VANCOUVER – The CIS No. 9 University of Lethbridge Pronghorns needed a second-half comeback to leave Vancouver with a 31-14 win over the UBC Thunderbirds in Canada West women's rugby action on Sunday afternoon.
 
The Thunderbirds led 14-12 at halftime but couldn't parlay their strong performance in the first half into a victory for Maria Gallo, who was making her debut as UBC head coach.
 
"I was actually quite happy with the first half," said Gallo. "We were coming forward both defensively and offensively. We made those goals for ourselves and then things changed after halftime. A couple of big runs by Lethbridge and some pressure from their defence cracked our offence. We definitely need to regroup and from here on in, play with more pressure on our side so we know how to react to it."
 
Mackenzie Lee scored both UBC tries, which were converted by Catherine Ohler.
 
Lethbridge got tries from Kim Leavitt (2), Stacey Hake, Kara Loewen and Lisa Hildebrand while Tiffany Wideen kicked three converts.

After going down 7-0 in the early moments of the game, the Thunderbirds regrouped on defence and moved the ball effectively to establish a field position advantage for large parts of the first half.
 
Rookie inside centre Lee put UBC on the scoreboard right after the visitors went ahead. She then gave the Thunderbirds a 14-7 lead with another try.  On both plays, she broke free from the pack inside the 22-metre line to score.
 
Lethbridge took over in the second half, scoring 19 points on tries by Leavitt, Hake and Hildebrand, while shutting out the home team.
 
The Pronghorns had possession for most of the final 40 minutes, as UBC could not handle the speed, size and depth of the Lethbridge players. They pressured the ball effectively causing a number of UBC turnovers.

"We've got some good, hard workhorses on our team," said Gallo. "Haley Glendinning at No. 8 held it down for us and we got a big start by Gillian Boag, who was our No. 6 today. As a rookie, she had a high tackle count."
 
Lethbridge improves to 1-1 with the victory and will enjoy a bye week before playing its final two regular season games at the University of Calgary (Oct. 4) and the University of Alberta  (Oct. 6).
 
UBC falls to 0-1 and will host Alberta (Sept. 27) and Calgary (Sept. 29) next weekend.