WATERLOO, Ont. - Laurier's women's rugby team, coming off a tight loss to Waterloo, looked to get back on the right foot with their home opener against the University of Toronto Varsity Blues on Saturday afternoon. The Hawks were a little short-handed, due to some injuries from their previous game, and it ultimately played a factor in a 60-0 defeat.  
 
The Hawks opened with their customary strong start with some back-and-forth making for exciting rugby played by both sides. Laurier looked to open the scoring with a good kick from Jordan Robinson, which allowed Lexi Hessell to gather it up and press the attack, almost breaking the entire team and then executing a great offload back to Robinson. 

Only some good scramble defence by the Varsity Blues prevented the Hawks from scoring first. Following some more back and forth, the Blues finally cracked the defence put up by the Hawks with their 8 rumbling in for a score just outside the posts.
 
"Trust the rugby, trust the system" was the mantra at the water break. However, coming out of it, the intensity was lost and the Blues scored another two tries quickly through the heart of the defence, breaking some spirit of the Golden Hawks. 

Laurier picked themselves off the turf, dusted the black pellets out of their hair, and went back at the Blues, led by the furious defence of Eden Lohr and Kristen Dajka. Time and time again, either one would push Toronto back and put them down - so much so that the Varsity Blues started to look for other spots to attack; ones that were ultimately more successful for them as line break after line break started to wear down. 

A few cross-field tackles by Alysa Haji allowed Laurier to scramble, but ended up putting too much pressure on our last line of defence in our full back Tasha Cory. Cory made several big tackles on their 8 and 12 coming at pace, but it was too much, too often as the Blues started scoring at will. 

At the 80-minute mark, the Hawks found themselves on the negative end of the final 60-0 scoreline. 
 
Player of the Match as voted by Toronto was our 9, Madison Keats for her voice, organization, and push through the game.

Sara Armstrong was awarded the Stanley lunchbox for her efforts and hard work throughout the week and game.