HARRISONBURG, Va. - The Queens University of Charlotte women's rugby team suffered its first National Intercollegiate Rugby Association (NIRA) loss to West Chester University of Pennsylvania, falling 38-19 Saturday afternoon, hosted by James Madison University.
 
The Royals are now 4-1 in the NIRA and 5-1 overall in their first-ever season playing in a conference.
 
Queens was led by senior Antares Lance who tallied two tries in the loss, while Angelica Rodriguez also recorded one. Freshman Alle English added two conversions to the board as well.
 
Rodriguez scored the first try of the day for the Royals and was followed by a conversion from English to make the score 7-0 to start the match.
 
Adding to the board next was WCU with two tries and one conversion to take the lead 12-7 early, but Lance would answer back with her first try of the day for Queens just before halftime to tie things up, 12-12.
 
Coming out into the second half, Lance would score her second try of the match, followed by an English conversion to make the score 19-12.
 
WCU would score another try and conversion to tie the score once again, 19-19, but the Royals did not score for the remainder of the half, allowing West Chester to add 19 more points to the board to make the final score 38-19.
 
The squad has one more conference match before they gear up for the NIRA tournament competition in November. They'll take on Brown University Saturday, October 26 at 11 a.m. in Emmitsburg, Maryland.