The women’s rugby team put forth a solid effort against the McGill Martlets at the Sept. 6 game on Ravens turf ( Photo: Lasia Kretzel )

The Ravens women’s rugby team had a tough first weekend, losing Sept. 5 to the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees and 17-0 the next day to McGill Martlets.

But both the McGill and Carleton coaches had nothing but praise for the fledgling team.

“They’re combative and pretty courageous,” said John Lavery, McGill’s forward coach.

“They played two games in two days . . . it’s a testament to how much they love the game, and it’s pretty impressive,” he said.

The Ravens own head coach, Greg Hedgecoe, said he was pleased with his team’s performance in the first half where both sides played hard and came out 0-0.

In the second half the Martlets scored their first try ten minutes in, after a long battle to the in-goal. They followed 15 minutes later with two more tries, one from a lucky breakaway and one from a successful conversion.

“We’re rebuilding the team this year,” said Hedgecoe. “There are a lot of rookies . . . but the way they played the first half of the game showed a lot of potential.”

Hedgecoe said one of the rookies that stood out was Jessica Harvey, who played for the Ontario U19 team during the summer.

“There’s a lot of good talent this year,” said Ravens team captain Ashley Reid.

She said the team has high hopes for this season because they improved so much between the Saturday and Sunday games.

“We feel really good. We played much better [against McGill] than against Ottawa U. It was a big team effort . . . we improved and clicked so much,” she said.

Reid said the girls got plenty of bumps and bruises from their away game at U of O. They left their home ground on Sunday with many more after what one referee called a “scrappy game,” with a total of six penalizations and an ankle injury to Raven player Megan Copeland-Dinan, who had to be carried off the field.

“McGill has a strong team with some good fast backs and solid forwards, but they’re definitely beatable with more practice,” said Reid.