VICTORIA – There was not much of anything that went wrong for the UVic Vikes women's rugby team today as they kicked off their 2017 Canada West campaign with an impressive 82-0 win over the visiting Alberta Pandas on Sep. 17.
 
"That was the strongest start we have ever had as a program," said Vikes head coach Brittany Waters. "It was good because the starters did their job which allowed the subs to come on and also make an impact."
 
Ten different players crossed the try line for the Vikes, as the team showed great versatility by scoring through both strong inside play as well as from bursts of speed down the wings.
 
 "We have threats everywhere, which is great," said Waters. "Our forwards did a really good job of creating a platform for our backs to get out wide."
 
Fifth-year Vike Tiffany Picketts led the way for the Vikes with three tries in the game. Jennifer Appleby added two more tries while Jess Neilson scored on a try, six converts and a penalty.
 
The visitors from Alberta struggled to maintain possession of the ball for prolonged periods of time, but did step things up defensively in the second half of the game when both teams rotated in most of their substitutes.
 
51 points in the first half combined with 31 in the second gives the Vikes their largest margin of victory in the history of the program.
 
"This is a great start that we can build off of but there are always more things to work on. Overall everybody did their jobs today which led to a great result," said Waters.
 
The Vikes remain in Victoria where they will take on the UBC T-Birds on Sep. 24, while the Pandas have a few weeks off before they host the Calgary Dinos on Oct. 1. 

SCORING SUMMARY
 
               1st    2nd    Final
UVic      51       31          82
Alb          0         0              0
 
 
SCORERS:
 
1st Half
 
2' UVic TRY #15 Kara Galbraith, convert #10 Jess Neilson
5' UVic TRY #14 Madison Aberg, convert missed 
15' UVic TRY #3 Tiffany Picketts, convert missed
23' UVic PEN #10 Jess Neilson (
29' UVic TRY #4 Zoe Goodwin-Sutton, convert #10 Jess Neilson 
32' UVic TRY #7 Shaye Tudor, convert #10 Jess Neilson 
36' UVic TRY #1 Jennifer Appleby, convert missed
39' UVic TRY #12 Emily Belchios, convert missed 
39' UVic TRY #9 Sasha Guedes, convert #10 Jess Neilson 
 
2nd Half
54' UVic TRY #1 Jennifer Appleby, convert #10 Jess Neilson
58' UVic TRY #10 Jess Neilson, convert #10 Jess Neilson
61' UVic TRY #20 Renee Gonzales, convert missed
71' UVic TRY #3 Tiffany Picketts, convert missed
79' UVic TRY #3 Tiffany Picketts, convert #12 Emily Belchios
 
CARDS:
 
ALB YELLOW #10 Lora Lee