Crawford 45, Cal B 37

The Crawford team had an excellent game this Saturday against the Cal B team. They had the opportunity to travel to the UC Berkeley campus and play in their football stadium, in unexpectedly superb weather. The prospect of playing on a slightly narrower field, made of turf instead of grass, presented a new challenge, to which the Stanford women adjusted to win over their hard-hitting opponent. Many players had an opportunity to play new or unfamiliar positions: Clementine Stip and Charlotte Eilbert, usually wingers, got to try their hands at a little more ball-handling in the center, while Ashleigh Rose moved from center to wing, providing a lot of support for her fellow backs, and forward Johanna Nagy stepped up to play scrum-half, brilliantly rising to the challenge. Some other highlights of the match include a circle ball executed by Andrea Romero that broke the defensive line and led to a try for Stanford. Forward Kasonni Scales also broke through the defensive line several times to make some excellent runs and bring her team forward, and Nomis Okolo made several also excellent runs at the wing to score many of Stanford’s tries, demonstrating her fierce ability to blow past and outrun the defense. Although on several occasions Stanford lost their organization, they were able to recover and regroup to step up their game, and make some good plays and decisions. The Stanford women’s tiredness caught up with them as the game wore on, and Cal scored most of their tries in the last twenty minutes of the game, giving the Crawford team a lot to learn from and focus on for the future. In the end, the Stanford women were able to celebrate a great victory, and they had much to be proud of. After the game, the Cal team hosted a high-spirited and friendly social, with lots of delicious food and a fierce dance-off! Stanford would like to give a big thank you to the Cal team for hosting them for a great game of rugby.