Last semester, UMWRFC entered it’s fist sevens tournament. Though the girls did not bring home any major successes from that weekend, they did however return with a new sevens goal in hand. This summer, UMWRFC begins it’s first season of summer sevens. This season will start off with weekly skill and conditioning practices as the girls move into their first tournament later in the summer. Starting with a modest number of girls on the squad, UMWRFC is dedicated to building a competitive sevens side going into the future. Stay tuned for practice and game updates as the season and program develops.

Some of the ruggers on the Blue Carpet

Earlier tonight the Women’s Rugby Team won the Michigan Club Sport Sportsmanship Award for the fourth consecutive year! Sarah DiStefano of the women’s team also one an individual award for Outstanding Club Council member. The award was presented during the Division of Student Affair’s Michigan Difference Student Leadership Awards Ceremony. Taking place in the Rogel Ballroom of the Union, the ceremony celebrated the individuals and student organizations that exemplify the Michigan Difference through their leadership, service, and performance. It was so great to see all the Difference makers together in one room! There were awesome giveaway sunglasses and water bottles with a tasty buffet of snacks, desserts, block M cookies, and punch. Thanks to all the Rec Sports staff and DSA planning committee for putting on a wonderful event! Go Blue!

Other Club Sports Award Winners

Community Service: Men’s Rugby
Team Spirit: Triathlon
Outstanding Club Sport Team: Tae Kwon Do
Male Athlete: Andrew Sensoli-Men’s Boxing
Female Athlete: Ajae Whittaker-Tae Kwon Do
Janet K. Wells Outstanding Leadership: Nick Vasdekas-Triathlon

  MDSLA swag!

Buffet of tasty treats.

NYRC College Clinic

This past weekend, 10 girls traveled to New York to attend the NYRC’s College Clinic on Sunday. On Saturday before going to the Clinic, the girls played a few friendly games with Monmouth and Albany WRFCs. The first game against Monmouth was a bit of a mess, but luckily the girls were able to fix some of their mistakes for the second game, which Albany won 5-0. We want to thank Monmouth for showing us some awesome rugby hospitality by taking us to their clubhouse, feeding and entertaining us while waiting for news from an injured player.

For Sunday’s camp, the girls headed to Vassar College where there were 100+ collegiate players from around the area. They rotated through stations with groups of coaches: tackling, rucking, passing. then did unit work: backs v. forwards and finished with some live play. We were also excited to see some Michigan Rugby alumnae that play/ed for NYRC including Mary McCarthy and Kelly McMahon (left in photo above). Thanks for everything NYRC!

Trophy Presentation at Nash Bash

The Women’s Rugby team went down to Nashville, TN on the weekend of March 23-24 amid some wet and muddy weather conditions. Playing the Women’s Competitive Collegiate Bracket which was littered with Big Ten teams, their first game was against Wright State. The Wolverines plowed through them winning 65-0. Moving upwards and onward,  the next game of the day was against Mid Tennessee State, a much harder battle to fight but Blue shut them out, 15-0. The two wins put the Wolverines into the semi-finals which would start bright and early Sunday morning, pitting them against none other than their southern rival Ohio State, who had defeated the Wolverines in League play in the fall. Vengeance was oh so sweet as Michigan was able to shut out OSU 26-0 and move into the fInal game to take on Indiana. IU had a great tournament run and it was nice to play a competitive game against them since we hadn’t seen them in the fall. IU was able to score but the Wolverines still defeat them 25-5 to take home the Nash Bash Boot Trophy! It was a tiring weekend, especially since one van had to stop the night in Ohio due to bad weather, but very successful!

From left to right: Michelle Tierney, Coach Danielle Miller, Jasmine Dennis

While the majority of the Wolverines went down to Nashville, two of our girls, Michelle “Blondie” Tierney and Jasmine Dennis, were invited to the USA Rugby Junior All-American Camp in Herndon, VA! Although the team missed them at Nash Bash, we were excited that both of them had the opportunity to develop their higher level rugby skills and get exposure to some of the best female ruggers in the country.  Check out this article from USA Rugby about the WJAA camps for more information about what an honor it is to attend.

