ANTIGONISH, N.S. – The Acadia Axewomen put a damper on STFX Homecoming weekend as they defeated the U SPORTS No. 10 ranked STFX X-Women 24-12 Saturday afternoon in front of over 1200 fans at STFX Stadium.
The game marked the final regular season home game as Acadia clinched first place in the standings, improving to 5-1 on the season.
STFX drops to 3-3 and finishes in third place. They will travel to Charlottetown next week to take on the second-place UPEI Panthers (4-2) in the AUS semi-final playoff game. Acadia will await the semi-final winner the following week and host the AUS championship game.
The home team X-Women got gave the Homecoming crowd something to cheer about early on as flanker Camryn Kleynhans (Durban, South Africa) touched down for a try four minutes into the game, finding a hole through the Axewomen defense off a dish from Jillian Griffith (Upper Tantallon, NS).
The Axewomen answered right back, however, scoring a try of their own as Sara Grant (Melrose, MB) sprinted through open X territory and touched down. She converted her own try to give the visitors a 7-5 lead.
The teams then settled in and the Acadia defense played a strong game throughout the remainder of the opening half.
The Axewomen challenged to score later in the half, but the 7-5 score held up at halftime.
Acadia's lead was extended to 12-5 when Grace Pinch (Port Williams, NS) touched down for an unconverted try 12 minutes into the second half.
The X-Women tied the game in the 63rd minute after prop Janet Kennedy (Ottawa, ON) touched over the try line after several sustained attempts from the X-Women to score. Maddy Ross (Coldbrook, NS) booted to the conversion to lock the game at 12-12.
The Axewomen stormed right back, however, and regained their lead just five minutes later as Grant scored her second try of the game. The unconverted try gave Acadia a 17-12 lead with 12 minutes to play.
They padded their lead with a try from Lauren Deal (Valley, NS) with four minutes left in the game and Grant booted her second conversion of the afternoon to close out the 24-12 victory.
X-Women flanker Camryn Kleynhans received player of the game honours for her team, while
Axewomen lock Chloe Buckingham (Moncton, NB) was the Subway player of the game.
The AUS playoff schedule will be released on October 16th.
Recap courtesy Krista McKenna, STFX Athletics
SCORING SUMMARY
ACA 7-17: 24
STFX 5-7: 12
First half
StFX – Camryn Kleynhans try, 4th minute
ACA – Sara Grant try (Sara Grant convert), 8th minute
Second half
ACA – Grace Pinch try, 68th minute
STFX – Janet Kennedy try (Maddy Ross convert), 63rd minute
ACA – Sara Grant try, 68th minute
ACA – Lauren Deal try (Sara Grant convert), 76th minute
Players of the Game
ACA: Chloe Buckingham (Moncton, NB)
StFX: Camryn Kleynhans (Durban, South Africa)