HIGH ACHIEVERS: Focused on a lighthouse, Gee-Gees win U Sports women’s rugby quarterfinal

By Martin Cleary

When chasing a major goal, like a Canadian women’s university rugby championship, every little bit of motivation or inspiration can go a long way.

The University of Ottawa Gee-Gees women’s rugby squad will certainly confirm that. At the team’s first meeting for the 2024 RSEQ conference season, the players designated a lighthouse as a suitable emblem or symbolic figure to cling to for their scheduled three-month journey.

The Ottawa players and coaches, who went undefeated at 6-0 and won their conference regular-season pennant before splitting two playoff games, came face-to-face with a real lighthouse earlier this week.

Despite losing the tight RSEQ championship to long-time rival Université Laval Rouge et Or, the Gee-Gees qualified for their 11th U Sports national university women’s rugby championship tournament, which began Wednesday on a positive note in Charlottetown, P.E.I.

Following its arrival in the P.E.I. capital on Sunday, the team travelled by bus on Monday to the fishing village of Peggy’s Cove to visit the historical, 109-year-old lighthouse on Nova Scotia’s south shore.

After taking a tour and standing at the base of the massive tower for a team photo, the Gee-Gees players are hoping the lighthouse will continue to illuminate a path that will lead them to added success this week.

So far so good for the sixth-seeded Gee-Gees as they upset the third-seeded and OUA-champion University of Guelph Gryphons 19-12 in their quarter-final game Wednesday at the U Sports nationals. Ottawa has advanced to Friday’s semifinals against the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds, who humbled the host University of Prince Edward Island Panthers 67-7.

Ottawa scored three tries in a period of six minutes, including the final two five-pointers in the second half. First-year fullback Sydney Noseworthy and second-year second row player Marley Magnusson put the ball down for tries to erase a 7-5 halftime deficit.

Alysia Comtois, who was named Ottawa’s player of the game, scored the Gee-Gees’ opening try and Victoria Hough converted the Noseworthy and Magnusson tries.

In a major upset, eighth-seeded University of Victoria outscored top-seeded Laval 28-14 as a pair of former players with Ottawa connections had significant roles in the Vikes’ victory.

Player-of-the-game Maddy Grant, who previously wore Gee-Gee colours, scored two tries, while former Carleton University Raven Vanessa Chiappetta scored one try and kicked four converts. There are seven players on the Victoria lineup with attachments to the National Capital Region.

Queen’s University Gaels, the OUA runner-up, stormed past Atlantic University Sports champion Acadia University Axewomen 68-0. The Gaels will play Victoria in the other semifinal on Friday.

Rachel Cullum of Ottawa scored one try and was named the Player of the Game for the Gaels.

Ottawa has reached three U Sports national women’s rugby finals since it started in 1998, seizing the trophy in 2017 and being a finalist in 2021 and 2016. The Gee-Gees also earned the bronze medal in 2022, 2019, 2018 and 2015.

“I do think we have great leadership,” Gee-Gees head coach Duncan McNaughton said about the main reason for the continuation of program success. “We talk about being one team. We don’t have a development side or any red-shirted players. There’s only one team … and that collective of one is what carries us through when things are tough.

“The girls decided to have an emblem for the season and picked a lighthouse. The lighthouse is in the distance and it’s our marker, when going forward.”

By visiting the Peggy’s Cove lighthouse, their emblem became real and provided more inspiration, especially since the team has lost the services of RSEQ all-stars Aurora Bowie (first team) and Tylo Borsboom (second team) because of injuries. Bowie also was selected the RSEQ Player of the Year.

The team embraced the idea of being guided by a lighthouse. The players wear T-shirts featuring a photo of a lighthouse and their team values. They also have lighthouse pins attached to their equipment bags.

“It can’t always be wins and losses. There’s more to it than that,” McNaughton added.

The Gee-Gees rolled through their RSEQ regular season with plenty of offence, 367 points for, and a stingy defence, 59 points against. They even hit the century mark against winless McGill University Redbirds, when they wrapped up their regular season with a 115-0 win.

