By Tom Albanese and Andrew Badillo
The Quinnipiac women’s rugby team suffered their first loss of the season to Norwich University 45-38. A late comeback with two tries scored by the Bobcats was not enough to catch up to the Cadets.
Junior Natalie Kosko let the Bobcats with three tries and two assists, giving her team-leading eight tries and four assists through the team’s first three contests.
This year’s match was completely different then the one-sided game played a year ago between the two varsity programs. In their first all-team meeting, the Cadets nearly earned a shut out win against the Bobcats, but Maggie Myles scored to put them on the board with time running out in the second half. Norwich won that game 41-5.
The Cadets took the early lead five minutes into the first half. Senior Emily Oor recorded he first score of the game, but Norwich missed the following conversion attempt.
Minutes after trailing early in the match, Kosko scored her first try of the game with a long run, more than twenty yards. Kosko was assisted by senior Elena Orlando and Aine McKeever provided the extra two points on the conversion. McKeever finished the game converting four of her seven kicks, contributing eight points for the Bobcats. Quinnipiac took their first and only lead of the afternoon.
The Cadets added two more tries in the first half, taking a 19-7 lead into halftime. They would jump on the scoreboard first in the early going of the second half with a try from freshman Valerie McGuire. After another conversion, the Bobcats quickly rebounded off a score from senior Elisa Cuellar. Kosko provided the assist to Cuellar’s try.
Norwich then scored twelve straight points to take their biggest lead of the game, 38-12. Kosko again got the Bobcats back into the game as she scored on her longest run of the afternoon straight down the middle of the field.
Orlando then made a big run down field and passed to Kosko for her third try of the game.
After another Cadet try, the Bobcats were down 45-26 with just about ten minutes remaining in the game. Quinnipiac closed out the game with two consecutive tries and one conversion. Shannon Durkin got the first score and Cuellar scored the team’s last try as time ran out in the game.
With the loss, Quinnipiac falls to 2-1 on the season while the defending ACRA Division I National Champions move to 4-1 in the early season.
The Bobcats will take two weeks off before traveling to Utah to face the BYU Cougars on Saturday, Oct. 11 at 12 p.m.
