Saturday’s hard-fought home opener by the Texas A&M women’s rugby team was spoiled by The University of Texas at San Antonio in the final play in the opening season match.

Before the drop kick, the stands at Penberthy Rec Sports Complex were full and fans could be heard talking about how the 15s squad for the A&M was significantly larger this season with 25 women on the roster.

“We played a really good game today,” coach Rebecca Carcano said. “We played our attack, and it was a lot better than [UTSA].” 

Ecology and conservation of energy graduate student Isis Davis scored the first try of the match for the Aggies near the end of the first period for a 5-0 lead.

“Usually when I try, I promise you it’s a team try,” Davis said. “Those tries are never just one person.” 

A&M led UTSA 12-5 at the half after a very defensive first half by both squads.

Communication sophomore Nour Hage added a try in the second half to put the Aggies up 20-17.

Hage said there was a gap to the left and she thought she might as well push through to see what happened. There is always a lot of action going on in the middle of the field and the decision is whether to run or pop it out, Hage said.

UTSA’s second-half rally was built on Aggie-forced errors, UTSA head coach Nicholas Stevens said.

“We told [our players] defensively they need to stop playing flat-footed and shoot up,” Stevens said. “Once they started shooting up, you would force A&M to start making mistakes, and then we could capitalize on those mistakes.” 

On defense, Davis looked to have made the game-saving tackle in the final minute. After a brief scrum, the ball popped out, and UTSA senior Nevaeh Douglas scored the game-winning try for UTSA. 

With two of her teammates down on the field with apparent injuries at the right side of the 10-meter line, Douglas gut-punched the Aggies as she ran to the left corner and scored the game-winning try as time expired.

“[I] just tried to not let anybody stop me and just power through,” Douglas said. “Don’t mind them, just keep pushing.” 

The effort by Douglas ensured that UTSA would walk away with the 22-20 victory over A&M.

With a larger-than-usual squad this season, the rookies have had a chance to play and learn the game, coach Stephanie McCarthy said. 

“I think some positives [are] our rookies really stepped up, and their vets were leading them very well,” McCarthy said.

Aerospace engineering senior and co-captain Genevie Pace said she is glad that the rookies got a taste of how the game is played and is excited about the next match.

“I am so proud with how our team was playing,” Pace said. “We started off a little hectic, but from the first half to the second I could see a shift, especially with our rookies.”  

Nutrition senior and co-captain Hannah Blockinger summed up why the rookie minutes matter.

“It was finally learning how to play rugby, because we have a quote that goes around that, ‘You don’t know how to play rugby till you have played rugby,’” Blockinger said. 

A&M’s next game will be at LSU on Saturday, Oct. 5. 

Matthew Jones is a political science senior and contributed this from the course JOUR 359, Reporting Sports to The Battalion.