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The champs!
Stanford women score on the final play to win a second straight national title

by Keith Peters

There may be no crying in baseball, but there were tears on the field at Stanford's Steuber Rugby Stadium on Saturday. And they didn't start out as tears of joy.

"I was already crying because I thought we had lost," said Stanford junior Jennifer Hernandez.

With only seconds remaining in injury time and 0:00 showing on the clock, it appeared as though Stanford's reign as national champion was over. The Cardinal trailed Penn State by two points and was down to its final play in the USA Rugby Division I Women's College Championship finale.

In baseball, this would have been the bottom of the 10th with the bases loaded, two outs and the count 3-2. A hit wins it while a strikeout ends it.

Fortunately for Stanford, there was no strikeout. Senior Victoria Folayan made a historic run through the Nittany Lions on the final play of the match and scored, giving the Cardinal a dramatic 15-12 victory and its second national title in as many years.

"It was all Vic," said Stanford sophomore Jossy Tseng, a Palo Alto High graduate.

"The minute it (the ball) got in her hands, everyone knew she was going to score," Hernandez told the Stanford Daily.

Thanks to a Penn State penalty, Stanford was within 10 meters of kicking the winning points or running it in. When a gusty wind came up, Cardinal coach Jonathan Griffin decided to put the ball in Folayan's hands. A smart move, as it turned out.

Folayan bounced to the outside and headed for the goal line. When she crossed the line, her teammates began arriving to congratulate her as the Penn State players stood by watching, stunned by the miraculous finish.

"I can't believe it," said Tseng. "It hasn't sunk in yet."

It took a moment for everyone to realize that Stanford had won, since no time showed on the clock. Finally, it was announced and the Stanford players rejoiced.

"It was all or nothing," Tseng said of the last play. "The clock was running down. We just dug deep and gave it our all."

Added Folayan: "We're still in shock that it happened."

Penn State went ahead by 12-10 with 11 minutes remaining and Stanford's chances of repeating appeared dim. The Cardinal had trouble scoring all day.

"We had difficulty keeping possession of the ball all day," Tseng explained.

That wasn't the case in Friday's semifinals, when senior Heidi Herrick scored 20 points in a 45-12 thumping of Navy. Herrick had five conversions and a pair of tries to single-handily beat the visitors. Stanford scored 33 unanswered points to open the match.

Penn State, meanwhile, eliminated Ohio State, 54-5, to earn a rematch with Stanford, which crushed the Nittany Lions in the 2005 national finals, 52-6.

Penn State had been pointing to another showdown with Stanford with its collective eye on revenge.

While Stanford senior Angela Steele was named MVP of the Final Four, it was freshman wing Mae Ryan who gave her team a 5-0 with a nice run 13:36 into the match. Penn State went ahead nine minutes later at 7-5. Five seconds before halftime, however, Ryan scored again for a 10-7 advantage.

Penn State continued to battle and disrupt Stanford's attack, finally retaking the lead on when Anna Hosford scored coming out of a scrum with 69:13 elapsed in the 80-minute match.

With the game slipping away, Tseng continued to organize the offense with quick marches down the field.

"Today was all about heart," said Tseng, the former Paly basketball and tennis standout, who never played rugby until arriving at Stanford and being introduced to the game by a roommate. "It was about digging deep, when your legs are tired. You just give it your all."