In the playoff semifinals, Ottawa ran past cross-town rival Carleton 62-12. After posting an uplifting 31-26 victory over Laval in their second regular-season game, the Gee-Gees fell to the Rouge et Or by an almost identical score of 32-26 in the championship game.

Both universities qualified for the U Sports nationals with conference champion Laval being seeded No. 1 and Ottawa being slotted at six. The other seeds are the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds at No. 2, University of Guelph Gryphons at No. 3, Acadia University Axewomen at No. 4, Queen’s University Gaels at No. 6, University of Prince Edward Island Panthers at No. 7 and University of Victoria Vikes at No. 8.

“We’ll have fun out and about anytime we’re at a national championship,” McNaughton explained. “We’ll compete and see what happens.

“It’s important not to put too much pressure on it. As the old adage goes: ‘don’t play the occasion, play the game.’ It’s windy as hell in P.E.I. and it will be interesting to see what type of rugby will be here.”

McNaughton is in his second year as head coach of the Gee-Gees’ successful women’s rugby program, after accepting the role in May, 2023. He replaced long-time head coach Jen Boyd.

McNaughton had been an assistant coach on the Canadian women’s senior 15s team since 2017 and helped the national team to a fourth-place result at the Rugby World Cup in November, 2022. He also was the Gee-Gees’ contact and forwards coach from 2013-17, which included a national title in 2017, a silver medal in 2016 and bronze medals in 2016 and 2015 as well as four RSEQ titles in a row.

“The program is obviously a perennial strong team. We’ve focused on being competitive in the league and seeing what happens,” McNaughton said. “The objective was to get back to playing rugby and enjoying each other’s company.

“I thought, if we can keep moving forward, we want each game to take you forward. The team has done a great job about never worrying whether we go two steps forward or half a step forward. Let’s keep moving ahead.”

There’s always talk of wins and titles, but McNaughton wants his players to “enjoy the moment.”

“We have 14 graduating seniors … and we want to make every moment count, whether we’re getting together for a coffee, a practice or a team photo,” he added.

Besides focusing on a lighthouse and enjoying the moment, Gee-Gees players also have been assembling a scrapbook about their 2024 season. An old-style camera with film is being used to take a variety of pictures and the photos will be printed once the film is developed in a lab.

The list of seniors includes Bowie and Borsboom, who will fly to Charlottetown on Thursday to support the Gee-Gees from the sidelines.

Bowie, who will be the RSEQ nominee for the Player-of-the-Year award at Thursday’s national championship banquet, broke a bone in her right hand during the semifinal win over Carleton. The injury forced Bowie, a sixth-year centre and a Masters student in psychology, to miss the conference final against Laval as well as the nationals.

Borsboom, a fifth-year player and a computer science major, is sidelined because she tore her anterior cruciate ligament during the playoffs.

“She (Bowie) has grown immensely. She has been exceptional, a standout player in our league and a standout player in the country,” said McNaughton, who also expressed his disappointment that Bowie along with Borsboom will miss the national championships.

Bowie, who won the RSEQ scoring title with a Gee-Gees team record 88 points off 36 converts, two tries and two penalties, was the first Ottawa student-athlete to win the conference Player-of-the-Year award since Tanya Gaffney in 2005.

McNaughton also was rewarded for the team’s success, when he was selected the RSEQ Coach of the Year. It was the first time in his career he has won a coaching honour.

The RSEQ awards list also included Carleton’s Sierra Hasse, who was selected Rookie of the Year and named to the first all-star team. Hasse, a first-time winner of the award for the Ravens, was an explosive runner from the No. 8 position, led the team in tries with four and was named a game MVP three times.

The Gee-Gees had 11 all-star selections:

First team: Alysia Comtois, Ngosi Mosindi, Ketsia Kamba, Leigha Stiles, Emma Wade and Bowie.

Second team: Quynh-Ni Au, Fiona Day, Anna Dodge, Julia Latremouille and Borsboom.

