The McRoberts Strikers senior girls rugby team capped off an outstanding season with a silver medal finish in the Tier 2 Division at last weekend’s B.C. Championships in Abbotsford.
The Strikers qualified for the 15-a-side tournament by placing second in the Lower Mainland Zone with a 5-1 record, which earned them the No. 3 ranking.
They rolled to a dominating 61-15 opening victory over Smithers, building up a 32-0 halftime lead. Notable performances from centre Leah Barber, lock Isabella McKillop and wing Britney Fagan pushed the girls onto a semi-final matchup with Lower Mainland zone opponents Burnaby North.
That game saw a few key starters sidelined early with injuries — testing the Strikers’ depth on their 29-player roster.
McRoberts easily won the set-piece and possession battles in the first half but could not convert the opportunities into points.
Fullback Paris Chong had several long scampers from misplaced kicks, which allowed McRoberts to gradually wear down the Burnaby defence. Forwards Kira Langer, Anjali Chhibbar and Alex Angeles made several big tackles and were present at nearly every breakdown, getting their hands on the ball and causing all sorts of trouble for the Burnaby halfbacks.
With McRoberts down 15-10 late in the second half, a thunderous tackle from Keelin Laing allowed McRoberts to turn the ball over, and pass it through several sets of hands before centre Moe Yang was able to weave her way through the Burnaby defence and score the tying points.
With momentum now on their side, pressure on both sides of the ball from assistant captain Danielle Robertson and rookie prop Kyra Bates resulted in Burnaby North taking several penalties. With defenders draped all over her, graduating prop and recent selection to the Canada Under 18 team selection Valerie Wideski scored her third try of the game and sixth try of the tournament to put McRoberts ahead at the final whistle.
The Strikers were headed to their first provincial final in nearly a decade.
They took on the Elgin Park Orcas — a South Surrey school that handed them a 20-0 defeat at last month’s Provincials Sevens Tournament.
The girls gave up an early try and it seemed like another disappointing loss to their Fraser Valley zone opponents was at hand.
But captain Kaitlyn Agda rallied the side with her tremendous running and tackling performance, and the girls came storming back with an outstanding try from Wideski in the corner – knotting the game at 5-5. Elgin managed to score in the dying moments of the opening half to lead 12-5 at the break.
After a spirited halftime discussion, the inspiring play of Angel Lozare and Nini Weng – both recently returned from injuries — gave the Strikers a bit of life, allowing them to draw even after another Wideski try and conversion.
Strong efforts by the McRoberts’ forward pack, which included Jordan Rooyakkers, Sydney Martin-Towers and Hannah Koshno, allowed hook Rainalyne Soloria to steal every single Elgin Park scrum in the second half. Despite the set-piece advantage, the game was a back and forth affair – a bounce here or there might surely decide the outcome.
As fate would have it, fleet-footed Jessica Wang scooped up a bouncing ball and ran 60 metres for the go-ahead try – giving the Strikers the lead for the first time in the game.
But another come-from-behind win was not in the cards, as the experienced and well-drilled Elgin Park side summoned the strength to score twice in the final 20 minutes, including on the penultimate play of the game to put themselves ahead 24-17. The subsequent kick-off was fielded by Elgin and kicked into touch. The Strikers had come-up just short, losing by only a converted try.
Despite the gut-wrenching loss, coaches Graham Haigh, Jaya Gill and Thalia Puac were proud of the season long effort by the girls, which combined with their seventh-place finish at Provincial Sevens, was one of the more successful seasons in the program’s 14-year history.
McRoberts had not attended the provincial tournament since 2013, but will be in good position for a return run in 2018, losing only four players to graduation.
Junior players Emilee Stewart, Liz Tkachenko, Sally Yang, Holly Burr, Sophie Madeira, Jena Smith, Rachellyne Soloria and Sabrina Shaw attended their first provincial tournament and played well.
Tenacious scrumhalf Elsie Gonzalez was named to the tournament all-star team and several of the McRoberts girls will be playing in the upcoming Provincial Regional Championship tournament in July.
