11 women drove out to San Angelo Friday night in order of avoiding the 5 hour drive Saturday morning. We met for breakfast at Ruby's Diner, a quaint little hole in the wall attached to the Quality Suites Hotel. After breakfast, we all retired to our separate rooms for last minute rest and getting our minds set for the game.
We met and drove out to the ASU pitch and began our preparations for the match.
The line up for the match:
1. Lorraine, 2 Amber, 3. Brianna, 4. Vic, 5. Yesenia, 9. Alyssa, 10. Rachel, 11. Alex, 12. Mel, 13. Marie, 16. Maricela
The match kicked off and from the opening kick off, it was all ASU, they were a bit taller than our girls and only 2 of their 12 were bigger (wider) than any of our girls. The opening minutes of the match were evenly played, with both sides looking for an opening to exploit. It was ASU that eventually found that area, a missed tackle and off they went with our girls chasing. In the end it was ASU scoring all day long, but there were a few bright spots in this quiet storm.
1. Was Marie scoring another well deserved Try and Alyssa converting that Try.
2. Watching Mel begin to develop as an attacker, she has always had good defensive skills.
3. This was new, watching Marcela tackle girls right and left, she became the new tackling monster.
4. Watching Alyssa and Rachel continue to work together as an attacking unit.\
5. Lorraine, Yesenia, Alex, Brianna and Amber all developing into quality rugby players.
ASU won that afternoons battle, 75 to UT Dallas' 7, although it wasn't how we wanted to end the fall campaign, it is what it is and now we'll prepare for the spring after the girls come back from their winter break.
The men prepared for their final fall season match with ASU while the women played, with 17 players available for action. This is why we practice, so if one of our starters isn't available we play someone else. We took the field ready to play our game.
ASU's size was quite bigger than our guys, but we went out to play, we've faced that same odds before and came out on top, but that wasn't going to be happening on this day.
The line up was:
1. Jonathan, 2. Otto, 3. Ryan, 4. Precious, 5. Manny, 6. Eric, 7. Daniel, 8. Jake, 9. Andrew, 10. Brian, 11. Zach, 12. Seth, 13. Alex. 14. Kevin, 15. Matt
22. Keenan, 23. Brandon
From the opening kick off, it took ASU 1 minute to score the first try of the day. The forwards of UT Dallas battled the ASU forwards to an even battle all day long. Our forwards would continuously win good ball or take a pick and go for gain a valuable yard or two. When the ball would get out to the backs, only a couple of the backs would have the ability to do something, but ASU's back would shut them down before anything could form.
The second half was a better half for UT Dallas, with possession coming and we finally picked up the pressure, Jonathan Holmes, Daniel and Brian scored Trys with Brian converting 2 of those.
It was ASU on the day that would come away with the win, the final score, ASU 55, UT Dallas 19. Like the ladies, we will have the rest of December off for final exams and the holiday break. When classes resume in mid January, we will look at what we have and try to make any adjustments to our side and see what we can do.