UMF rugby: Men end perfect spring with Maine Cup championship, women go 1-1

PORTLAND – The University of Maine at Farmington’s men’s and women’s rugby teams headed down to Portland on Saturday to take part in their sport’s annual spring ritual, the Maine Cup, the state’s annual collegiate rugby championship tournament.

At the end of a beautiful late-April day, the UMF men returned home with the championship trophy after first topping a determined but inexperienced Bates College team 45-0 and then besting the always powerful University of Maine at Orono by a 22-12 count in a thrilling final.

With most everyone from Maine’s rugby world in attendance, the UMF men put on a display of what they have become known for when they are at their best — wide-open, free flowing running rugby and a defense that comes up hard and tackles anything that moves.

For the UMF men, it was their seventh Maine Cup championship in the past 10 years, and on the heels of their championship run two weeks earlier at the Beast of the East tournament in Rhode Island it capped the most impressive spring ever for a team that next weekend will celebrate 25 years of rugby on the UMF campus.

Numbers don’t always tell the tale, but the UMF men’s 2016 spring scoreline reads as follows: match record: 7-0; championships won: 2; points scored: 218; points given up: 15; players selected to fill one of the 15 spots on the Maine Cup All-tournament team: 7.

The UMF women were dealing with several injuries so they filled their team out with two Maine Maritime standouts and several strong UMO contributors, and those ladies combined to help the UMF women play their best rugby of the year.

The UMF women, led by stalwarts Emily Gray, Katie Stasalovich and MMA transplant-extraordinaire Cindy Schultz, topped Colby College by a razor-thin 25-24 margin in a back and forth match not decided until the final play. Then the UMF women pushed the UMO ladies to the end, but came up short in a wide open match that saw UMO the well-deserved winners by a score of 34-19.

For the UMF women, captain Gray and hard-tackling wing Sitay Muktar were selected as tournament all-stars along with their MMA sisters-in-arms Schultz and Sydney Knowlton.

For the men, all-star awards went to forwards Mack Telfer, Matt Bigelow and Jake Murphy and backline standouts Nate Backus, Jack Neary, Matt Scremin and Shane O’Neil.

Rugby fans have one last chance to see the UMF ruggers in action this spring when the teams host their alumni for the yearly alumni matches this coming Saturday, May 7, at 1 p.m. on Prescott Field.