Women's Rugby Makes the Best of Nationals Trip
By Tiffany Hall
Contributing Writer

Another season has come and is quickly ending right in front of my eyes. My last Claremont rugby game is looming before me (SATURDAY AT 11 up at LINDE, BE THERE!!!) and gives me cause to pause and reflect on this, my last season. I started playing rugby within the first month of arriving at dear ol' Pomona - back when we used PVC piping for the goalposts, duct tape and couch cushions for the pads, and even freshmen could play full games because there weren't enough people to play otherwise. My my how far we've come…

We opened our season with a road trip to Flagstaff. Having only practiced a couple of weeks, we were primarily just looking for some game time and that's just what we got. Oh, also beaten, also got that. Since then we've been to three other tournaments and played eight games (most of which ended with us victorious), which left us in second place overall for the whole southern California/Arizona region. Second place is pretty sweet, and we were psyched about that. What really put the icing on though is that schools like UCSD and ASU are WAY bigger than us, leaving them in division one and making us the Southern California Division Two CHAMPIONS! In my fourth and final year I thought participating in a team tour would be my crowning glory, but no. Anne Gibson '03 and I (as team captains) were lucky enough to lead our team on to nationals as one of the elite eight women's rugby teams in the nation. Alas, being the rookies of the tournament and facing some mighty competitors we came home with two losses and a rank of 6th in the nation.

Our team left at various times on Thursday and Friday to somehow come together by their 7:45 check-in time on Friday evening in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Apparently the rest of the teams had been there since Thursday and even managed to get in a team practice on location on Friday afternoon. I'm still impressed that we didn't lose anyone in the Midwest, and regardless of anything else, I claim that as a crucial victory for the Claremont Foxes. We arrived at the tournament Saturday morning for a noon kick-off. We were a little nervous but keyed up and ready to play. We'd had to leave two crucial players at home, one to a broken foot and the other to illness, so we were already playing short-handed. I must also add that the players who stepped up and filled in, even though they may have been playing out of position, rocked the house, the scrums, and my world.

Saturday's game against San Jose State University was played in what I like to refer to as "ideal rugby weather." It was gray with a high chance of rain, and the pitch had just enough mud to make us hungry for it. While some of the refs calls frustrated our team, as well as their multiple tries, Claremont never gave up and made San Jose really work for every point they got. They beat us heavily (45-0), but we held our heads high and started preparing for Sunday's game while they went on to the final four. York was our competitor on Sunday, and we thought we had a pretty good chance against them, even though it didn't work out that way last week.

Sunday brought with it more of a chill, which was definitely a setback for us. The forwards were able to stay warm what with the scrumming, rucking and mauling, but every time we'd finally get a ball out to our backs they were so cold that it was difficult to make clean passes and hold on to the ball. They did a fantastic job of running back to their support in the middle of the field, but York's intense offense was too much for the Foxes and we lost again. We did play excellent defense, and none of their tries were effortless. Jessica Batke PI '03 even got Claremont's name on the board with a sweet breakaway try in the second half. "It's the try I've always dreamed of making," Batke said after the game. "There were none of them and all I could see was the try line. Even if they would have caught up with me I would have just dragged 'em in there with me at that point." USA Rugby reports that "Even though they were playing the consolation match, both teams showed up for this match ready to play a hard game; but in the end it was York that took the victory, 24-5."

All in all, the Claremont Foxes had a great showing in Iowa, and if you remember nothing else remember this: w made it. And we'll make it again, and next time we won't be the rookies of the nation. We'll make them sorry they ever gave Southern California a division. These five colleges should be proud of the 42 women on the team, especially those who weren't able to travel to nationals. It's a big time commitment, plus we thought it'd be paid for out of our own pockets. The 20 who went would have never made it without the rest of the team; the strongest player is only as good as her practice partner makes her. Thanks for a wonderful four years, ladies.