Claremont captain Dana Alimena / Photos: Jackie Finlan
Claremont’s post-season began strangely. While driving north to Stanford University on Thursday evening, head coach Evan Wollen received a call from the team’s Spring Round of 16 opponent. Evidently Santa Clara, a late replacement for the absent Eastern Washington, couldn’t field a full side for Saturday. The Foxes fielded a mostly B side team for the 10s game, and although the game went down as a forfeit win, Claremont won 31-25 on Saturday.
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“We really love to watch our B side run, and so it pumped us up watching our second side beat an A side team,” Claremont captain Dana Alimena said of the last-minute changes. “It was a change of mentality but we’re a very supportive team and we want to get our B side as much time as possible. That was actually a really cool opportunity for them to play on this beautiful field in Stanford.”
The team watched the UN Reno vs. Long Beach State match, a game that was tied 22-all at half before the Wolfpack pulled away for the 46-27 victory.
“We did really well in league season this year … and so we went into [playoffs] with a decent amount of confidence,” Alimena said. “But we watched Nevada play [Saturday] and thought, ‘Ooh, this is going to be a tough game.’ Tougher than we were expecting. We were really impressed with their back line and their size – they’re a lot bigger than us.”
Fullback Alexandra Parker kicked a penalty goal five minutes into the match, and getting ahead early helped Claremont build some momentum and positivity. Ten minutes later, Parker finished a hands-out-wide ball in the corner for the try. Early in the second quarter, flyhalf Joey Yamada stole the ball in a tackle, tore away and connected with outside center Monika Ford, and scrumhalf Camille Sacristan took the final pass for the try, which was converted by Parker, 15-0.
Claremont started to get into some penalty trouble, and UN Reno used the opportunity to send its toughest north-south ballcarrier, No. 8 Anna DuBois, across the tryline, and Emily King added the conversion, 15-7. The Foxes then made good use of a penalty lineout and put Parker away again (20-7), and then Reno launched a long, brutal attack inside Claremont’s 22. The Wolfpack sent its big, powerful players at the line time and again, and penalties helped extend that campaign, but the defense prevailed.
UN Reno No. 8 Anna DuBois / Photo: Jackie Finlan
Alimena pointed to flankers Jessie Ribera and Sophie Baker for leading the defensive stand.
“They did an incredible job of getting low in the tackles and taking on people 2-3 times their size,” the captain said. “And they were everywhere on the field today.”
During halftime, the coaches talked about cleaning up penalties, tackling technique and adjusting the number of players in the ruck to instead set up post defense for the next phase. UN Reno readied itself for a second-half comeback.
The second 40 started well for Claremont, as its well connected back line broke through the defense. A fabulous offload from wing Anastasia Lavongtheung put Yamada – the back line’s general – into the try zone. Parker converted for the 27-7 lead.
Claremont flyhalf Joey Yamada / Photo: Jackie Finlan
The Wolfpack kept feeding its power forwards – DuBois, Samantha Koegel, Charli Faris – for good gains, and then spinning wide to fullback Taylor Tito and wing Audrey Snow, who take the ball at pace and are tough to take down. The pressure forced more penalties from Claremont, and fast-reacting scrumhalf Mallory Waldeck tapped through the mark near the Foxes’ 10 meter for a try, which King converted, 27-14.
UN Reno stuck to its game plan, and Faris finally finished off a barrage of goal-line picks for another five points and King conversion, 27-21 with 15 minutes to go. The Wolfpack had the momentum, and as the clock neared five minutes to go, the team was back in Claremont’s 22. That’s when the team lost Waldeck to an injury – a major loss – and saw flyhalf Rachel Aldax slide into the nine position. The team rallied around its fallen leader and sent Faris over for another try and King conversion: 28-27 to UN Reno.
“We have four minutes, that’s plenty of time,” Alimena regrouped in the try zone. “We had talked about how we scored 10 seconds after [the second-half] kickoff, and so we said, ‘Let’s just do it again.’”
Alimena, who is also work horse on defense, took it upon herself to get the team moving forward and broke through the defense. A penalty allowed Claremont to keep attacking, and the ball moved wide to the Foxes’ strength. Senior wing Lauren Dorsey timed the final pass to Parker, who converted her own try with a minute left on the clock, 34-28.
Claremont wing Lauren Dorsey / Photo: Jackie Finlan
“Something happened in all of us where we just got excited again and we were ready to fight back,” Alimena said. “We really want this. We have a lot of seniors graduating this year, so we didn’t want this to be our last game. So I think once we had one good play, it set the tone that we were going to score again and take the game.”
It was a heart-breaking end for UN Reno, but a thrilling game nonetheless. Claremont returns to southern California and will be the local team at the DII Spring College Championships in Fullerton, Calif. The semifinal match-ups haven’t been released, but the Foxes will be joined by Fresno State, Salisbury and Tulane on May 4-5. More to come from all the spring title contenders.
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