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A dominant fourth quarter saw the USA Stripes defeat the USA Stars 34-12 in the first of a two-match intra-squad series contested by the Women’s Eagles at Infinity Park. Stripes flanker Elizabeth ‘Bitsy’ Cairns was named Player of the Match.
Perhaps to be expected the opening quarter was largely a feeling-out process with the first points finally coming by way of a Megan Foster penalty goal. The first try went not to an individual but to the Stars scrum who earned seven points to take lead.
Cairns breached the line for the Stripes just before the intermission, with Foster’s extras giving the team a slender three-point lead. On the other side of halftime it was an individual effort from winger Sarah Levy to stretched it to double-digits.
The final quarter saw the Stripes pull away with a try from replacement winger Kayla Lawson and 12 points from Foster including one try in support of Kristi Kirshe. Hallie Taufo’ou broke free to pick up an unconverted score for the Stars.
Saturday’s rematch kicks off at 2pm local, 4pm Eastern, with a live broadcast available on FloRugby.
SCORING
STARS 12
Tries – Penalty try, H. Taufo’ou
STRIPES 34
Tries – E. Cairns, S. Levy, M. Foster, K. Lawson
Cons – M. Foster 4
Pens – M. Foster 2
TEAMS
USA STARS
1 Nick James (capt.), 2 Kathryn Treder, 3 Hope Rogers, 4 Sam Luther, 5 Hallie Taufo’ou, 6 Nicole Strasko, 7 Rachel Johnson, 8 Kathryn Johnson, 9 Cassidy Bargell, 10 Katana Howard, 11 Ilona Maher, 12 McKenzie Hawkins, 13 Amy Talei-Bonte, 14 Evan Hoese, 15 Neariah Persinger
Replacements: 16 Paige Stathopoulos, 17 Allie Schrenker, 18 Lisa Jackson, 19 Erica Jarrell, 20 Darian Lovelace, 21 Shelby Lin, 22 PK Vincze, 23 Kelsie O’Brien
USA STRIPES
1 Maya Learned, 2 Joanna Kitlinski (capt.), 3 Charli Jacoby, 4 Jenny Kronish, 5 Julia Buescher, 6 Rachel Ehrecke, 7 Elizabeth Cairns, 8 Jordan Matyas, 9 Carly Waters, 10 Megan Foster, 11 Sarah Levy, 12 Emily Henrich (capt.), 13 Bulou Mataitoga, 14 Kristi Kirshe, 15 Jetta Owens
Replacements: 16 Jett Hayward, 17 Catie Benson, 18 Sam Tancredi, 19 Evelyn Ashenbrucker, 20 Olivia Ortiz, 21 Matalasi Morrissette, 22 Kayla Lawson, 23 Nichole Wanamaker
