Hamilton, Ont. - On a nasty Saturday afternoon, the McMaster women's rugby team shut out the Toronto Varsity Blues, 48-0 to advance to the OUA semifinals next weekend. 

Marauder veteran Natasha Turner (Rockcliffe, Ont.) opened up the scoring early in the game for the Marauders with a try to go up 5-0 after a missed convert. Team captain Maggie Cogger-Orr (Thornhill, Ont.) would be the second Marauder to score a try shortly after and her convert would be good for the seven points.

After McMaster's two quick scores, the Blues would wake up and put on the pressure, keeping the ball in McMaster's end for an extended period of time. Then, on a breakaway run through the middle, Cogger-Orr would score her second try of the match to further the McMaster lead. She would also score her second convert.

Before half, the Marauders would take advantage of the Blues confusion in the back end to score another try, this time coming from Kim Ngai (Markham, Ont.), deeking out two Blues in the effort. The half would end with a score of 24-0.

After an extra long half time due to a Toronto injury on the field, the Marauders and the Blues see-sawed back and forth for the first score of the second half. It would finally come on Turner's second try of the day 20 minutes in with a convert by Cogger-Orr. Turner would score another try about ten minutes later but would miss the convert. 

Just two minutes after that, Ngai would get on the board again with another try but Turner wouldn't be able to put hte ball through the posts for the convert. McMaster's last try of the game would come from Emily Ricketts (Oakville, Ont.) and Turner would make the convert just before the whistle blew for a score of 48-0. 

The Marauders will host the Brock Badgers on Saturday October 22, at 12:00 pm on McMaster's Back 10 Field in hopes of earning a spot in the finals.