CALGARY – The University of Calgary women's rugby team ploughed ahead for an early 24-0 lead and never looked back, claiming the Canada West Bronze Medal with a 29-19 win over the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns on Sunday afternoon from McMahon Stadium.

Sunday's contest was the rubber match between the two squads, with the Dinos claiming a season-opening 12-6 win on the same field, while the Pronghorns won, 22-14, in the rematch in Lethbridge.

"Obviously it's always tough to come off a loss like that [in the semifinals] and I'm proud of how [the team] responded," Calgary head coach Simon Chi said. "We came out with a lot of intensity and purpose in the first half, and then we kind of took our foot off the gas pedal in the second half. There's some learning from that, but overall, we got the result we wanted."

The Dinos came out the gates strong, powering Callandra Eagleton forward behind a maul for the game's first try at the 8:10 mark to make it 5-0, Dinos.

Calgary doubled up that score on a similar play with Eagleton once again pushing the ball across the line for the try and the 10-0 advantage.

Then it was time for Taejah Thompson to show off her speed, zipping past the defence for a pair of tries, with both converts successful by Patricia Lively to make it 24-0 just 29:03 in.

Lethbridge battled back nicely in the second half.

Sara Cline got her team on the board, capping off a nice drive from the Pronghorns, methodically marching down the field to make it 24-7 at the 55:30 mark.

Calgary answered right back, however, with a breakaway run from Julia Omokhuale just 10 minutes later for the try.

The Pronghorns added two more tries – one by Gwen Fillinger and the final from Ruby McRae – as they continued to show plenty of fight all the way to the final whistle.

"Full credit to the Dinos on their win," Lethbridge head coach Graeme Moffat said. "It was the old game of two halves today. [Calgary] really played to their strengths. Their kicking game was good. Their maul was good and they put up a lot of pressure, so full credit to them. 

"And I think our girls can be proud of their second-half performance. We challenged the girls to go and win the second half, and they did. I'm proud of that effort that they put forward in doing that. We finish the season not as we would like, but it's certainly more of a high as we were facing down the barrel at halftime."

SCORING SUMMARY
First Half
9' CGY – Callandra Eagleton try, 5-0 Calgary
16' CGY – Callandra Eagleton try, 10-0 Calgary
26' CGY – Taejah Thompson try (Patricia Lively convert), 17-0 Calgary
30' CGY – Taejah Thompson try (Patricia Lively convert), 24-0 Calgary

Second Half
56' LETH – Sara Cline try (Abby Neudorf convert), 24-7 Calgary
66' CGY – Julia Omokhuale try, 29-7 Calgary
71' LETH – Gwen Fillinger try (Abby Neudorf convert), 29-14 Calgary
80' LETH – Ruby McRae try, 29-19 Calgary