Mauraders top Axewomen at CIS championship

VICTORIA (U Sports) – The McMaster Marauders punched their ticket to the consolation finals on Saturday afternoon with a 24-5 victory over the Acadia Axewomen at Wallace Field.  

The reigning national champions will have to wait until the end of Saturday's matchup between the Victoria Vikes and Concordia Stingers to find out who they play, but making it to the consolation semis was a big boost for a team that had some tough luck in their opener.

"After Thursday, getting that outcome and the win was what we needed to do," said McMaster head coach Shaun Allen. "We want to play three games and dealing with the disappointment from the other day and coming out and topping the consolation side of the draw."

The Axewomen exit the tournament without a win, but they put in a full game effort on Saturday against a team that was ranked No. 1 in Canada all season.

"We just had to find a way—we had so many injuries this year and missing some key players but at the end of the day you take the field and you try to do the best you can," said Acadia head coach Matthew Durant.

"I thought Mac played a great game today and I thought we showed up and played a much better game than we did on Thursday against Calgary."

The Marauders opened up the game with a try from Selena Seguin in the 14th minute, followed by a nice run by Sara Svoboda to extend the lead to 10 in the 24th minute. Sara Black hit the convert on Svoboda's try and would do the same in the 27th minute after Britni French added McMaster's third try of the match.

It was a strong start for a McMaster team that promised themselves that they wouldn't give up after being edged by Ottawa 25-19.

"I think today they showed how resilient they are," said Allen of his team. "Just dealing with the disappointment of the first game a couple days ago. They came out worked hard, went full out in attack and I was really happy with their scrum today. In the second half, we used it as a bit of a weapon and got a really nice try off of it."

The weather began to change in the second half, with clouds rolling in and the rain picking up, but it was the same McMaster team on the field. Madi Jenkins extended the lead in the 49th minute, finding grass in the endzone to put McMaster up 24-0.

It was after that that Acadia began to find their feet. Angela Govier scored the first and only try of the half for the Axewomen in the 65th minute, cashing in on extended pressure to move the score to 24-5.

SCORING

ACA: 0-5: 5

MAC: 19-5: 24

SCORING SUMMARY

14' MAC Try – Selena Seguin (convert missed) – 5-0

24' MAC Try – Sara Svoboda (Steph Black convert) – 12-0

27' MAC Try – Britni French (Steph Black convert) – 19-0

HALF

49' MAC Try – Madi Jenkins (convert missed) – 24-0

65' ACA Try – Angela Govier (conver missed) – 24-5

Players of the Game

ACA #10 – Jillian Bergsma

MAC #8 – Sara Svoboda

CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE (All times Pacific Time)

Thursday, Nov. 3

12:00 Quarter-final 1: No. 3 Calgary (42) vs. No. 6 Acadia (10)

14:00 Quarter-final 2: No. 2 Ottawa (25) vs. No. 7 McMaster (19)

17:00 Quarter-final 3: No. 4 StFX (24) vs. No. 5 Concordia (17)

19:00 Quarter-final 4: No. 1 Guelph (33) vs. No. 8 Victoria (27)

Friday, Nov. 4

17:00 Semifinal 1: Calgary (7) vs. Ottawa (5)

19:00 Semifinal 2: StFX (38) vs. Guelph (24)

Saturday, Nov. 5

12:00 Consolation 1: Acadia vs. McMaster

14:00 Consolation 2: Concordia vs. Victoria

Sunday, Nov. 6

11:00 McMaster vs Winner Consolation 2

13:00 Calgary vs. Guelph

15:00 Ottawa vs. StFX