Santa Clara Ready to do Damage

For Santa Clara University, numbers has long been an issue, but the DII West Coast team always gritted their way through games, even when only 12 players remained on the pitch. They didn’t forfeit, and that fortitude was matched off-field, as players buckled down on recruitment and filled the CIPP roster. Today, Santa Clara is 5-2 in the competitive league, and a telling win against San Jose State last weekend has shown that the team is where it wants to be right now.

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Santa Clara welcomed a large recruitment class last year and all 12 members returned for the 2019-20 season. That core group of players will be influential in the years to come, but as far as current leadership goes:

“Carley Fowler is where it starts,” said Santa Clara head coach Kyle Domingue, who has been with the program for four years, like Fowler. “She’s our eightman and the person people look to when something needs to happen on the field.

“Same with Jessica Godinez, another four-year senior,” the coach said of the flanker. “They’re reliable in every asset. They can say, ‘We’ve been here, we’ve done this,’ and lead by example.”

Twenty-year-old Courtney Davis is back after missing last season due to injury and is a major factor in the team’s triumphs.

“She’s one of these best fullbacks I’ve ever seen in the women’s game,” Domingue said. “She’s a huge asset for us in backline – a strong tackler, strong runner – and a big reason why we have been able to win a lot of games. She makes try-saving tackles, which most people would struggle to make, and keeps the other team off the board.”

The young halfback combo of Eleanor Carper and Maggie Avery is also working well. Scrumhalf Carper played four years with Bishop O’Dowd and with six years of experience is a resource for even the older players. Flyhalf Avery is a good distributor with a great foot, making those difficult sideline conversions when Santa Clara scores in the corner.

“Maya Hunt is someone who has been a beast from day one,” Domingue praised the 19-year-old. “We have multiple options with her – inside center, outside center, eightman, flanker. She comes from soccer and has taken to rugby naturally. She’s strong and athletic, makes big hits and defenders bounce off of her.

“I could talk about everyone and how they contribute,” the coach added, “but it’s Carley and Courtney that people look to.”

There’s a good-sized pre-season for spring-based competitions, and with solid numbers, Domingue and staff were able to expand on training sessions and incorporate more contact without fear of depleting the roster. The season started in late November and Santa Clara has gone on to beat St. Mary’s College, UC Santa Cruz, CSU Monterey Bay, Humboldt State and San Jose State. The team dropped a 33-point game to UN Reno in early December and 37-point game to Cal Poly in early February.

“The scores don’t necessarily project how close the games were,” Domingue said of the two losses. “I don’t want to take anything away from Reno – they battled hard the whole time – but we were missing five starters due to injury, and then we took more injuries and ended with 14 players. … We think we can do better the next time.”

Against Cal Poly, Santa Clara held the lead until a minute before halftime. The Mustangs worked two more tries in the third quarter, and then the game got away from Santa Clara.

“We played hard for 50 minutes; they did the whole 80,” Domingue said. “And that was the difference.”

Santa Clara held onto those lessons from the Cal Poly match and employed them against San Jose State this past weekend. The lineup moved around a bit, as fullback Davis was unavailable and Fowler moved to the centers. Six minutes in, the Spartans put outside center Gabriella Tamagri Christian into the try zone for an early lead. Approximately 15 minutes later, Fowler willed her way across the try line and Harlan and Hunt followed. With Avery’s two conversions, Santa Clara led 19-7 at the break.

The team was feeling good heading into the second half, but then Hunt came off with an injury and a minute later the team was pinged with a high-tackle penalty. That rattled the squad a bit and the Spartans responded with another Tamagri try and Veronica Bossio conversion (19-14), and then a penalty try after a high tackle on Maraia Tuqiri (21-14). Santa Clara had two players in the bin, and Meghana Narravula took advantage with a try and Bossio conversion: 28-19 with 15 minutes gone.

The game could have gone the way of the Cal Poly match, but Santa Clara regrouped and kept fighting. Fowler took a penalty tap for a 10-meter try and Avery converted (28-26), and then senior No. 8 Shani Williams went weak off the scrum and scored for the lead change, 31-28.

With fewer than 10 minutes to go, San Jose State was yellow-carded for diving and had to play the rest of the match down, but still sent flanker Etelei Tuigaleava in for a try, 33-31 to the Spartans.

San Jose State held onto the ball as the buzzer sounded, but a penalty allowed for a change of possession and one chance for another lead change.

“For 2.5-3 minutes, we just ran phase after phase,” Domingue recounted. “We got some penalties for a good chunk of field, too. After some pick-and-goes with our forwards in the middle of the field, we got a couple passes off the ruck to Faith Harlan out wide, and she took it in from five meters for the game-winner.”

The dot-down officially ended the game, 36-33 to Santa Clara.

“It goes back to the Cal Poly game. … We got down on ourselves and we kind of gave up,” Domingue said of important take-aways. “But if you know your offense and believe in and trust your teammates, there’s always a chance in this game, because you can score back-to-back tries in a five-minute span. It helped that we were on the opposite end of that situation [against San Jose State]. We went a full 80 and past that.

“My four seniors stepped up big time,” the coach praised Fowler, Williams, Godinez and Harlan. “They took charge at the end of game. There was a great battle in the rucks and San Jose was constantly stealing ball from us in the breakdown, and so they were making sure all the girls were doing their jobs and getting in position to be successful. There’s being in support and being in support where you’re actually supporting versus just blindly following something.”

The coach also called out scrumhalf Carper, who weathered that constant pressure well.

“It was really hard on her since our rucks and scrums were not the prettiest,” Domingue said. “San Jose’s defense just kept pressure on her and she constantly had people in her face, but she got the ball out and let the offense run like it should. She had one of toughest jobs.”

Santa Clara is now 5-2 and will rest until March 14, when the team is scheduled to travel to Sacramento State. The following weekend USF is meant to travel to Santa Clara, but it’ll be interesting to see how the next month plays when considering the number of forfeits those two opponents have posted this season. Regardless, Santa Clara will be refining and building game awareness, and most importantly, healing in time for the post-season.

The West Coast conference will hold a single championship weekend, with semifinals on Saturday and finals on Sunday. Details to be announced. The champion receives an automatic berth to the first round of the DII Spring College Championship – details also TBD – and depending on the bracket, the West Coast conference will is a good candidate for multiple berths to spring regional playoffs.

“It’s been on the agenda all season: Be in a position to be a top-four team [in the conference], go to playoffs and have a chance to make it back to [spring regional playoffs]. The girls have set themselves up for that,” Domingue said. “I’d say we’re very confident. We haven’t put out our full roster yet, and we believe given the chance that we could avenge some losses this season and be a top-2 team in our conference and do some damage at [spring regionals].”

For a fuller look at the DII West Coast conference, click here.