Women's Rugby | 10/3/2025 9:36:00 PM
The York University Lions women's rugby team is playoff bound for the first time since 2019, but Friday night in St. Catharines served as a reminder of just how tough the competition will be once the postseason begins. On a windy, gloomy evening at Alumni Field, the Lions closed out their regular season against the Brock Badgers in what was a high-scoring affair.
The Badgers came out firing, with Taylor Pate opening the scoring in the 10th minute to give Brock a 5-0 lead. That try sparked a surge, as Jordan Smith and Brooke Rempel added to the tally at the 14th and 17th minutes to push the score to 15-0 Badgers. York was under pressure for the entire first half, unable to find a breakthrough offensively. To cap it off, Brock's Taylor Bulgin crossed the line just before the halftime whistle to send the Badgers into the break with a commanding 46-0 lead.
The Lions regrouped in the second half and showed fight, even as Brock tacked on two more tries early on. From there, York finally broke through with a flurry of offence. In the 66th minute, Kristina Jacob scored York's first try of the game, converted by Abbey Spiteri. Alanna Mrkobrada followed with back-to-back tries at the 70th and 73rd minutes, both converted again by Spiteri. Just two minutes later, Mistura Are added another try with Spiteri converting once more, cutting the deficit to 60-28. The late surge, though impressive, wasn't enough to overcome the Badgers' dominant start, as Brock took this one 60-28.
LOOKING AHEAD:
The Lions will now get set to open the OUA playoffs on Oct. 11, with their opponent yet to be determined. Stay tuned to yorkulions.ca for updates on opponent, location and game time.
