The fierce UMBC women’s rugby team came out to battle the Towson Tigers for their final game of the fall season on Saturday, Oct. 21. The women started practice during the beautiful fall morning just before the game, going over techniques and game plans with each other, trying to get into the right mindset to secure this game.
In the first half of play, both teams were neck and neck as each one of them was trying to gain the upper hand. Though the Tigers scored first, they were unable to stop the Retrievers from scoring three consecutive goals and getting the momentum going into the second half.
Unfortunately, something sparked the Tigers in the second half of the game. At the start of the half, Towson broke right through the Retriever’s defense as the offense seemed to stop clicking, unable to reciprocate the action. With passes going over people’s heads and many takeaways from the opposing defense, the Retrievers gave it their best, but the Tigers went on a scoring run to beat out the Retrievers 46-17.
Though it was a tough loss team president and psychology major Ariana Justice seemed pretty confident in her team’s abilities stating, “It was a great game and we did great but we need to work on defense.”
The coach echoed the sentiment. “This was a very winnable game, I know we could’ve won this game. We need to practice stronger tackling and up the level of our rugby skills.” She even went as far as putting it as one of the team’s goals next season to “beat that Towson team.”
Their goals are set and their minds are on next season. As a team, they have the utmost confidence in each other and in the program for the next season and succeeding years.
