Two former Lake City Falcons rugby players have been named to the Acadia Axewomen’s all-decade team.
Twin sisters Emma and Laura Pfleiderer were among 30 players named with the honour on Oct. 27 by Axewomen head coach Matt Durant. Laura was named to the first all-decade team, while Emma was named to the second all-decade team.
Since he began as head coach of the Acadia University’s women’s rugby team, Durant has not missed an Atlantic University Sport championship. For 10 consecutive years, the Axewomen have been finalists and, in 2015, they captured their first AUS title.
Through 10 seasons, Durant coached a whopping 44 AUS all-stars. He said choosing first and second all-decade teams wasn’t easy during such a great period of rugby for the school.
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“I’ve been given the opportunity to bring in some fantastic players from across the Maritimes and across Canada and we wanted to recognize what we thought were some of the strongest players who have come through our program over the last decade,” Durant said.
“It was an incredibly difficult chore. We’ve had so many really talented players playing at so many different positions, it was difficult for us to come to terms with who those 30 players are going to be on a first and second teams.”
In 2018, Pfleiderer was named the Axewomen’s most valuable player, and was recognized once again in 2019 as the Acadia University Jean Marsh Female Athlete of the Year.
“Being selected for the team is really neat,” Laura said. “It’s cool to think in those 10 years and over hundreds of players that have gone through the program Matt picked Emma and I.”
Laura said when the Acadia women’s ruby program released the videos listing who had been selected, it was exciting to see who made the all-decade team.
“It would be fun to get all these girls named to the team all together back in Wolfville, NS. for a match some day,” she said.
In five games played in 2019, Emma racked up four tries for 20 points to help the Axewomen to four wins and two losses for second place in the AUS regular season standings.
Emma said it was a very proud moment to be named among the players selected for the all-decade team.
“It feels good to be noticed and appreciated through my rugby career at Acadia,” she said. “I’m also very happy to have done it with my twin sister who is an amazing athlete, herself.”
Both Laura and Emma completed their fourth seasons for the Axewomen in 2019, however, COVID-19 forced a shutdown on all AUS sports.
This year, the twins are finishing up their Bachelor of Arts degrees in Environmental and Sustainability Studies online — Laura from Prince Edward Island and Emma from Saskatchewan.
And with one year left of eligibility to play in the AUS, Laura said who knows what the future holds.
“We would have [played] but dang COVID,” Laura said. “We both still have a fifth season so maybe in the near future we will go back to Acadia and finish off the ol’ rugby career.”
greg.sabatino@wltribune.com
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