Women's rugby falls to Claremont


By Marcia Gaysue
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Monday, February 28, 2005

The Arizona women's club rugby team lost 35-0 to Claremont Saturday at Estevan Park.

The game was scoreless until the 15-minute mark, when Claremont scored its first try, converting the field goal to make the score 7-0.

Claremont went on to score three consecutive tries in a nine-minute span.

"We're a young team and we've got a lot to learn," Arizona assistant coach Pat Liebenberg said.

Arizona came out ready after facing a 21-0 halftime deficit, not allowing a try for nearly 20 minutes.

"I thought we played pretty well," said forward Anna Soo. "We have a lot of new players, so just getting them into the game and ready to play is the hard part."

Team captain Kristen Albert said that Arizona did not play as well as it should have because it does not have the privilege of a 15-person squad that shows up to every practice.

"They played very well and they were obviously better than us," Liebenberg said. "At first we held them, and in the end they played very well. They're a young program on their campus and they're starting to do very well."

Arizona plays UCLA, a team it lost to on the road by only two points last time out, at 11 a.m. Saturday at Estevan Park.