In the fall of 2011, Daria Keane wasn’t sure if she’d even make the team.

The Sarnia native was entering her first year at the University of Guelph and hoped to make the Gryphons varsity women’s rugby team, but the squad was already an Ontario University Athletics powerhouse.

“That’s why I was nervous going to the tryouts,” Keane recalled. “But I knew if I tried my hardest I would have a good chance at making it.”

She ended up making the club after all and Keane, 22, has become an integral part of the program. Now in her fifth year with the Gryphons, she’s risen through the ranks to become co-captain and received a trio of awards for her play during the recently-concluded fall season: She was named an OUA all-star, the Shiels Division most valuable player, and a Canadian Interuniversity Sport all-Canadian.

“It’s an honour to receive them, I’m proud to receive them,” Keane said. “A combination of work ethic, performance, and none of it would have been possible without my teammates and my coaches.”

The success on the pitch has been consistent for both Keane from a personal standpoint and Guelph as a team as over the last five years they’ve won two OUA gold medals and three silvers.

“A pretty strong program,” she noted.

The most recent silver medal came in the OUA championship match Oct. 31, a 21-13 defeat to the McMaster Marauders. The loss possibly means the end of Keane’s university athletics career as the Gryphons missed a CIS championship berth through a rejigging of the format for the national tournament.

“It was a very bittersweet, unfortunate ending to what was a successful season,” said Keane, who studies sociology, criminal justice and public policy and graduates in December.

There’s still hope for one more go-round at this level, though, as there is a CIS 7s tournament in March at Langford, B.C., and Keane hopes to make that roster.

Her rugby roots trace back to her time at Northern where she played on the rugby and basketball high school teams while also suiting up for the Sarnia Saints women’s and U18 sides.

Her father, Sean, is currently the principal at Sarnia Collegiate and coached those Saints clubs she played on.

“My dad’s always been very supportive of rugby,” she said of Sean, a former Saint and a Western Mustang varsity player, too.

Now that she lives in Guelph year-round, Keane plays for the Guelph Redcoats during the summer months, a program littered with Gryphons alumni.

An eight man, Keane switched to the position midway through her tenure at the school, moving to the back row partly through her experience in 2013 playing for the Canadian U20 squad and at the Nations Cup.

“I finally fully made the switch. It was a bit difficult but I think it’s been definitely beneficial in the end. I’m much more suited for that position,” she said. “Because my skillset and body type is more useful being a back row player as opposed to in the backs, on the wing or in the centres.”

It’s translated to offensive success, too, as this past season Keane contributed 15 tries in five regular-season matches.

The team’s head coach, Colette McAuley, also earned a pair of awards for yet another undefeated regular season. She was announced as the OUA and CIS women’s rugby coach of the year.

McAuley is a Forest native who has a hand in the Canadian national program as well.

“Ever since she coached the Gryphon team it’s been strong,” Keane said.

terry.bridge@sunmedia.ca

@ObserverTerry