The CWU women’s rugby team played their first ever-home game as an official varsity team, beating the University of Washington 88-0. The Wildcats dominated from the opening seconds, executing extremely effectively on offense while playing a punishing style of defense that never let the Huskies anywhere near scoring.

The ‘Cats blow out opening home game victory was a complete team effort, with seemingly every player making significant contributions at various points throughout the game, and that was exactly the plan head coach Mel Denham had in mind.

“We had a game plan and we were looking to execute multiple phases and I think did that very well as a team today,” said Denham.

In the opening 15 minutes of the game the Wildcats scored on every possession they had and got out to a quick 24-0 lead and never looked back.

With another 40 minutes to play after halftime, CWU was enjoying an extremely comfortable 52-0 lead.

10 different Wildcats had scoring try’s in the game, with standout freshman center Nate Serevi leading the team with 3, with fellow freshman Jennifer Johnson and Mele Halahuni both adding 2 scores each. Junior Katerina Long had 6 conversions and sophomore Cassidy Meyers had 2.

One of the more impressive plays of the match was when Meyers intercepted a Washington pass and went the length of the field for the score, easily outrunning multiple Husky defenders.

Junior Captain Haley Schafer believes the team is destined for great things, but believes the most important thing is taking each game at a time, “It’s important we keep our composure throughout the season since this is only our second league game,” said Schafer, “but I’m definitely excited to see what this team can accomplish in our first season.”

CWU’s next event is at Oregon State University where they will be competing in the OSU 7’s qualifier.

“We have saw a lot of individual skill today and that’s great to build off” said Denham, “but I’m most happy with how we played as a team.”

Wildcats next home game is October 25 when they face off against Quinnipiac University at 1 p.m.