CARSON, Calif. – Trinity Western's women's rugby team won two of its three Day 1 pool play contests, earning a spot in Sunday's Cup semifinals at the LA Invitational – End of Summer 7s Bash.
With their 2-1 record, the Spartans will play Rhinos Rugby Academy in the Cup semifinals Sunday at 10:30 a.m. (PT).
The Spartans opened the day with a 43-5 win over the East Palo Alto Razorbacks. First-year
Ava Van Santen (Abbotsford, B.C.) scored three time in her Spartans debut, while fellow first-year
Cheye Gustafson (Langley, B.C.) also dotted down, to go with tries from veterans
Issy Scholtens (Langley),
Michelle Veerman Quezada (White Rock, B.C.) and
Rachel Wood (Coquitlam, B.C.).
TWU kept its momentum rolling in the second game of the day, beating Belmont Shore 30-0. Van Santen scored two more while Scholtens and Veerman Quezada also touched down again for TWU.
Sara Eskildsen (Mexico City) and
Danika Dool (Chilliwack, B.C.) rounded out the scoring by notching their first tries of the tournament.
In the third and final contest of the day, the Spartans were upended by Venom 35-7. Scholtens scored the lone try for TWU.
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TWU Director of Rugby – Andrew Evans
"LA has been a great training camp for us. We've had two sessions per day down here and the women have had high-quality sessions. We've been working on our attacking and skills, which came off really well today in our games. Ava had a phenomenal start for us and the team was really firing on the attack. Unfortunately, we ran out of a bit of steam in our last game and the Venom did a good job of attacking against us and getting us scrambled around the breakdown. They were able to get offloads and score tries. They scored two tries off the start and we were chasing the game from there.
"We're really pleased to reach the semifinals. We're looking to play a really good Rhinos academy team. They are really fit and fast and skilled, so we will have our hands full for sure. Overall, this trip has already been a massive success for our program. We're ahead of where we were last spring and we're really preparing hard to have a good showing in Africa in a month."
TWU Assistant Coach – Ashley Jacob
"LA has been a great learning experience for my transition between player to coach. The team has done a fantastic job displaying all the hard work they have put in over the summer with their skills."
About Spartan Athletics
As official members of U SPORTS, the Spartans currently compete in 13 sports in the Canada West conference, including women's and men's soccer, volleyball, basketball, hockey, cross country and track & field, as well as women's rugby sevens. TWU also competes as an independent team in men's rugby, as well as women's and men's disc golf. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 13 U SPORTS team championships and 32 Canada West team championships. -TW-
