Hawks Open Season with 24-5 Win Over the Pioneers

Waukesha, WI-- Though we are still waiting on Spring to arrive, the spring season is here. After a long break following their record-setting fall season, the Whitewater Women's Rugby team "sprung forward" to an early 24-0 lead against the UW-Platteville Pioneers and never looked back in their 24-5 victory over the Pioneers in the opening game of the 2nd Annual Ruck the Dub Tournament.

Sally Diestelmann Gets a Lift in the Line-Out

Senior Center Michelle Lutzen opened the scoring when she received a pass from behind the 22-meter line and ran through the a scattered Platteville defense for the team's first try of the season. Not long after Senior Back Mallory Heynssens had her try held up, but Katie McNeil was able to add to the score on the resulting 5-meter scrum. Tries by Ellie Torn and Cass Pits brought the score to 24-0 at the end of the first half. "We kind of had their number last fall so we were hoping to go into the half with a solid lead," said Head Coach Barry Holloway after the game. "We really wanted to get new players on the field in the second half and we knew they'd have more success if they weren't burdened with the added pressure of trying to hold a tight lead."

Rookies Taisa Pinkham, Katelyn Lentz, Chelsey Muchow, Claire Cincotta, Lindsay Stapleton and Cailah Kasulke stepped on the rugby field with Warhawk jersey for the first time today.

Despite the team being outscored 0-5 upon their arrival in the second half, Coach Holloway was more than pleased with their performance.

"When you replace half of your line-up, even with vets, you disrupt chemistry and momentum. They might have been disappointed they didn't put more points on the board, but how can you be disappointed when a first-game rookie line-up is a bad call away from shutting a team out?"

Holloway is referring to the last second try by Platteville which could have been called a lot of other things before it was called a try.

"I wasn't thrilled with the call," explained Holloway. "I thought it was created off a knock-on and even still Cass [Pitts] was confident she had held it up, but I'm not one to complain after a win. It just would have been nice to the see the girls rewarded for their hard work with a shutout."

With the win, Whitewater is set to play UW-Stout to complete their pool play. A win against the Blue Devils would clinch a trip to the tournament finals.

Side Notes: Saturday's win is the third against the Pioneers in their "Purple Jersey Era" starting back in Spring of '08, which makes Platteville the least successful D-2 team to play the Warhawks in that span…The Warhawks were missing Fly Half Nicole Heil, away at U-23 tryouts, who had tagged the Pioneers for a hat trick last fall…Cass Pitts and Mal Heynssens made debuts in new positions, scrum half and fly half respectively…after some time with the UW-M Panthers Angie Buchinger made her "re-debut" with the Warhawks in the first half.