EMORY, Va. - Lander Women's Rugby traveled, 4 hours, to Emory and Henry to play in its first tournament of the year.  First game up was against Lee University, Lander dominated from the opening kickoff stealing it and and passing it out to our fast paced wing Allyson Arias ('22). Then on the ensuing kickoff first year player Hannah Caron made a big hit and stole the ball away and scurried 35 meters before being high tackled. Hannah took a quick penalty and ran it the rest of the way through several Lee defenders before scoring the second try of the game for Lander. Abbi Melton ('23) scored her first try of the day when she intercepted a line out throw then ran 25 meters for the score. Bailey Burt ('22) got the bearcats back on the scoreboard when she put in a bone crunching hit jarring the ball loose from the Lee player, she then picked it up and run it in from 40 meters out.  The Lander backs having not touched the ball the entire game changed their fortune when several attacking phases found Erin Wholey ('22) with the ball and she split the defenders and skinked her way 55 meters in to the try zone for another Lander Try. The second half started off the way the first half ended with Erin Wholey ('22) receiveing a pass and running it 30 meters slicing between the defenders.  Lee mounted a counter attack but the Lander Defense stood firm and stuffed them several times inside our own half.  After several defensive stops Lander managed to get a turnover from Lee, First year player Jillian Stewart ripped the ball away from the ball carrier and ran it 50 meters for a score. Once again the backs from Lander where waiting for some action and they found it with 2 minutes left in the game after several clean phases, the backs drew in several defenders to the middle of the field and then swung the ball out wide to first year player Sha-Lea Davison who ran down the sideline mowing down not one not two but three defenders but running them over for the score.


The table has been set for a big show down with D1 power house Virgina Tech. The opening few minutes was a back and forth defensive battle,  Va Tech eventually won the battle scoring their first try of the game threw several clean phases that created an overload for the attacking Hookies, the score gave them a 5-0 lead. Lander and Va tech then locked horns in another defensive war for the next couple of minutes before Va Tech busted threw the line because of a miscue on defense that lead to another Hookies score, they now led 10-0. On the ensuing kickoff the Bearcats and Hookies were once again fighting for field position and then BAM a monster hit and beautiful counter ruck by Kaylynn Hamby ('24) led to the Bearcats taking possession inside the Hookies half. After several beautiful attacking phases, Senior Paige Wisebaker found fellow Senior Bailey Burt sprinting in the middle of the field, Wisebaker hit Burt with a clean pass then IT WAS SHOWTIME, Bailey then proceed to run over several defenders and sprinting to the goal line for the score, when Burt turned around and looked at the carnage she left on the field all she could do was shake her head and run back to her teammates.  The Hookies and Bearcats fought the rest of the game to a stalemate leaving the final Score Va Tech 15 – 7 Lander.