Queen’s Women’s Rugby opened its OUA title defense with a 116-0 road win over York University on Sept. 5.
Despite the success, team captain wants students to look beyond the score as a younger roster prepares for its first home game at Nixon Field.
Jiggy Schonfeld, Kin ’27, led Queen’s with a game-high four tries, while the Gaels held York off the scoreboard entirely.
The win gave Queen’s a strong start to a season where expectations remain high. The Gaels are coming off a sixth straight undefeated regular season, a third OUA title in four years, and another U Sports bronze medal.
To discuss the first win of the season and the Gaels’ upcoming home opener against Brock, The Journal sat down with co-captain Jayne Armatage, ArtSci ’27.
“The OUA is a hard place because it’s so lopsided and we find ourselves really only competing with Guelph,” Armatage said. “It kind of boils down to us competing with each other in our training weeks.”
Queen’s will host Brock on Sept. 12 at Nixon Field in their home opener, which also serves as the program’s annual alumni, family, and friends game.
After 14 players graduated from last year’s roster, Armatage said this year’s team is giving younger players the chance to become more familiar to Queen’s supporters.
“We’re a very homegrown team this year,” she said. “You may not recognize the people on the field, but you’re going to know their names for years to come.”
Brock will also enter the matchup looking for a response after dropping its season opener. Rather than focusing on the score, Armatage said the team will judge its performance by how it responds when things do not go according to plan.
“If we do make a mistake or fail, we fail fast and we can just move on,” she said.
While Queen’s has opened the season with a performance no short of stellar, Armatage hopes supporters will come out to Nixon Field to see a young team that she believes is only getting started.
“If you want to watch a dominant team and one of the best teams on campus, come spend your Saturday at Nixon,” Armatage said. “It’s a great place to be.”
Kickoff against Brock is set for Sept. 12 at 3 p.m. at Nixon Field.
Tags
Queen's Rugby, rugby, Rugby Canada
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