With one more week to go, all NOVA has to do is beat Albany this Saturday, and they're into the Women’s DI Club Elite 8. NOVA defeated Providence 48-12 on Saturday, while Atlanta downed Albany 54-0.

Three of the four aforementioned teams are vying for the last available seed to nationals (Atlanta already clinched a seed), and NOVA has established itself as the forerunner.

“It was an exciting game,” NOVA coach Brian Walker said. “Providence came out hard and applied a lot of pressure. They were tough, fit and physical. With a playoff spot on the line, we knew they were going to hit us with everything they had.”

NOVA felt well prepared heading into the match, due in much part to assistant coach Dana Creager’s guidance this past week. She focused on integrating the backrow into the backline defense, and also tightened up the backline attack.

“I’d be lying if I said I thought we were going to score eight tries,” Walker said. “We had some early handling errors, but after we settled down, our backs and forwards worked well to support each other and produced some really beautiful rugby.”

The first two tries came out of the forwards, with No. 8 Rosie Daley accounting for the first, and flanker Megan Hanson scoring the first of her two tries. Outside center Mo McQueen dotted down just before the break for the 19-0 lead at half.

“We knew Providence still had the firepower to come back so we made a real effort to ratchet up the pressure,” Walker said. “Luckily we got two tries in the first five minutes after the half to give us a little more cushion.”

Lauren Hoeck made a nice solo run up the middle for the first try, and Hanson picked up her second try after that.  Erica Cavanaugh picked up the next two tries with hard runs down the right wing, which put NOVA up 41-0 with about 20 minutes remaining.

Providence never backed down, and in the course of about 10 minutes, fullback Dana Ayoub ran in two long-range tries and added a conversion.

NOVA had the final word of the day, as center Emily Blease scored the final try at the whistle. Walker acknowledged center Amber Benlian and prop Kaitlin Joerger as the game’s MVPs.

“We took a big step forward with the win, but we aren't in the playoffs yet,” Walker said. “We still have to beat Albany next week in order to clinch, which means we have to go back to work on Tuesday and prepare for yet another tough match.  Albany have done extremely well in their first year in D1, and have shown they are a quality side.  We need to be as focused and prepared for them as we were for Providence.”