20 minutes of the match. Senior Danielle Wisen scored an unconverted try at the 13-minute mark of the opening half.

The Panthers followed with penalty kick by Alysha Corrigan seven minutes after Acadia's first try.

Subway Player of the Game, Tamara Dondi replied to the penalty kick four minutes later in the 24^th minute of the first half to give Acadia a 12-3 lead off of a Laura Pfleiderer conversion.

Despite coming out hard in the opening half of the half, the UPEI Panthers could not stop the Axewomens' big plays.

"UPEI always comes out hard, but I feel like we didn't usually come out hard. It is one of our weaker points, we don't usually come out strong, but I think all we needed was a few minutes to get our heads on straight. Once we settled in, we realized we got this and that we are better team than UPEI and we just have to work harder," commented Player of the Game, Tamara Dondi.

"I think we have a lot of young players, so we were a little jittery at the start. Many of them have not played in a playoff game," noted Dondi.

Rookie Emma Merilainen used her speed in the later minutes of the first half and pulled together a long outside run for the Axewomen's third try. Natasha Wotton scored the converted try by Laura Pfleiderer in the closing seconds of the first half to push the lead to 24-3 heading into the intermission.

The Panthers replied to the Axewomen's first half dominance with two unconverted tries in the opening 10 minutes. Terrisa Lynch and Niki Triantafillou posted the second half tries, but the Axewomen pushed onward adding tries from Angela Govier and Selena Denny before Panther Amy Hickey scored the UPEI's last try of the match at the 65^th minute.

With a 36-18 lead and 15 minutes remaining in the game, Acadia's Annie Kennedy (returning from injury), Dondi and Govier sealed the semi-final win with tries in the closing 12 minutes.

Rebecca Campbell and Natasha Johnson picked up converts and Laura Pfleiderer converted two tries.

"We had a good start against them (StFX) last time and we just have to continue that. We know we are a fit team. It's just stopping their big girls at the beginning while we are still strong. We need to maintain possession of the ball," said Dondi when asked about next weekend's match up against the X-Women in the AUS Final.

The Axewomen will face StFX in the AUS Finals next Friday night at 6:00 p.m. in Antigonish. Both teams will participate in the U SPORTS Championship in Lethbridge November 2-5. The Axewomen host the 2018 U SPORTS championship next season. This will be the fourth visit to a National championship by the Axewomen in the last six seasons.

Scoring Summary:

First Half

ACA       13 min.                 Try by Danielle Wisen, unconverted                               5-0 ACA
UPEI      20 min.                 Penalty Kick by Alysha Corrigan                                    5-3 ACA
ACA       24 min.                 Try by Tamara Dondi, converted by Laura Pfleiderer       12-3 ACA
ACA       31 min.                 Try by Emma Merilainen, unconverted                           17-3 ACA
ACA       40 min.                 Try by Natasha Wotton, converted by Laura Pfleiderer    24-3 ACA

Second Half

UPEI      45 min.                 Try by Terrisa Lynch, unconverted                                 24-8 ACA
UPEI      50 min.                 Try by Niki Triantafillou, unconverted                             24-13 ACA
ACA       58 min.                 Try by Angela Govier, converted by Rebecca Campbell    31-13 ACA
ACA       62 min.                 Try by Selena Denny, unconverted                                36-13 ACA
UPEI      65 min.                 Try by Amy Hickey, unconverted                                   36-18 ACA
ACA       68 min.                 Try by Annie Kennedy, unconverted                               41-18 ACA
ACA       72 min.                 Try by Tamara Dondi, converted Natasha Johnson           48-18 ACA
ACA       75 min.                 Try by Angela Govier, unconverted                                 53-18 ACA