Mo Ayala with Chico coaches Alex and Mary Triantafyllou /// Photo courtesy Pacific Mountain Rugby Conference
It could be argued that Chico State had the most thrilling weekend in the country, winning not one but two conference playoff matches by one point each. The victories came with a Pacific Mountain Rugby Conference (PMRC) #3 seed to the combined DI Elite/DI regional playoffs on April 21-23.
READ MORE: DI College Playoff Details • Women’s Rugby Results: March 25-26 • PMRC Playoff Background
Six teams reported to the DI PMRC playoffs in Palo Alto, Calif., and four are moving onto the regional playoffs. Chico State faced Oregon, the north pool’s runner-up, in the third-place semifinal and emerged with a 27-26 win. The Wildcats actually outscored the Dirty Ducks five tries to four, but with kicker Darby McFall nursing a tender ankle, only one of five conversions fell over.
“It was a positive win – closer than anyone would have wanted, but they got some confidence being able to put up five tries,” said Chico State coach Alex Triantafyllou. “We struggled all season matching up with teams’ physicality, and I think it was a good game for Chico because they stepped it up. Oregon was really physical, and it was good to play them before the even more physical Washington State.”
Triantafyllou singled out No. 8 Mo Ayala for leading that aggressive attack, and that leadership earned her Canterbury College Player of the Week.
“She just had a great game. She’s a work horse, had good runs, and always manages to find the gainline,” the coach praised. “And being an ex-wrestler, her tackling is phenomenal. She tackles anything in front of her.
“Tighthead prop Rebecca Newlin, too,” Triantafyllou added. “Perhaps she was inspired by the fact that Saturday could potentially be her last 15s match with Chico. She had something to prove and had a great weekend – lot of go-forward, lot of the hard yards and penalty taps.”
Chico State watched 40 minutes of Washington State’s 69-15 win over Cal, and took a couple of notes for the teams’ 3rd place match Sunday.
“We noticed they played defense really flat and no one was really back covering kicks, so we worked cross-field kicks through our 10 [Makayla Hopkins] and tried to drop it behind the wing and then chase,” Triantafyllou explained. “That’s how we scored our first try. We really worked that angle and it was relatively successful attacking wise.”
Washington State took a halftime lead and then emboldened its forward attack in the second 40. Chico State struggled to repel No. 8 Jill Fejes and her efficient stiff-arm, prop/flanker Josie Markoff and flanker McKenna Rybka – all of whom challenged the integrity of Chico State’s breakdowns. Flyhalf Alex Denzinger and inside center Erica Chandler kept that aggressive go-forward alive in the backs as well, and the team did well to manufacture many overloads.
“They really caught us but fortunately for us they weren’t able to capitalize,” Triantafyllou reflected on the number of overloads that didn’t turn into points. “They did a really good job of spreading the field, and we’d get sucked into one side of the field and they’d have a 10 v 5 overload. But they weren’t able to get it through the hands. Maybe one player kept it longer and that allowed us to close the gaps and set the defense. Couple times they had us and we were able to shut it down.”
With 10 minutes remaining, Washington State held a nine-point lead after tries from Fejes, Rybka and Asha Johnson, all converted by Denzinger. With five minutes to go, the Wildcats earned a penalty just outside the 22 and backed kicker McFall for the three points.
The Cougars had possession when there was no time on the scoreboard, but approximately one minute on the ref’s clock. Washington State went through the phases, lots of picks and jams, trying to kill the clock, but never kicked it to touch. WSU coach Christy O’Shea credited it to inexperience, but a misstep that won’t happen again, because …
“They tried hands, there was an errant pass, and it bounced right in Kayla Vasquez’s hands – our fastest player,” Triantafyllou relived the turning point. “She raced 60 meters and scored under the posts with no time.”
With the conversion, Chico State won 22-21.
“I had conceded the loss in my head,” the coach said. “I didn’t think there was a chance. They had 15 phases of pick-and-jams and had complete control, while we were relatively gassed. They were down around our 30 and just lost track of time. One bad pass, a nice bounce, and a wing who runs.”
Vasquez scored four tries on the weekend and was a strong, pacey presence for Chico State.
“My heart,” Triantafyllou relived the stress of two one-point wins. “It was very tense. … It was like we won a national championship. Pretty exciting moment.”
Chico State and Washington State head to the DI Elite/DI Spring Round of 16 on April 21-23. The Wildcats will play 2016 DI Elite runner-up BYU in Davis, Calif., while Washington State will see DI Elite Lindenwood in Palo Alto, Calif., as the conference’s third and fourth seeds, respectively. UC Davis and Stanford took the top two seeds out of the league and will host their Round of 16 matches at home.
Both coaches, Triantafyllou and O’Shea, expressed disappointment (to put it mildly) with the regional post-season and the re-integration of the DI Elite teams in their playoffs. A Round of 16 loss means the post-season is over, but a second-round loss means second life, i.e., quarterfinal losers are filtered into the DI spring championship semifinals. So theoretically, a DI Elite team could win the DI spring championship. More on that issue to come.