KINGSTON, Ont. – A balanced attack led the Queen's Gaels to a victory, 55-8, over the Trent Excalibur, in OUA women's rugby action in Peterborough, Friday night. The Gaels got scoring from nine different players as they ran their record to 5-0 and clinched first place in the OUA's Russell Division.
 
“We played a bit of a different lineup tonight, and were able to get lots of people some playing time. We rested some key people, and this will helps us make decisions as we get into the playoffs. But even with new people in the lineup, our attack worked were and we were good with the ball around the breakdown,” said Beth Barz, the Gaels' head coach.
 
After the teams traded scores in the first ten minutes (a Samantha Ellis try for the Gaels, a Celeigh Harris penalty for Trent), the Gaels put the game away with a pair of tries two minutes apart. Jenna Ledson found the end zone in the 14th minute, and Marin MacLeod put the ball down two minutes later. Bronwyn Corrigan converted both tries, putting Queen's up 19-3. Queen's added two more tries in the first half, from Kayla Roote and Caitie Ryan, to take a 31-3 lead at the interval.
 
In the second half, Kaitlin Newton scored for Trent on the hour mark, to cut the gap to 31-8, but rookie-of-the-year candidate Nadia Popov's try in the 66th minute squashed any hopes of an Excalibur fightback. Taylor White scored two minutes later, followed by a Popov conversion to put Queen's up 43-8. In the last five minutes, tries by Rose Sanderson, along with White's second of the evening, provided Queen's with their final margin of victory.
 
“It was nice to see us having a balanced scoring attack,” said Barz. “We had our backs score some tries today, which was good to see.”
 
The Gaels close out the regular season on Friday, October 5, as they host the York Lions. Kickoff at Nixon Field is set for 6 p.m.