The Gustavus Women’s Rugby team will travel to Florida this weekend to compete in the Division II Collegiate Championships in a 16-team National Tournament. The team will play Rutgers University in the first round and will be the first-ever Gustavus athletics team to compete at the Division II national level.
One team, one plane flight, one inspirational team ball, one opportunity and an overwhelming desire to win will characterize the Gustavus Women’s Rugby team’s trip to the Division II Collegiate Championships this weekend at the Seminole Soccer Complex in Lake Mary, FL.
The Gustavus Women’s Rugby team enjoyed great success in the fall season, which led to a berth in the National Tournament this weekend. The women have been able to succeed despite experiencing a number of disadvantages, including not having a coach, competing at the Division II level against much bigger schools and having minimal funding since the team is considered a club sport and not an official varsity sport at Gustavus. Yet, the Women’s Rugby team believes it can win every time it walks on the rugby pitch and this belief leads to its success.
Since the end of their fall season late last year, the women have maintained their rigorous workout schedule to prepare for the spring season, especially for the National Tournament, and they resumed their practice schedule at the beginning of second semester. “We had morning practices twice a week since second semester and once a weekend. We started practicing outdoors once a week before Spring Break, for four days a week.
We had [a] guest coaching staff to run drills and conditioning exercises,” Junior Cydni Smith said.
With minimal funding, the Women’s Rugby team had to do lots of fundraising to not only make the trip for the National Tournament but also to compete in other local tournaments. “We raised $12,000 for the whole year going towards all expenses: referee fees, tournament fees, union dues, player dues, transportation and lodging,” Sophomore Allison Kieley said.
Smith added to Kieley’s appreciation, but more in terms of the Gustavus community’s support. “Student Senate gave us $8,000 for Nationals, and we are very thankful for the financial and emotional support from the Gustavus student body,” Smith said.
As for the Division II Collegiate Championship itself, Gustavus is seeded eighth and will play the number nine seed, Rutgers University, on Saturday, April 17. With a victory against Rutgers, the Gustavus Women’s Rugby team would advance to play either the number one seed Temple University or the undetermined sixteenth seed. No matter which opponents they will play, the women ruggers have very specific goals for the tournament. “We want to play our game and do what we do best. We are a really solid team. Win or lose, as long as we know we played our hardest, then we will be satisfied,” Smith said.
Junior Lindsey Stene also shared a goal she had for the National Tournament. “We want to represent Gustavus well. There aren’t many opportunities to bring Gustavus to other parts of the country, but we have that opportunity,” Stene said.
Kieley added further goals for the team. “We want to expand Midwest rugby, since both Gustavus and Winona will be there, as well as include the new players we have,” Kieley said.
Nevertheless, the Gustavus Women’s Rugby team has succeeded this year in large part to the team’s cohesiveness. “We are all good friends, and we hang out all the time outside of practice,” Sophomore Amy Hughes said. “Our cohesiveness as a team has contributed the most to our success.”
The women will plan to draw upon a couple other team traditions for motivation. “We have a team ball that represents who inspires us when we play rugby or has inspirational songs or quotes written on it. We take that to every game with us,” Stene said.
“We also will be having a jersey ceremony where we present jerseys to everyone on the team, and we will say something about that person when we give her a jersey,” Smith said.
The Gustavus Women’s Rugby team plans to compete at the highest level they can at the Division II Collegiate Championships and return with more confidence and motivation to succeed for the remainder of the season, as well as for the future of the Women’s Rugby program at Gustavus.