HIGH ACHIEVERS: Focused on a lighthouse, Gee-Gees win U Sports women’s rugby quarterfinal

By Martin Cleary

When chasing a major goal, like a Canadian women’s university rugby championship, every little bit of motivation or inspiration can go a long way.

The University of Ottawa Gee-Gees women’s rugby squad will certainly confirm that. At the team’s first meeting for the 2024 RSEQ conference season, the players designated a lighthouse as a suitable emblem or symbolic figure to cling to for their scheduled three-month journey.

The Ottawa players and coaches, who went undefeated at 6-0 and won their conference regular-season pennant before splitting two playoff games, came face-to-face with a real lighthouse earlier this week.

Despite losing the tight RSEQ championship to long-time rival Université Laval Rouge et Or, the Gee-Gees qualified for their 11th U Sports national university women’s rugby championship tournament, which began Wednesday on a positive note in Charlottetown, P.E.I.

Following its arrival in the P.E.I. capital on Sunday, the team travelled by bus on Monday to the fishing village of Peggy’s Cove to visit the historical, 109-year-old lighthouse on Nova Scotia’s south shore.

After taking a tour and standing at the base of the massive tower for a team photo, the Gee-Gees players are hoping the lighthouse will continue to illuminate a path that will lead them to added success this week.

So far so good for the sixth-seeded Gee-Gees as they upset the third-seeded and OUA-champion University of Guelph Gryphons 19-12 in their quarter-final game Wednesday at the U Sports nationals. Ottawa has advanced to Friday’s semifinals against the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds, who humbled the host University of Prince Edward Island Panthers 67-7.

Ottawa scored three tries in a period of six minutes, including the final two five-pointers in the second half. First-year fullback Sydney Noseworthy and second-year second row player Marley Magnusson put the ball down for tries to erase a 7-5 halftime deficit.

Alysia Comtois, who was named Ottawa’s player of the game, scored the Gee-Gees’ opening try and Victoria Hough converted the Noseworthy and Magnusson tries.

In a major upset, eighth-seeded University of Victoria outscored top-seeded Laval 28-14 as a pair of former players with Ottawa connections had significant roles in the Vikes’ victory.

Player-of-the-game Maddy Grant, who previously wore Gee-Gee colours, scored two tries, while former Carleton University Raven Vanessa Chiappetta scored one try and kicked four converts. There are seven players on the Victoria lineup with attachments to the National Capital Region.

Queen’s University Gaels, the OUA runner-up, stormed past Atlantic University Sports champion Acadia University Axewomen 68-0. The Gaels will play Victoria in the other semifinal on Friday.

Rachel Cullum of Ottawa scored one try and was named the Player of the Game for the Gaels.

Ottawa has reached three U Sports national women’s rugby finals since it started in 1998, seizing the trophy in 2017 and being a finalist in 2021 and 2016. The Gee-Gees also earned the bronze medal in 2022, 2019, 2018 and 2015.

“I do think we have great leadership,” Gee-Gees head coach Duncan McNaughton said about the main reason for the continuation of program success. “We talk about being one team. We don’t have a development side or any red-shirted players. There’s only one team … and that collective of one is what carries us through when things are tough.

“The girls decided to have an emblem for the season and picked a lighthouse. The lighthouse is in the distance and it’s our marker, when going forward.”

By visiting the Peggy’s Cove lighthouse, their emblem became real and provided more inspiration, especially since the team has lost the services of RSEQ all-stars Aurora Bowie (first team) and Tylo Borsboom (second team) because of injuries. Bowie also was selected the RSEQ Player of the Year.

The team embraced the idea of being guided by a lighthouse. The players wear T-shirts featuring a photo of a lighthouse and their team values. They also have lighthouse pins attached to their equipment bags.

“It can’t always be wins and losses. There’s more to it than that,” McNaughton added.

The Gee-Gees rolled through their RSEQ regular season with plenty of offence, 367 points for, and a stingy defence, 59 points against. They even hit the century mark against winless McGill University Redbirds, when they wrapped up their regular season with a 115-0 win.

