ELLENSBURG, Wash. – The Central Washington University Women's Rugby Team opened the spring portion of their schedule with a tough 41-15 setback to the Lindenwood Lions late Saturday morning.
 
"Congrats to Lindenwood on a well-played match," CWU Head Women's Rugby Coach Matt Ramirez said. "It was our first match in four months, and it looked like it at times. Some players had to put in big shifts today due to unfortunate injuries, but the time on the field for them was extremely valuable. We asked the team to win the moments, we just had too many costly errors in the contact area and Lindenwood is a team that can take advantage of all those mistakes, and they did."
 
The Lions struck first just four minutes into the game to give them the quick 5-0 lead. In the 25th minute Jessica Postle put CWU on the board with a penalty kick making it 5-3, but Lindenwood responded just over a minute later with a try and conversion kick to put the Lions up 12-3. In the 28th minute Winnie Namosimalua powered her way to the 'Cats first try of the match followed by Postle successfully drilling the conversion kick which made it 12-10 LU. The Lions added one more try and conversion before the halftime buzzer to send the teams to halftime with Lindenwood leading 19-10.
 
Lindenwood earned the first points of the second half at the 57th minute mark to make it 24-10 Lions. Postle added to her resume on the day with a try of her own in the 62nd minute to make it 24-15 LU. However, the Lions were able to keep the Wildcats away from the try line while adding three tries of their own to seal the victory.
 
CWU will head down south to Marietta, Georgia for a rematch against the defending D1A Champions, the Life Running Eagles (13-0). The 'Cats and Running Eagles grudge match is set for next Saturday, March 15 at 7:00 a.m. from Lupo Family Field.