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PITTSBURGH – Junior Joya Clark (Scotia, N.Y.) scored two tries to lead the Norwich University women's rugby team to a hard-fought 29-23 victory over Army and punch the Cadets' ticket to the USA Rugby Division I National Tournament Final Four in Stanford, Calif.
Norwich (15-0) will face Stanford University on Friday, May 3 in one semifinal, while defending Division I champion Penn State meets Navy in the other semifinal. The winners will meet on Saturday, May 4 for the D-I national title.
Freshmen Emily Colesworthy (North Yarmouth, Maine) and Ally Day (Gorham, Maine), as well as sophomore Vanessa Champagne (St. Nazaire, Quebec) each scored tries as well for the Cadets.
Colesworthy staked Norwich to a 5-0 lead in the fifth minute and then Champagne added to the Cadets' lead in the 12th minute with another try. With a successful conversion from senior flyhalf Emily Baugus (Kingsville, Texas) NU stretched the lead to 12-0.
Army battled back with successful penalty kick in the 16th minute and then scored a try in the 25th minute to cut the Norwich lead to 12-8.
Clark scored the first of her two tries on the day to put Norwich up 17-8 in the 30th minute, which capped the scoring in the first half.
Army struck first in the second half and with a successful conversion cut the Norwich lead to just two points at 17-15 at the 45th minute.
Clark came up big again in the 49th minute to push Norwich's lead to 24-15. Day added another try five minutes later to put the Cadets up 29-15.
Army fought back valiantly as the Black Knights successfully converted another penalty kick in the 66th minute and another try in the 75th minute cut the lead to six, but that's as close as Army would get.
Norwich also beat Army 34-15 earlier this season on Sept. 8 at the NU Dog River Rugby Pitch in the two teams' first-ever meeting. Army won the 2011 Division I national title, while Norwich is the defending Division II national champions.
Stanford beat Texas A&M 67-22 in the Stanford Regional final. Navy downed Virginia 32-5 in the Annapolis Regional final, while Penn State defeated BYU 22-10 in the Allendale Regional championship.
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