By Josh Shwaykowski
While the 2024-2025 Holland Hurricanes Rugby team could not repeat as Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association (ACAA) champions, the team had a strong season. It would ultimately fall short of its repeat effort in a hard-fought game against the Mount Allison University Mounties in the ACAA semi-finals, losing 21-12.
Coming into the season, the team had a high turnover from last year. With the large number of first-year rookies, the team was looking to get on track with their first game of the year against the Mounties. The Hurricanes would do that, winning the game 19-15.
Head coach of the team, Craig Inward, said nobody expected them to play as well as they did.
“Coming out of the gate, I think we surprised the other team, and we surprised the league when we won that game.”
Their next game was against the St. Thomas University (STU) Tommies. The Hurricanes were looking to build off their win and get more momentum, but STU forfeited the game. While Holland College got two points in the standings, it meant they wouldn’t play a game that week.
“That was a big challenge for us,” said Inward. “We wanted more time on the field, and with the nature of us being a front-loaded sport, we don’t have a lot of preparation time. So, we rely on those games early in the season to really build momentum.”
The following two matchups for the Hurricanes were against the University of New Brunswick (UNB) Reds. They were tied with Holland College for the top spot in the standings with the two teams being undefeated.
The Reds would take both matchups by large margins, winning 65-5 and 48-3.
Inward said the Reds were just too strong.
“UNB was just the class of the league this year,” said Inward. “They had a lot of turnover in previous years so they were able to retain more and they had a great recruiting class. Our bench just didn’t have the depth we needed to keep up.”
The `Canes looked to get back into the win column in their next game where they faced the Mounties. Another hard-fought game wouldn’t go their way as they suffered their third straight loss 36-28.
“(The Mounties) are starting to become our rivals in a way, every game is close, and it can really go either way,” Inward said.
Their final regular season game was to be played against STU, but the Tommies forfeited the game again, not allowing the Hurricanes a chance to get back onto the field before ACAA playoffs.
While they didn’t get to play in their final regular season game, the Hurricanes prepared the best they could for their semi-final game against Mount Allison.
The game was a hard-fought battle, just like the previous two matchups. The Mounties would get on the board first with a try and a conversion to put them up 7-0.
A try from Hurricanes second-year Hook/Prop Asher Lake made the game 7-5 but the Mounties would begin to pull away and take a 21-5 lead at halftime.
Going into the half, Inward said his team didn’t need a big motivational speech.
“In my experience, most athletes know what needs to be done. It’s really just reminding them why they are there and making sure they know they can do it,” he said. “Whatever happened in the first half, we can’t go back and change it. Let’s start the second half and focus on what we know we can do.”
Coming out of the half, the `Canes were energized, and a Try by third year Centre/Wing Madeline MacDonald, followed by a conversion by rookie Fly-half Olivia Lea made the game 21-12.
However, the deficit was too large, and the `Canes ran out of time and were eliminated in the semi-final.
“They came out demonstrating that they were capable of winning that game and worthy of making it to the final,” said Inward. “As an athlete, you want to always leave the pitch knowing you gave everything you had, and they did that.”
While they couldn’t advance past the semi-finals, Inward said he expects the program to take a step forward next season.
“We’ve got some great returning players going into next year, and a lot of them have really stepped up from a leadership perspective,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to seeing what that looks like next year. I think we’re going to have a very strong squad.”
Individually, Annik Whitten, Asher Lake, and Olivia Lea were recognized as ACAA All-Conference players, while Lea was named the 2024-2025 ACAA Women’s Rugby Rookie of the Year.
The Hurricanes 2025 ACAA regular season schedule will be released soon.
Connect with the women’s rugby `Canes at www.instagram.com/hollandhurricanesrugby.
For more information on the Holland Hurricanes, please visit www.hollandhurricanes.com, www.facebook.com/hollandhurricanes, www.x.com/hc_Hurricanes and www.instagram.com/hollandhurricanes.
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