Stanford 42, Chico 29

In the Pacific Coast Championship game, Stanford women played against the only team they had lost to during the regular season, Chico State. You could feel the tension in the air as Stanford battled Chico not only to gain the #1 seed in the national sweet sixteen tournament, but also to reclaim their dignity after losing 3 players to injury in the last Chico game. Both teams came out strong with speed and physicality. Stanford scored first, but fought hard to keep the lead. The half-time score was 28-15. The second half was filled with more hard play and with only a few minutes to play, the Chico scrum half scored to bring the game into Chico’s reach: 35-29. Chico gained possession on the kick-off and kicked the ball down the field. Jessica Watkins, fullback, received the kick and ran toward the touch line to give the ball to Ono Nseyo, wing. As time was out, the entire team screamed for Nseyo to run out of bounds. Instead, Nseyo ran around 3 defenders and sprinted 75 meters to score a try and end the game. The final score was 42-29.

Stanford will be continuing on to the national sweet sixteen tournament in Gainesville, FL as the #1 seed, while Chico State will be going on to the national sweet sixteen tournament at Penn State as the #10 seed in what Goff on Rugby termed, “the bracket of death”.