The weather finally cooperated for the Penn State women's rugby team. Unfortunately for the Lady Ruggers, Navy did not.

Playing under perfect conditions at West Chester University yesterday, the Lady Ruggers lost a heartbreaker to Navy 36-34 in a make-up of the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Football Union tournament finals. Navy scored two late tries to pull out the victory.

After shutting out their first two opponents in the MARFU tournament in dominating fashion, the Ruggers struggled to maintain the same type of effort, as they struggled to gain possession and turned the ball over too much.

Penn State women's rugby coach Peter Steinberg said the team did not play one of its better games.

"We played well in bursts, but we weren't able to sustain it," he said.

In a wide-open game, Navy was able to get outside and capitalize on the Ruggers turnovers.

"They really spread the ball out wide and we had a hard time covering them," Steinberg said.

Navy's ability to spread the ball out wide was due in part due to its backline, who hurt the Ruggers with their constant movement from one side to the other.

"That was our inability to move with their back line," Lady Rugger Kim Magrini said of their outside success. "They switched sides a lot and we were a little slow to react to it."

The Ruggers were particularly slow over the last 20 minutes as they were sluggish and allowed Navy to score the winning tries late in the game.

The Lady Ruggers were disappointed with their effort, though Steinberg pointed out that it was encouraging to see that the team almost won despite not playing its best rugby against a quality opponent like Navy.

"We were a bit disappointed with our intensity and defense level," Magrini said.

The Ruggers were led by Kim Magrini in tries with three, while Katie Gloyer, Kirsten Aerts and Heather Kantorek added one try each. Also, Mary Crieghton and Amy Manidis led the Ruggers with one conversion apiece.

Next weekend the Ruggers will once again be in West Chester to participate in the West Chester tournament. From there the Ruggers will head to the Sweet Sixteens in two weeks.