ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Davenport Women's Rugby kicked off their 7's season with two impressive wins over the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, both Division I schools. Davenport entered two sides into the round-robin competition, with both sides showing strength and areas to improve upon.

Davenport (A Side) versus Michigan State University
Davenport came out ready to go versus a solid Michigan State team, scoring within the first minute. Ashlee Byrge asserted her dominance early, scoring her first and the team's first try of the day. She couldn't get her foot going right away, as she missed her first conversion. Julia Mayer was next up to score, capitalizing off of Michigan State's mistakes inside of their own 22-meter line. Davenport got back to more set pieces and the ball was swung around to the outside for a score by Danielle Ordway and just seconds later a try by Ashlee Byrge right up the middle, which put the Panthers up 26-0 at the end of the first seven minutes.

Just as soon as play resumed, so did Ashlee Byrge. She had not one, but two quick trys to start the second half, giving her a hat trick in just 10 minutes of play and four scores by the end of the match. But the Panthers still weren't done. With solid scrums and lineouts, they were able to put Hannah Tennant into the try zone after a weak side run. Danielle Ordway rounded out the match with a try right at the end of the game, as the last set piece. Ashlee Byrge scored four tries and converted 3-of-5 kicks while Danielle Ordway scored two trys and went 1-for-2 in coversions.

Captain Julia Mayer was happy with what she saw overall. "I'm happy with how we did today, even though it's evident that we still have some transitioning to do into 7's. It was a great first tournament though and I can tell we're going to do some big things this season!"

Davenport (A Side) versus The University of Michigan
With no break between games, Davenport picked right up where it left off, with their foot on the gas. 4 different Panthers scored in the first half alone, with Danielle Ordway, Courtenay Tafel, Hunter Moreland and Ashlee Byrge scoring. But it wasn't all offensive. Hunter Moreland, Brenna Donahue and Danielle Ordway all laid big hits in this game as well as in the first game versus Michigan State University, which helped create offense for the Panthers. Solid offense and defense allowed them to go up 24-0 over U of M at the half.

The second half started with a quick try from Danielle Ordway assisted by her backline counterpart, Ashlee Byrge. The second half scoring was all these two, as they accounted for all of the second half trys. Danielle Ordway left the game scoring four trys, getting herself a hat trick with two minutes remaining in the contest.

Head Coach Greg Teliczan was pleased with how both sides played, going 2-0 in A Side matches and 2-2 in B Side matches. Entering another team allowed more girls to get playing time and more experience in the 7's game under their belt, since most of the rookies only know 15's. "This tournament was a nice ice breaker for 7's for us, especially because we've been juggling practice and training for both style of play. We played well when we were in our pattern of play, but you could see parts of our 15's peeking through at times. 15's and 7's are two completely difference games and we're trying to juggle a season filled with both of them and so far we're doing a pretty good job."

Davenport looks ahead to a long road trip to Arkansas State on February 27th, where they will start their Spring Break Rugby Road Trip, which ends March 5th at Life University. The two sides have never played each other before.