“Overall, the camp was definitely a great experience! I learned a lot of new techniques and ways to improve and also made many new friends. I felt honored to be nominated and invited to go. I didn’t realize that many of the girls there had been playing rugby since high school and had been trying to attend a camp like this for years. We learned techniques for our rugby skills, nutrition, and mental skills. I’m very excited to show many of these new techniques and drills to the team so we can all improve as a whole. There is always room for improvement and learning!”-Blondie

For the 2012 holiday season, Ashley Henk  worked very hard to organize and spearhead a team drive for the Adopt-a-Family program. We were able to raise a few hundred dollars in order to purchase food, clothing, and toys for a family of three. Some teammates went shopping to purchase baby and children’s clothes while Coach Kelly McMahon donated a significant amount of supplies to support the single mother. We hope that we made a difference and helped this family have an enjoyable holiday.

Big Ten East

Big Ten West

Big Ten Playoff Structure

*All Semifinal and Final games will be played at Moose Rugby Grounds in Elkhart, IN

Quarter Finals
A. Illinois(W4) at Penn State(E1)
B. UM(E3) at Notre Dame(W2)

C. Michigan State(E4) at Indiana(W1)
D. Purdue(W3) at OSU(E2)

Semifinals (Nov. 3)
Winner UM/ND vs. Winner UofI/PSU
Winner PU/OSU vs. Winner MSU/IU

3rd place (Nov. 4)
Loser A/B vs. Loser C/D

Finals (Nov. 4)
Winner A/B vs. Winner C/D

Michigan 0 Penn State 50

Photo courtesy of Beth Weiler

This past Saturday was at the forefront of everyone’s thoughts throughout the week. Our first home game at North Field, our first Big Ten game, against our instate rivals no less. For some girls it was their first taste of rugby. But the morning dawned warm and sunny as the Wolverines took the field, looking for their first victory. And Michigan came out ready to compete for that Big Ten Title. Scoring quickly off some great offloading and broken tackles was Aunnica O’Brien. The team was looking hot on offense with some good kicking by Sara Nagy who saw an open backfield pretty often. Ashley Henk gets the second try of the day as the forwards take a piece of the action. But some great ball movement wide later allowed Kelsey Aiken on the wing to get her first try! After that we lost two backs to injuries but some moving around the line still allowed the Wolverines to keep their structure as flanker Jenny Ledezma moved into the center spot and had quite a few breaks on the day. Shaina Warner ends the scoring for the half with a try off a pig. While there were many good things about the day, the only bad thing that affect the team was the lack of intensity when they got too comfortable with their lead. This affected them in the second half when they allowed MSU to score and also gave them a few too many breaks that were luckily saved with some good defense by our newest Spanish fullback Simoneta Laviana Suarez. We scored twice more, one from Deycha Robinson off a quick tap-and-go. Sarah “Killer” Yaqub ended the game with a quick diving try as the final whistle blew.

Our B-side game went just as well with UM rookies and reserves coming out with a three-to-one try victory over MSU’s B-Side in a 20-minute half game with uncontested scrums. This game brought us to the realization that we need to start integrating our rookies into our structure and let them start to vie for a starting spot.

Michigan-32 Michigan State-5

Tries: O’Brien, Aiken, Henk, Warner, Robinson, Yaqub 

Conversions: Ledezma 

The second half saw us throwing in our reserves and all of our rookies for their first rugby game ever. Although it looked sloppier than the first half, our rookies looked great with their enthusiasm and lack of fear going for the ball. Rookie Jasmine Dennis actually scored her first try by using her wheels on the wing to beat out the defenders. Sara Nagy was also able to break some tackles and take the ball to the try zone to score our second try. Alas, we weren’t able to score more and UIC actually beat us on the outside with some good offloading to score a total of three tries against us. But it was a great learning experience for our rookies and they all enjoyed themselves. Big thanks to North Shore for also hosting the social and feeding us at the Black Rock. We look forward to taking on MSU the next week for our first Big Ten match-up.