EMMITSBURG, MD. – The Queens University of Charlotte women's rugby team defeated top-ranked National Intercollegiate Rugby Association (NIRA) squad American International College, 33-24, in an intense match Saturday morning, hosted by Mount St. Mary's University.
 
The Royals are now 4-0 in the NIRA and 5-0 overall in their first-ever season playing in a conference. AIC was voted to finish first in Tier II NIRA competition this season in the coaches pre-season poll at the beginning of the 2019 season.

Queens saw five Royals score one try each in the win including Alle English, Teaghan Steele, Megan Reed, Antares Lance, and MiKayla Tatum. English led in conversions with a total of four to lead in overall points scored individually in the match with 13 in total.
 
AIC were the first to put points on the board just two minutes into play to make the score 7-0 over the Royals early. Freshman English would answer back with both a try and a conversion of her own to tie things up at the eight minute mark.
 
Steele and Reed would extend the Royals' lead with back-to-back tries, and another conversion from English, making the score 19-7.
 
Adding another try to the board next was Lance, after Angelica Rodriguez kicked for relief of pressure, giving English a chance to make a successful catch of their own ball to set up Lance for the breakaway try.
 
English would close the half with her third conversion of the day to make the halftime score 26-7 over the Yellow Jackets.
 
The Royals would hold AIC for 10 minutes defensively to start the second half before they scored another try to make the score 26-12.
 
Tatum would answer back four minutes later with another try for the Royals, followed by another English conversion, to increase their lead to 21 (33-12).
 
The Yellow Jackets would end the match with two tries and a conversion (33-24), but they were not enough to defeat the Royals.
 
The squad competes in another NIRA match next Saturday, October 19 in Harrisonburg, Virginia against West Chester University of Pennsylvania. Play is slated to begin at 2 p.m.