After last year's overtime loss to Stanford, the women's rugby team was hoping it could turn its luck in the national championship game around.
Upstart Penn State had other ideas.
After the Tigers crushed Illinois, 36-7, to earn a spot in the finals, they found themselves up against a determined Nittany Lions squad. Princeton lost the national championship game, 31-22, on a Penn State try in injury time.
The Tigers actually got the scoring started in the match with a try just 11 minutes in. A pack of Princeton players pushed in from a line out and added a penalty from senior captain and flyhalf Elizabeth Bogel to take an early 10-0 lead. The Nittany Lions weathered the initial Princeton onslaught, however, and eventually took control of the match.
"We had a chance to put the game away and Penn State, to their credit, regrouped," coach Alex Curtis GS '95 said.
Penn State struck back with two tries just before the half. Prop Angela Foltz scored off a break from a scrum 40 meters out and wing Leah Ackerman added a try of her own to make the score 19-17, Nittany Lions, at halftime.
Honors
The Nittany Lions would increase their total to 26 before senior fullback Katie Stewart scored a try to pull the Tigers within four — 26-22. Stewart burned the Penn State defense for a 40-meter try to close the scoring gap. The Princeton captain was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player for her performance over the weekend. Stewart was also awarded the Woodley Award by the New York Rugby Club as the women's rugby player of the year.
"It's the rugby equivalent of the Heisman Trophy," Curtis said.
"It looks like I get all the glory plays, but really everyone else does all the hard work," Stewart said.
Stewart's efforts would not be enough to put Princeton ahead in the end, however. Penn State clinched the match with a try by wing Amanda Gehman. Gehman's score was set up by a 50-meter weave from fullback Steph Glecos.
"We're relieved [to win], to be honest," Penn State coach Peter Steinberg said in an interview with RugbyRugby.com. "We have to work very hard to score, but we knew we could do it. As long as we remained focused and looked after the ball, we knew we'd be okay."
Cream of the crop
"I think that the two best teams were competing in the final," Curtis said. "Rather than looking at it as losing the national championship, I try to see it as winning second place in the nation. To do that two years in a row is pretty incredible really."
Last year Princeton also had to accept a bitter, late-game defeat in the national championship game — a loss at the hands of the Stanford Cardinal in overtime. This year, Stanford dropped its semifinal match, 20-5, to Penn State and then lost the consolation match, 17-10, to Illinois.
The Tigers had a relatively easy route to the championship game this year. Princeton clinched its pool with two lopsided victories. The team shut out an overmatched Clemson 67-0 and then advanced to the Final Four with a 25-7 win over Eastern Illinois.
"I'm extraordinarily proud of this team," Curtis said.
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