Plagued by the usual slow start to each game, the Lady Ruggers were scored on early in Saturday's game against James Madison University.

But the team came back to win by a score of 19-5, clinching a spot in the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Football Union tournament on March 31.

"The first 20 minutes were really slow," sophomore Devon Boyle said. "They scored on us right away. We were kind of shaken by it, but then we held them for the whole game."

Senior Rachel Hammond, who acted as captain for the game, helped get the Lady Ruggers back on track.

"Rachel said to just calm down," Boyle said. "We need to relax and keep our heads in the game. She really led the way and told us to play like we know we can play."

Hammond's words had an effect on the team, who picked up its game from that point.

"It was kind of like they scored and it woke us all up," Hammond said. "We just all looked at each other and said we know what we need to do and we all went back out with great energy."

The Lady Ruggers scored three trys, with Kathy Doyle being responsible for two of them. Kelly Evanovich got credit for one as well.

Senior Stef Glecos was successful on two of the three conversions.

Boyle said she was surprised with the way that JMU came out in the beginning of the game.

"They came out really intense and with a lot of heart," she said. "They wanted to win that game. It meant a lot to them."

The winner of this game would gain the right to attend the Sweet 16 tournament in Orlando, Fla. Penn State will attend the Sweet Sixteens on April 21. JMU is now out of that tournament.

Penn State got lucky again on Sunday, when they crushed Indiana University- Pennsylvania with an outstanding 42-0 shutout.

The 23-degree weather proved to be a challenge, though, as it snowed for most of the game.

"I don't think it hindered our ability as much as our attitude," Hammond said.

"We had a lot of dropped balls, which made us scrum a lot, but I told everyone to not worry about the snow."

Although the Lady Ruggers were very cold, Boyle said they played this game to "warm them up" for their tournament weekend.

The scoring came from a lot of different players, which really shows the depth of the team.

Jody Van Ogtrop, Claudia Knudsen, Glecos, Kathy Doyle and Leah Ackerman all contributed with trys.

Glecos also was successful on all the conversions except one.

"We moved the ball from person to person really well and they couldn't stop us," Hammond said. "We just cut off their options. Our defense was pretty well today.

"Our continuity with the ball was a definite strength and our support was really good. I was really proud of them.

"The weather was bad but we still played like a team."