There seems to be no limit to what McMaster Marauders women's rugby alumnus Cindy Nelles can win.
 
It was 81 minutes into the New Zealand's Farah Palmer Cup Finals when Nelles pulled her usual heroics to score the winning try of an 8-7 comeback victory for her semi-professional side, Canterbury.
 
Nelles' try in extra-time signaled a shocking end to a nail-biting game, crowning Canterbury as the province's best women's rugby team for the fourth year straight.
 
However, the McMaster community should not be shocked.
 
Her track record of success at McMaster alone includes a list of every attainable award possible for a varsity student-athlete. In her rookie season, she was not only crowned the OUA Rookie of the Year, but also went on to earn the nod at the national level. Bringing home an OUA, and CIS (now U SPORTS) championship in 2015, Nelles went on to be named CIS Player of the Year and CIS Player of the Tournament, ending the 2015-16 season as the recipient of the Therese Quigley Award as the McMaster Marauders Female Athlete of the Year.
 
"It was such an unreal season," Nelles said reminiscing on her final season as a Marauder. "There was a cohort of us who stuck it out together for five years and I got to share that experience with my teammates."
 
A two-time CIS Academic All-Canadian and three-time Dean's Honour List from 2014-2016, the engineering graduate was named  a Top Eight Academic All-Canadian – only the fourth Marauder to receive the honour in department history – booking a trip to Ottawa for an evening with then Governor General of Canada, the Right Honourable David Johnston,
 
Prior to her illustrious career at McMaster, rugby had always been a deep passion for Nelles.
Like most athletes, the Canadian International played many sports as a child, including touch rugby at the age of 10. She fell in love with the sport as she got older, playing on high school, provincial and age grade teams, and made her debut on the national stage at 17.
 
"I really loved the physicality and the camaraderie," said Nelles professing her love for rugby. "You can be fully aggressive and not holding anything back. [It's] fully a team sport, and it takes 15 players on the same page."
 
While competing for McMaster, she continued to keep up appearances on the national stage, competing in two world cups, four national championships, marking over 17 appearances across her career. 
 
Since graduating, Nelles has not slowed down. After taking a year off to recover from an injury, she continued to train with fellow Canadian athletes. In 2018, she picked up the head coach position for the Elites Reds, a club team running out of Toronto. 
 
Shortly afterwards, Nelles packed up her bags and moved to New Zealand, the home of rugby, to pursue a career playing semi-professional rugby. After playing club rugby for a short period, she joined Canterbury, the Farah Palmer Cup defending champions.
 
The rest they say, is history.
 
Nelles describes the finals as "honestly the most nail-biting game of rugby I ever played." Canterbury was going for a four-peat, and the game was already in extra time.
 
"I felt pressure on my shoulders. I definitely was not in the moment the whole game and had to put myself back into the present in extra-time."
 
The victory led Nelles to be named to the New Zealand Barbarians all-star team, where she went on to play the Black Ferns, the reigning world champions a couple weeks ago.
 
Her time in New Zealand may be uncertain at the moment, and with no clear signs for a resume in play on the international stage, Nelles remains optimistic, and hopeful to represent her country again in 2021.
 
No matter what happens, one thing is certain: there is no doubt she'll find yet another way to succeed.