ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Coming off two-straight victories and its first National Intercollegiate Rugby Association (NIRA) victory of the season, the Navy women's rugby team (3-2, 1-2) looks to continue its recent success when it goes into a battle against Sacred Heart (1-3-1, 1-3) on Saturday, Oct. 19, in Fairfield, Conn.

The match will begin at 11 a.m. and can be streamed for free with the links provided on navysports.com.

"We're looking forward to getting after it this week and preparing for Sacred Heart," remarked head coach Murph McCarthy. "They [Sacred Heart] have had a tough schedule so far and last year's match was a hard-fought battle at our place, so we're expecting no different this year. The team is getting better and better each week, our defense has been physical and we are moving the ball well in attack."

Last Time Out: vs. Princeton

Navy picked up its first NIRA conference and home victory of the season last week with a 24-19 win over Princeton.

Navy's offense came alive in the final 10 minutes of the first half with a pair of tries from sophomore's Mia Young and Alexis Rohrbach. The Mids thrashed the Princeton defense with long runs. In the 33rd minute, Young poached the ball from a Princeton scrum from mid field and ran in her second try of the season to give Navy a 12-0 lead.

A high tackle penalty on Navy turned out to be beneficial as it would steal the line out attempt. After Rohrbach worked her way out of the ruck pile, she broke through two tackles and juked past Princeton's last defender from the try zone to run in her team-leading fourth try of the season and send Navy into halftime with a 19-0 lead.

Princeton's offense came out of halftime with a different pace and scored two tries in 25 minutes to shrink Navy's lead to one possession, 19-12.

The Midshipmen responded quickly with a try of their own in the 70th minute with quick passing attacking the Tigers' 22-meter zone. Eventually, Ella Callahan caught the defense sleeping with a quick kick and go to score her first try of the season. The conversion kick was wide right to keep it a two-possession match at 24-12.

Princeton added one more try in the final seconds of the match to narrow the final points on the scoreboard, 24-19.

Scouting Sacred Heart

Led by 10th-year head coach Michelle Reed, Sacred Heart enters the match with a 1-3-1 overall record and a 1-3 mark in NIRA play. Two of the three losses against Harvard (25-20) and Army (26-20) have been by one possession. In the most recent outing, the Pioneers found themselves in a high scoring stalemate battle against Davenport, 41-41. Sacred Heart's lone victory came in shutout fashion against Princeton, 67-0.

Series History vs. Sacred Heart

The two programs met for the first time in Annapolis last fall with the Pioneers leaving victorious in a low-scoring affair, 14-11.

Navy Notes

        ·         Navy has won two-straight victories for the first time since its inaugural season in 2022 to improve its record to 3-2. The three wins already best last season's win total of two with four matches remaining in the fall season.

        ·         Young leads the team with 34 total points and has been a key member to the team's winning-streak by scoring in both matches. The Falls Church, Va., native has drilled 12 conversion kicks and ran in two tries this season.

        ·         Freshman Lara Olmstead made her first career start against Princeton where she scored the first try of the match in the 18th minute.

        ·         Callahan played a crucial role coming off the bench as she scored her first try of the season in what proved to be the match-sealing try in the 70th minute over Princeton.

        ·         With her try against Princeton, Alexis Rohrbach now leads the team in scores (4).

        ·         Eight Mids – Keira Cole, Miracle Haynes, Bigue Kah, Catherine O'Hara, Caroline Shegogue, Ashley Spencer, Young and Rhorbach – have appeared in all five matches this season.

        ·        Navy's 25 total tries scored this season is already more than last years 15s total (18) with four matches remaining this fall.

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