Albany Women Earn Close Victory in the Rain

New York "B's" vs. Albany
Albany, NY

Albany 27 - New York "B's" 22
April 23, 2001

Theme for this spring: cold or rainy... or both. Mother Nature didn't disappoint as it was both cold AND rainy on game day. This in most cases means a slower pace and more forward play and true to form the muddy field slowed down the running and passing of the backs and the forwards scored over half the tries... sorry backs.
 New York's b-side was the opponent for the day. It was another b-side of a Premier League team just like last week's opponents Beantown. New York is also the current Premier League champions so this was going to be another tough game for Albany.
 First-half scoring drove home that point as New York outscored Albany 3 tries to 1 in the first half in what could best be described as crappy conditions. Albany's lone try was scored by Carrie Emigh at the 12 minute mark, JoAnne Kos had a tough day of kicking with the poor footing and missed her first conversion of the season, having converted 11 straight previously. Score at the half was 17-5 New York.
 In the second half Albany switched literally (and figuratively) from running uphill to downhill as they changed sides of the pitch. Add in the wind at their backs and kicking at the New York backline proved to be an effective strategy which soon yielded points for Albany. Kristin Bonomo started off the second half scoring with a try 15 minutes in that JoAnne converted, cutting New York's lead to 5. Tracy Watson showed that over 40 forwards still have what it takes when she scored a try 5 minutes later to tie up the match and Lauren Sirkin made sure the Albany backs weren't completely off the board for the game, running in a try at 25 minutes and giving Albany their first lead of the game, 22-17. The lead was short lived as New York answered with an unconverted try of their own 5 minutes later, to even the score once again. 22-22 all with 10 minutes left. By this point in the match the field was exceedingly muddy and it was becoming hard to tell the teams apart, as both sides were now sporting a lovely shade of light brown. Despite the poor footing and handling conditions, Albany was able to string together several phases of possession down inside the New York 22 and Nicole Vidro scored the go ahead try as the forwards powered over the try line. The score line of 27-22 would hold for the final five minutes and Albany came away with a hard-earned victory.
Scoring line: Krisitn Bonomo, 1 try; Carrie Emigh, 1 try; JoAnne Kos, 1 conversion; Lauren Sirkin, 1 try; Tracy Watson, 1 try; Nicole Vidro, 1 try
MVPs: Lauren Sirkin and Shannon Wallace