October 23- Arizona enters year two of Head Coach Tatum Quimby's tenure with high hopes, returning talent, and a great culture that needs to be tested prior to the Spring season. If Friday's performance was any indicator, year two is off to a great start as the Wildcats hosted Grand Canyon's reserve grade side on Friday.

 

The Wildcats, fresh off a gutting 25-19 loss to New Mexico State just a week prior, spent the week focusing on the details, building off of the positives and continuing to build the squad depth. The Wildcats would get their evening started with strong defense, bringing line-speed to shut down the Lopes and creating attacking opportunities off of turnover ball and penalties.

 

One of the finds of the Fall has been hard-running Center Molly Chisholm, with the dynamic inside back repeatedly breaking through the defense and setting up her teammates for line breaks of their own. Chisholm got the scoring for the Wildcats underway with a try of her own, followed by a Natalie Hopkins score to make it 12-0. A Lena Boucher try off of a quick tap would make it 19-0 at the half after a Talia Ben-Yosef conversion. "The team made huge strides in the right direction as we upped our intensity on defense and showed great improvement on our set pieces" said Quimby. 

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The second half would feature more of that stout defense, with Hannah Ketcham converting that pressure into a try-scoring opportunity that would would make it 24-0 before a back-breaking Sylvia Bruzga try would make it 31-0. A late Lopes score and a Ben-Yosef penalty would finish the 27-point victory, a good step forward in the preseason for the Wildcats. "We're fortunate to have an extremely coachable and versatile group of athletes that take what they're learning each week and apply it. Things are really starting to click into place and I'm enjoying watching all of their hard work pay off" said Quimby.

 

The Wildcats will now turn their attention to Sevens, with the conference championships in two weeks and a large group of athletes vying for spots in the squad that will look to bring home some hardware.

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SCORING vs GRAND CANYON
Tries: 5- Chisholm, Hopkins, Boucher, Ketcham, Bruzga

Conversions: Chisholm- 2/2, Ben-Yosef- 1/3

Penalties: Ben-Yosef- 1/1
 

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LINEUP vs GRAND CANYON

​1. Audrey Miller

2. Aspen Wrzesinske

3. Arian Sage

4. Pele Kruse

5. Grace Uso

6. Claire Cipolla

7. Ruby Trella

8. Landry Moore

9. Lena Boucher

10. Talia Ben-Yosef

11. Emma Cook

12. Molly Chisholm

13. Sylvia Bruzga

14. Kenna Whisenant

15. Sophia Bruzga

16. Alyssa Kane

17. Yael Kelley

18. Annie Hoffman

19. Hannah Ketcham

20. Kira Gomez

21. Adrienne Emma

22. Regan Parnell

23. Natalie Hopkins

24. Callie Andrews