WAGGA Ag College's grand final plaudits was the culmination of plenty of hard work for skipper and Bomaderry product Harriet Elleman.
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Not only did the club stalwart get to finally lift the women's 10s premiership cup, but she also claimed the Alicia Lucas Medal as player of the year.
The 22-19 upset over CSU was just reward for Elleman, who has been with the club since the competition's inception in 2013.
"This year has been the accumulation of work ethic as a team and I couldn't be prouder," former Nowra High School student Elleman said.
"I don't know if anyone saw my face (when named Alicia Lucas medal winner), I was as shocked as anyone.
"There's a whole competition of very talented women and to be named the winner of this medal means so much to me.
"Everyone knows I work so hard on and off the field, and it makes me so happy."
Elleman, who also plays for the ACT Brumbies, said the win was based on patience.
"Our game plan was to hold the ball and we held it to the end," she said.
In the match itself, the unbeaten Reddies were raging favourites after comfortably accounting for the rivals twice this season, but a lack of composure in the first half cost them dearly.
Although a forward pass ruling at the death cost them a match-winning try, CSU were guilty of impatience and Ag College made them pay with three unanswered tries in the opening 20 minutes.
Seven minutes into the match Sagoifale Tufue crashed over for Reddies, before tries to Shannon Taylor and Clare Harpley gave them a 17-nil half-time lead.
The Reddies looked set to run over the top of them when Tess Staines used her speed to score a long range try, before she set up another to Victoria Nolan to reduce the gap to 17-14.
Ag College steadied through Harpley's second of the match, but Ellen McIntyre hit back for CSU with a try with six minutes left after intercepting a Harley pass.
CSU looked to have sealed a comeback win in the dying stages when Staines burst past the Ag College defence, but the pass to her was ruled forward.
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