The women’s rugby team, Northstar, went 2-1 at a weekend tournament in Nashville, Tenn., Saturday, March 22 and Sunday, March 23.
The Northern Michigan University women competed in the 2014 tournament, which consisted of 20 other teams, in the Nash Bash women’s college bracket.
Coach Kayla Holmes said she really stressed that the team work to spread out on the field, and for the most part the team did great.
“The communication of the captains is what put our players in the right spots to keep the other teams from scoring,” Holmes said. “We need to work on our rucking. No matter what team we play, they all have a different style of rucking and we never get used to which way to do it. This upcoming season is going to be a lot of learning to break rucks and how to prevent the different rucks from happening.”
The women finished the weekend with a sole loss to Eastern Kentucky University, 33-21. Northstar took home a 33-5 victory over Loyola University and a 33-10 victory over Ashland University.
Junior forward prop Alex Clark said it was amazing to see how far Northstar rugby has come in the three years she has played at NMU.
“It was truly incredible to see the bond that our teammates have with each other and how that really shined through during all of our games,” Clark said. “We are a team that cares about and loves each other, and it shows in the way we communicate on and off the pitch. Through teamwork, dedication and a pure love for the sport, we were able to really exceed even our own expectations this weekend.”
Clark said the team had a great offensive weekend under the leadership of some of the veteran girls. The opening day of the tournament resulted in a loss for Northstar, but Clark said the team learned from their poor strategic choices against Eastern Kentucky University.
“As far as each individual game, a particular high of mine was watching our team do a successful maul to score a try in the second half of our game Saturday afternoon,” Clark said. “A maul is when a team attempts to push a single player into the try zone, while the other team tries to stop it. We successfully pushed senior wing Teddy Short about fifty feet into the try zone, basically plowing her through the better part of the opposing team.”
Northstar faced a number of injuries this weekend, many of which occurred in the second and third games of the tournament.
“Because we live in the Upper Peninsula, it is very difficult to practice essential parts of rugby, such as tackling,” Clark said. “This led to some injuries because our team simply was not used to tackling anymore.”
The Nash Bash tournament is the only tournament Northstar will compete in for the 2014 spring season. Prior, the women competed in eight games against teams from Wisconsin in fall 2013.
At Nash Bash, Short led the team with five trys in the tournament.
“It was great to have Teddy get to play so much and do so well,” Holmes said. “She is a senior and this was her last set of games with the Northstar team.”
Junior back Sonnie Schlossmacher scored 4 trys in the tournament.
“What Sonnie contributes most is her kicking,” Holmes said. “Her kicks after every try helped boost our scores even more, making almost all her kicks for the whole tournament.”
Junior forward Alli Nowak and Shelby Bramen led the team defense with the most tackles over the course of the weekend.
Holmes said she hopes the team brings the same confidence they had in Nashville to their games in fall 2014, and she is very proud of everything the team has accomplished this season.
“As a first year coach and old player from the Northstar team, this year has been by far the best we have done in a long time,” Holmes said. “This Northstar team is something to be proud of and I cannot wait to continue to coach and help form a winning team for next season.”
