Despite a slow start to the season, Rye High’s girls rugby team has improved tactically in recent weeks, as evidenced by recent victories over nearby New Rochelle as well as Connecticut and New Jersey schools.
The Garnets started off traveling to northern Westchester County on April 11 to face the private Harvey School. They competed in three games to involve as many of the teams’ players as possible, and Rye lost the game that was officially scored, 5-7. Still, the Garnets chose to focus on the lessons learned from the vigorous competition.
“Our game versus Harvey was a positive experience for us, despite not winning any of the three matches we played,” Coach Geri Jones said. “We had some rust we needed to wipe off; we definitely improved as the day went on, working through the kinks. We won almost every scrum in the game against Harvey, but had a hard time holding onto the ball.”
A week later, a planned scrimmage against New Rochelle High was called off because of poor weather and field conditions. But a week after that, the Garnets and New Rochelle were joined by Ridgefield (Connecticut) High School at Rye’s Nugent Stadium for a round-robin tournament. Many a “try” was scored by the Rye girls, resulting in back-to-back victories of 29-5 against Ridgefield and 20-7 against New Rochelle. A supportive crowd was on hand for the Rye players, and the three teams enjoyed pizza together after the games.
Another round-robin triumph occurred last weekend: Playing at Hudson Catholic Regional High School in Jersey City, N.J, the Garnets held their ground against both Hudson Catholic, 17-10, and their local foe New Rochelle, 28-14.
“The team should be very proud of the way they played,” assistant coach Allyson Furcick said. “In both games, they took about a minute to shake off nerves and then executed the game the way they know how — which is clear from the final scores.”