In the playoff semifinals, Ottawa ran past cross-town rival Carleton 62-12. After posting an uplifting 31-26 victory over Laval in their second regular-season game, the Gee-Gees fell to the Rouge et Or by an almost identical score of 32-26 in the championship game.

Both universities qualified for the U Sports nationals with conference champion Laval being seeded No. 1 and Ottawa being slotted at six. The other seeds are the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds at No. 2, University of Guelph Gryphons at No. 3, Acadia University Axewomen at No. 4, Queen’s University Gaels at No. 6, University of Prince Edward Island Panthers at No. 7 and University of Victoria Vikes at No. 8.

“We’ll have fun out and about anytime we’re at a national championship,” McNaughton explained. “We’ll compete and see what happens.

“It’s important not to put too much pressure on it. As the old adage goes: ‘don’t play the occasion, play the game.’ It’s windy as hell in P.E.I. and it will be interesting to see what type of rugby will be here.”

McNaughton is in his second year as head coach of the Gee-Gees’ successful women’s rugby program, after accepting the role in May, 2023. He replaced long-time head coach Jen Boyd.

McNaughton had been an assistant coach on the Canadian women’s senior 15s team since 2017 and helped the national team to a fourth-place result at the Rugby World Cup in November, 2022. He also was the Gee-Gees’ contact and forwards coach from 2013-17, which included a national title in 2017, a silver medal in 2016 and bronze medals in 2016 and 2015 as well as four RSEQ titles in a row.

“The program is obviously a perennial strong team. We’ve focused on being competitive in the league and seeing what happens,” McNaughton said. “The objective was to get back to playing rugby and enjoying each other’s company.

“I thought, if we can keep moving forward, we want each game to take you forward. The team has done a great job about never worrying whether we go two steps forward or half a step forward. Let’s keep moving ahead.”

There’s always talk of wins and titles, but McNaughton wants his players to “enjoy the moment.”

“We have 14 graduating seniors … and we want to make every moment count, whether we’re getting together for a coffee, a practice or a team photo,” he added.

Besides focusing on a lighthouse and enjoying the moment, Gee-Gees players also have been assembling a scrapbook about their 2024 season. An old-style camera with film is being used to take a variety of pictures and the photos will be printed once the film is developed in a lab.

The list of seniors includes Bowie and Borsboom, who will fly to Charlottetown on Thursday to support the Gee-Gees from the sidelines.

Bowie, who will be the RSEQ nominee for the Player-of-the-Year award at Thursday’s national championship banquet, broke a bone in her right hand during the semifinal win over Carleton. The injury forced Bowie, a sixth-year centre and a Masters student in psychology, to miss the conference final against Laval as well as the nationals.

Borsboom, a fifth-year player and a computer science major, is sidelined because she tore her anterior cruciate ligament during the playoffs.

“She (Bowie) has grown immensely. She has been exceptional, a standout player in our league and a standout player in the country,” said McNaughton, who also expressed his disappointment that Bowie along with Borsboom will miss the national championships.

Bowie, who won the RSEQ scoring title with a Gee-Gees team record 88 points off 36 converts, two tries and two penalties, was the first Ottawa student-athlete to win the conference Player-of-the-Year award since Tanya Gaffney in 2005.

McNaughton also was rewarded for the team’s success, when he was selected the RSEQ Coach of the Year. It was the first time in his career he has won a coaching honour.

The RSEQ awards list also included Carleton’s Sierra Hasse, who was selected Rookie of the Year and named to the first all-star team. Hasse, a first-time winner of the award for the Ravens, was an explosive runner from the No. 8 position, led the team in tries with four and was named a game MVP three times.

The Gee-Gees had 11 all-star selections:

First team: Alysia Comtois, Ngosi Mosindi, Ketsia Kamba, Leigha Stiles, Emma Wade and Bowie.

Second team: Quynh-Ni Au, Fiona Day, Anna Dodge, Julia Latremouille and Borsboom.

The U Sports semi-final between uOttawa and UBC is set for Friday at noon ET.