The Bay Area Touring Side (BATS), which is a compilation of women’s rugby players from the University of San Francisco, San Francisco State and Community College of San Francisco, defeated Humboldt State this past weekend by a score of 15-5 at Negoesco Field.
The already physical game was made even more so by the wet conditions on the turf due to unrelenting rainfall. The undefeated BATS came out determined to stomp their also undefeated Northern California competition, especially after a sour defeat last time the two met.
Sally Le, the scrum half from San Francisco State, scored two try’s for the BATS and Victoria Ysrael of USF scored the third. In rugby each try is worth 5 points and is scored by downing the ball in the in-goal area, which is between the goal line and the dead-ball line at the ends of each side of the field.
“ It was an awesome win, especially because the team has been working so hard to achieve collegiate status,” said Victoria Ysrael.
In order for USF to have a collegiate women’s rugby team, players from SFSU and CCSF would not be allowed to play. At this point, 4 years after the team’s creation, many of the team’s strongest players come from those universities and so to lose them would greatly hurt the BATS’ talent.
San Francisco State’s Brittany Rickman, the team captain of the backs, had a great game as well. The role of the backs is to create and convert point-scoring opportunities using their speed and agility. Rickman consistently succeeded at getting the ball out of the breakdown to the backs where Humboldt was weak.
Humboldt scored their one and only try on a debatable play in the corner, after the BATS assumed they had pushed the opposing player out of bounds.
Hi Matt…just wanted to thank you for the great story…one thing…score was actually 17-5 as Sally scored one, Aggie Russell scored one and Vicky Ysrael scored one which was converted (2). It’s been a great season and we appreciate the support!
Thanks Matt for writing a great story!!!
Hi Matt,
Thank you for writing this article. These girls do not get the coverage they deserve. It’s great to see something in print about these talented and determined young women.
As a devoted fan, it was thrilling to watch the finale of an exceptional season. Their playing exemplified not only a year of hard work but it showed the admiration these tough players have for each other and their coaches. They are truly the epitome of great team.
Go BATS!!!
was an awesome game…. The bats were on fire. You could see then way they played that they have worked hard all season… and it definitely paid off for them. I’m sure couch kathy is proud!!!!!!
I think other website proprietors should take this website as an model, very clean and magnificent user genial style and design, let alone the content. You are an expert in this topic!