CALGARY – Willow Beyea scored a pair of tries for the University of Calgary Dinos women's rugby team, but it wasn't enough to hold off a strong second-half push by the Lethbridge Pronghorns in a 27-17 defeat Saturday night at McMahon Stadium.

"I got to say I am proud of the effort. If you look at the progression of what we have been able to do from game one to this game, we have been closing the gaps," said Dinos head coach Simon Chi. "I am gutted that we didn't get it over the line. We were certainly close and fought tough."

Zina Umeh started the Pronghorns off with the night's first try in the 12th minute. After the ball was taken from a ruck and sent to open space, Umeh put on the gas and took it down the right side of the field for a 5-0 start. 

Quickly later, in the 12th minute, Beyea, with the help of her teammates, pushed through the Pronghorns' defenders for her first try of the game. Allysen Stachiw completed the conversion to put the Dinos in the lead at 7-5. 

Beyea did it again in the 22nd minute as she saw her opportunity, drove towards the try zone from 5 yards out, hit a spin move, and landed across the line and into her second try of the night.

Rebecca Powell scored the final try of the half for Lethbridge in the 30th minute. She found her way around the Dinos defenders and ran to the far-left sideline for the score. The conversion was incomplete, tying the game 12-12 at the half. 

The Pronghorns' first points of the second half came from Tory Clements's successful penalty goal.

Closely after, Charli Helland extended the Pronghorns' advantage. A battle on the line of rucks and defenders led Helland to touch down right across the try line for a 22-12 score with a successful conversion. 

Macie Kitt came into the game late as a sub for Calgary and immediately delivered results. She battled Lethbridge defenders across the line and a pass from Grace Eagleton gave her space to drive through and place the ball down for a 22-17 score.

Mackenzie Hutten finished the scoring with another Pronghorns try in the 75th minute.

Lethbridge improves to 4-0 with the win, while the Dinos slip to 0-3.

The Dinos are off to British Columbia for a pair of games, beginning with a matchup versus the UBC Thunderbirds in Vancouver at 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 26. 

The Pronghorns will travel north to Edmonton and verse the Alberta Pandas after a bye-week and resume on Oct. 5 at 4 p.m.

           1     2     F
LET    12   15  27
CGY   12    5   17

First Half
12' LET - Zina Umeh try (conversion unsuccessful) – 5-0 LETH
15' CGY - Willow Beyea try (Allysen Stachiw convert) – 7-5 CGY
22' CGY - Willow Beyea try (conversion unsuccessful) – 12-5 CGY
30' LET - Rebecca Powell try (Tory Clements convert) – 12-12 

Second Half
47' LET - Tory Clements penalty goal – 15-12 LET
53' LET - Charli Helland try (Tory Clements convert) – 22-12 LET
56' CGY - Macie Kitt try (conversion unsuccessful) – 22-17 LET
75' LET - Mackenzie Hutten try (conversion unsuccessful) – 27-17 LET

-UC-