(Source) The Life U Women’s Rugby team continued its early season roll on Saturday as they bested University of North Carolina 100-0. The same team that took the Running Eagles all the way to the final whistle last spring during the national playoffs, was no match on this day as Life U dominated open play in securing the victory.
Karissa Lacy crashed over the line early, followed by Kaitlyn Broughtonsoon thereafter, and the Running Eagles were on the front foot early. Riding the momentum, Life U would score 7 tries before the halftime whistle, building an insurmountable 41-0 lead. But the ladies weren’t done, adding another 9 tries in the second half to run away with it and eclipse the century mark with a converted try in the final minute.
Despite the final scoreline, it was not easy in the early going, according to Life U Head Coach Rosalind Chou, who said, “UNC was tenacious in the breakdown, so we had a shaky first 20 minutes. The Tar Heels counter rucked really well, so we had a few too many turnovers and weren’t protecting Madison Ohmann well at 9. That put her under a great deal of pressure, and made it difficult for us to get the ball into the hands of our back line. Eventually, we made the right adjustments to the breakdown area and started to get cleaner ball and maintain possession. N’Keiah Butler was incredibly effective on the kick receipts and had a number of breaks that helped set our offense in motion off the restarts. The team defense still has to be smarter in ruck decisions, scanning, and anticipating our opponents’ attack.”
“We’ve shown improvement in our line outs and everyone is carrying the ball with aggression and purpose, which wasn’t the case last week,” noted Chou. “The increase in confidence as attackers is helping us get on the front foot. The UNC matched showed us some areas that we need to focus on moving ahead, and we have to make those adjustments quickly since we have a formidable Raleigh Venom team to face tomorrow.”