RECAP: Women’s rugby falls in RSEQ Championship, shift focus to Nationals

The Gee-Gees women's rugby team fell by a 27-17 score Friday evening in Quebec City in the RSEQ Championship game to the Laval Rouge & Or. Both teams had already secured their spot at the 2021 U SPORTS Women's Rugby National Championship by virtue of qualifying for the RSEQ Final.

Alexandra Ondo earned the two tries for uOttawa and was named her team's game MVP.

Laval opened the match with an early try, but the Gee-Gees responded with a penalty from Claire Gallagher, making the score 7-3. However, the Rouge & Or would rattle off 20 unanswered points to take a commanding lead. 

Ondo, a fifth-year player from Gatineau, Que., took matters into her own hands in the final ten minutes, finding the try zone twice. Gallagher converted both. That would be as close at the Garnet and Grey would get though, as the Rouge & Or hung on for the 27-17 win.

This was the third time uOttawa and Laval met this season, and they may yet meet again at the U SPORTS National Championship, which takes place from Nov. 10-14 at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont. 

Laval, the 2019 National Champions, win their first RSEQ title since 2011 and snap the Gee-Gees run of six consecutive conference championships. It goes down as the Rouge & Or's fourth RSEQ Championship in program history. Ottawa and Laval met in the three prior RSEQ Finals, with Ottawa taking all three.