Jenna Balestra supported by Jacklyn Blankenship / Photos: Jackie Finlan
The DII Spring College Championships actually begin with 14 teams, and thus two teams get a bye through the Spring Round of 16. With fewer teams in the west, top-ranked Fresno State and Gold Coast #3 UC Irvine advanced straight to the spring quarterfinals and contested their playoff at Stanford University, alongside the other four-team pool in the west.
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The Bulldogs put in a comprehensive performance and maintained a shutout until the 70th minute, eventually defeating UC Irvine 74-14.
“Everybody did their part, and overall, it was a good performance. The girls have been steady,” Fresno State coach Barry Foley said. “We weren’t sure what to expect against Irvine and knew they had some pretty good players. It worked out well for us.”
UC Irvine had its moments and individuals like front row Symone Muepo, lock Emma Ripplinger, center Selina Eich and fullback Elona Williams caused problems for Fresno State. But even as the Bulldogs coughed up some penalties or missed a tackle or two, the team controlled the game.
The entire pack was solid, with some notable performances from players like prop Vanessa Maravilla and flankers Megan Oleski and Megan Walls. The forwards secured good ball, allowing scrumhalf Raquel Macias to play quickly and deploy flyhalf Jenna Balestra, a line-breaker, try-scorer and on Saturday a conversion kicker.
Inside center Moriah Halteman had another great day, building off of her West Coast conference championship MVP performance, and read the defense so well. She scored four tries, and her hard-crashing center partner, Jacklyn Blankenship, scored three. Macias, Oleski and wing Alexys Gonzalez also scored, and Balestra led all point-scorers with 24 on two tries and seven conversions.
“We didn’t have a big celebration at the end,” Foley said after the final whistle. “We were happy … and it was a huge accomplishment, but we’ve been focused on getting to the [spring] final four all year.”
Since Stanford hosted two DII spring pools, Fresno State was able to watch Claremont defeat UC Irvine and get some first-hand knowledge of a potential spring semifinal opponent.
“I think we match up really well,” Foley said. “We know how we do against Reno and now we saw how they played against Reno. They’re a completely different team than anyone we’ve faced this year. … They remind a lot of Fallbrook [high school]. They aren’t big girls, but just have great technique, are well coached and never gave up. And they’re fit.”
Fresno State is fit, too, and it’s been a focus all year. The team’s heading into the final two weeks of the season with no new work-ons, just a reiteration of tenets that have been enforced all year.
“We’re progressing every game and hoping that we can get to the peak of our abilities this year and time it in the next two weeks,” Foley said. “We just continue to do our basics. We’re not trying to change anything up.”
The spring semifinal match-ups have not been released, but the three other teams all have interesting lead-ups. Tulane is the 2016 spring champion and 2017 spring runner-up, but has been desperate for more field time this year. Salisbury finished fourth in the DII Capital conference, won an at-large bid and beat College of Charleston in the play-in match. The Maryland team then went 2-0 last weekend for the spring semifinals berth. And Claremont was competing in the NSCRO 15s championships last year.
USA Rugby will circulate the spring final four details shortly.
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