Cottage Grove, WI — This weekend the girls team competed in the tier 2 Single School National Championship tournament in Cottage Grove Wisconsin. The girls went in shorthanded for the tournament with only 17 girls able to travel. Loading the bus at 5:30am Saturday morning the girls were anxious to get started. The first game had a 9:30am start vs City Honors High School from New York. The girls started fast taking a try lead into half time. After half City Honors responded with two quick try’s to take the lead. Then the game became a slug fest with each team scoring multiple times. Taft scored as time was expiring to tie the game. Leah Cahill made the the kick to give Taft a 2 point victory 28-26. The girls had a long wait for their second game. Where they were able to cheer on local Chicago Club team CRC and Hononegah compete in their matches and see the final of the Club National Championship which was amazing rugby. Girls got to make new friends with some of the the other teams. When 4:30 rolled around they were ready to go but weather was hot and humid! Taft was taking on Columbia Central’s JV, from Tennessee, as they had brought two teams to compete 1 in Tier 1 and 1 in Tier 2. Columbia Central had knocked off City Honors 34-10 earlier in the day so this would determine who played in the championship game on Sunday. The girls put in the work to take a lead at half time and this time they never looked back winning 43-17 to end the day. The girls were a little worse for wear as we headed to the hotel but spirits were high. Sunday’s kick off was at 11:45 right at the heat of the day. Taft started the game with 16 as Dina’s ankle injury from the last game had not improved overnight. Though she asked the coaches several times if she could throw a jersey on and get out there to give someone a break. Hamilton HS, A local Wisconsin Team, had scouted well and spread the ball wide to use their speed and support to attack our outside relentlessly. While the girls held for awhile eventually Hamilton broke through. An injury in our backline to Brinly meant we were at 15 for the rest of the game. This seemed to take the energy out of the girls and they quickly found themselves down by over 30 going into half time. The girls were hot and they were tired but they were not done! The second half the girl came out with some fire using their size advantage to pound the middle of the field. Emily, Julia, Rim, Janelle, Karla and Rim had Hamilton on their heals as they took their shots, even when hit behind the gain line they got meters. The support they gave while exhausted was amazing to see. Our two inside backs Leah and Tiffany made some huge tackles of their big number 10 limiting her involvement while pulling off some excellent offensive set up. Lexi playing on a sprained foot was the definition of rugby tough on one wing. Madison and Anwita wade huge contributions at key moments to keep Hamilton from getting to that edge in the second half. Jackie, fighting shoulder pain, showed that she had pace to play with everyone. Jess and Shannon in their first season tackling, running, rucking all over the field were amazing! Nadia who was so exhausted in first half she almost came out of the game, went over for a try! With Julia G playing scrum half for the first time and managing the game like a pro! She contributed all over the field in defense and kept the offense moving up the field consistently. The second half was still a loss, 19-14, but the game looked nothing like the first half. The coaches could not have been prouder of how the girls rallied in that half to end the season!