Skip to content

Six former Falcons to compete at rugby nationals this weekend

Former lakecity high school rugby athletes are making their mark on the national stage.
14222891_web1_copy_RugbyNationalPlayers

Former lakecity high school rugby athletes are making their mark on the national stage.

Six graduated players from the Lake City Falcons girls rugby team, spread across three university teams, will be suiting up this weekend for the 2018 U SPORTS Women’s Rugby Championship.

Sisters Emma Pfleiderer and Laura Pfleiderer, Skye Forcier and Natasha Johnson attend Acadia University and are members of the Axewomen’s side, while Carrie Lange will suit up for the University of Victoria Vikes and Carleigh Walters will play for the St. Francis Xavier X-Women.

Acadia University will play host to the championships in Wolfville, N.S. from Nov. 1-4. Games kicked off Thursday and run until Sunday, concluding with the gold-medal match at 1:30 p.m. PST.

The Axewomen and the X-Women are coming off a clash for the Atlantic University Sport title where St. FX picked up the championship banner with a 31-7 victory in the final on Oct. 26.

Both teams, however, had already qualified for the national championship tournament this weekend.

Lange and her Vikes teammates from Victoria, meanwhile, are heading into the national championships as Canada West finalists.

READ MORE: Pfleiderer, Team BC, win Canadian championship

Other teams at nationals include the Ottawa Gee-Gees, the Calgary Dinos, the Guelph Gryphons, the Laval Rouge et Or and the Queen’s Gaels.

Earlier this week, Atlantic University Sport presented its 2018 women’s rugby major award winners and all-stars as selected by the conference’s four head coaches following the regular season with Williams Lake athletes receiving accolades at the event.

Laura, a third-year player, was named most valuable player in the conference, while Walters, also in her third year, received a first-team all-star award.

Laura said it came as a surprise to her and was definitely unexpected.

“For the last two years playing at Acadia University I was always a part of the back line, but coming into training camp this year my coach decided to play me in the flank position along with the forwards,” she told the Tribune.

“This has been a blessing in disguise, but this award wouldn’t be possible without the dedication and effort put forth from each and every one of my teammates. We simply all push each other to do our best.”

In her three seasons with Acadia, Laura is already 22nd in AUS career all-time scoring, and fourth in Acadia history with 107 points scored.

READ MORE: Falcons making impact at university level

In addition to being named AUS MVP, Laura was also named to the AUS all-star team, and to the U SPORTS women’s rugby all-Canadian team.

Laura said the team has now set its focus on this weekend and, despite being disappointed about the AUS title defeat, is excited to host the U Sport nationals.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun [having all six of us playing this weekend],” she said.

“We just had the banquet last night (Wednesday) and there was a lot of reuniting, even with girls from other provinces that are past teammates.”

A full championship schedule is available at www.USPORTS.ca and games will be streamed online at www.usports.live/2018-womens-rugby-broadcast-schedule.



sports@wltribune.com

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter

14222891_web1_181031-WLT-PfleidererMVP


Greg Sabatino

About the Author: Greg Sabatino

Greg Sabatino graduated from Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops with a Bachelor of Journalism degree in 2008.
Read more