BOX SCORE
WEST CHESTER, PA – The West Chester women's rugby team prevailed in a very physical match early Saturday morning against the United States Naval Academy in a 31-30 victory.
West Chester (3-0) opened the scoring in the sixth minute when Bayla Schindledecker (Clarksburg, PA / Saltsburg) marked the first try in the match to give the host Golden Rams the early lead.
The intensity picked up when the Naval Academy scored a try in the 16th minute and again in the 29th, but Christelle Alce (Upper Darby, PA / Upper Darby) reclaimed it back with a try in the 35th, Julianna Aliprandi (Rockaway, NJ / Morris Hills) topped off the play with a conversion, which gave the Golden Rams the lead back at 12-10.
With only 35 seconds to go in the half, Navy recovered the lead, and carried a 15-12 lead into the halftime break.
The Golden Rams started the second half quickly when Autumn Czaplicki (Pillow, PA / Line Mountain) entered the try zone, Elly Gorham (Alexandria, VA / Hayfield Secondary School) pulled off a conversion to make the score 19-15 in favor of West Chester.
Erica Arnold (Lewisburg, PA / Lewisburg) increased the West Chester lead to 24-15, scoring a try of her own in the 53rd minute.
Navy's 8-man, Sarah Skinner, helped her squad out scoring half of their six trys. West Chester made only five trys but had success with three conversions.
Tina Kimmich (Downingtown, PA / Downingtown West) intercepted a pitch and ran 45 meters with 10 minutes to go in the match and following another successful Aliprandi conversion, West Chester scored its final points of the contest en route to the 31-30 victory.
Navy threatened to reclaim the lead in the closing seconds of regulation but West Chester stood tall defensively and stopped the Navy attempt to earn the narrow victory.
The Golden Rams will be back on the road next week heading to South Carolina to take on Lander University on Sunday at 1 p.m.
