VANCOUVER (CIS) – Western Mustangs women’s rugby star Laura Russell (Bolton, Ont.), a fullback and No. 8 player with the squad, was named as an All-Canadian by Canadian Interuniversity Sport on Nov. 5. It is her second consecutive All-Canadian nod.
The Mustangs play two-time defending national champion Lethbridge today, Nov. 6, and Quebec champion Concordia in back-to-back games at the CIS National Championships, hosted by UBC.
Fifth-year University of Lethbridge fly-half / fullback Ashley Patzer was named player of the year in Canadian Interuniversity Sport women’s rugby for the second time in her career.
The Lethbridge, Alta., native, who was first honoured in 2006, became the third double MVP since women’s rugby was added to the CIS program back in 1998. St. Francis Xavier’s Ghislaine Landry earned back-to-back MVP nods in 2007 and 2008, while Alberta’s Heather Denkhaus claimed the trophy in 1999 and was a co-recipient in 2000.
Other CIS major award winners announced during the All-Canadian Gala include Concordia’s Hughanna Gaw of Elgin, Que., who was named the nation’s top freshman, Bishop’s Frances Bajdik-Bova of Ottawa, who received the Student-Athlete Community Service award, and Lethbridge’s Neil Langevin, who was named coach of the year, an award presented by Coaches of Canada.
The CIS championship, hosted for the first time by the University of British Columbia, gets under way Friday with six round-robin match-ups.
SSN Canada (
www.cis-sic.ca /
www.ssncanada.ca) will have live webcasts of Saturday’s semi-finals at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Pacific Time, as well as Sunday’s bronze-medal game at 12 p.m. and national final at 2 p.m.
2009 CIS WOMEN'S RUGBY AWARDS & ALL-CANADIANS
Player of the year: Ashley Patzer, Lethbridge
Rookie of the year: Hughanna Gaw, Concordia
Student-Athlete Community Service Award: Frances Bajdik-Bova, Bishop’s
Coach of the year: Neil Langevin, Lethbridge
All-Canadian Team
Position Athlete University Year Hometown Faculty
Fullback Claudiane Renaud Laval 2 Trois-Rivières, Que. Leisure Studies
Centre Karen Paquin Laval 3 Quebec City, Que. Chemical Engineering
Centre Jackie Tittley Concordia 2 Kirkland, Que. Leisure Sciences
Centre Lisa Gauthier StFX 2 St. Bernadin, Ont. BA
Fullback / W Ghislaine Landry StFX 4 Toronto, Ont. Human Kinetics
Fullback / 8 Barbara MacDonald Saint Mary’s 5 Dartmouth, N.S. Arts
Centre Brittany Benn Guelph 2 Napanee, Ont. Criminology
Fullback / C Andrea Wadsworth Queen’s 2 Toronto, Ont. Mechanical & Materials Engineering
8 Jacey Murphy Guelph 3 Alliston, Ont. Agriculture
Centre Nina Bui McMaster 5 North York, Ont. Communication & Sociology
F/8/L/P Laura Russell Western 4 Bolton, Ont. Social Sciences
Fly-half / FB Ashley Patzer Lethbridge 5 Lethbridge, Alta. Kinesiology
Prop Allison Lamoureux Alberta 5 Winnipeg, Man. Education
Centre Radha Jain UBC 3 Mississauga, Ont. Human Kinetics
Hooker Ashley MacDonald Lethbridge 5 Corran Ban, P.E.I. Science
