The Wildcats faced off against Penn State under the lights in their first stop of the East Coast tour. The last time these two teams faced off in 15s was the National Championship in 2015 where Penn State got the best of Central Washington.
The scoring started right away as the 'Cats found a gap in the Nittany Lion defense and put
Tessa Hann through for a 60m try in the first 30 seconds. It was the first of three tries on the day by the openside flanker. Set-piece was a highlight as CWU applied the pressure in the scrums and won the ball both on attack and defense. When the Wildcats weren't attacking, they were getting off the line and applying massive pressure on defense. Some strong carries and quality run/catch/pass saw
Keia Mae Sagapolu,
Sammy Stern, and
Kai Brandt-Templeton join Hann for a combined 8 first-half tries.
"Tessa set the tone with those linebreaks to start off the game and you could see the team feed off that energy" said Coach Matt Ramirez. "To see the squad implement what we drilled in our shortened training week was phenomenal. The team stuck to the basics, created mismatches, and won the contact area throughout the game and were rewarded. Very proud of the team for stepping up the way they did just four days after the first match of the season."
Penn State came out of the half energized as they found space off a kick and scored in the 44th minute. The Wildcats settled back in and found the space on the edges as
Lilly Thomas found the corner for her first try in the Crimson and Black.
Sammy Stern notched two more scores becoming the third player with a hat trick on the day.
"Full credit to Penn State and that great coaching staff," added Ramirez. "They're a program that paved the way for elite rugby programs across the Nation and their accolades definitely show that. Couldn't be more proud to see this young squad take on that challenge and respond positively as a team, together."
The Wildcats will now head to Maryland to face Navy at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis on Saturday at 7 am PST.
Scoring:
Tries:
Tessa Hann (3),
Keia Mae Sagapolu (3),
Sammy Stern (3),
Kai Brandt-Templeton,
Lilly Thomas
Conversions:
Jessica Postle 4/10