The Norwich women’s rugby team faced Harvard on April 17 in Kissimmee, Florida, where it lost 22-7 in the national quarterfinals.
Despite that loss, the team ended the season on a high note. On April 24 the Lady Cadets beat Dartmouth College 10-5 in New Hampshire.
The Lady Cadets left early morning on Thursday, April 14, to head down south and get an early start to prepare for their game against Mary Washington.
“I think it’s going to take a lot of sacrifice on the team’s part, ignoring all other issues and coming together as one,” said Anita Moreno, a 21-year-old senior criminal justice major from Long Island, N.Y.
Rugby is a sport that is usually played in the spring. But in the Northeast the season is during the fall semester. Most other teams have already been playing and practicing outside before the national tournament.
“I think it definitely affects us, especially fitness wise because when we finish our season in the fall we’re at peak fitness and then we have about two months off. Then we have to pick it back up in the spring and get back to 100 percent in less amount of time,” said Ashely Potvin, a 21-year-old senior international studies major from Biddeford, Maine.
Though the Norwich women’s rugby team is at a disadvantage, the players were determined and high in spirits about the weekend in Florida.
“Every year we grow further in skills. Last year we had a lot of younger players so now we have people who have experience in nationals already for at least one or two years,” said Katie Hathaway, a 21-year-old junior political science major from Amesbury, Mass.
Since the women have not been able to practice outside, they practice in the gym to ensure that they are still in shape.
“A lot of us have been working out on our own. A big thing was we had to make sure we were going to the gym; it’s hard to come back into it when you’ve been off for five months,” said Hannah Bushey, a 22-year-old junior physical education major from Essex Junction, Vt.
Having been in nationals before, the Cadets know what it is going to take to pull out a win in the first round.
“We have more experienced players and a greater caliber of talent than we ever have. That alone and the determination of our players is the key that we were missing last year,” Moreno said.
The team prepared hard for the tournament.
“As a team we’ve been doing a lot of conditioning and we’ve also been doing a lot of technical aspects of rugby, specifics on how we’re going to run our offense and defense. We’re doing things to make sure that when we play in a game it’s going to limit the other team’s offense and to ensure we have a good offense as well,” Potvin said.
Team chemistry is also a key component in making sure that everyone is on the same page and ready to compete at the highest level.
“We have also been doing team bonding stuff outside of practice. One thing we do every Monday is the Monday mile, where we sprint a mile’s worth. I think that’s a really good team builder,” Potvin said.
The team had to travel light down to Florida.
“Our weakness is the lack of people that we are allowed to bring. We’re only allowed to bring 25 but we have a roster of 40, so girls who we usually have substitutes for we won’t have them,” said Moreno.
In additions, some of the starters will also not be able to join the team due to injury and academic standing.
“We have lost girls since the fall and we value everyone, but we have to focus on the team and not the individual. We work together as a team and just because you’re not playing doesn’t mean we lost you, you’re still a part of the team,” Hathaway said.
Before the tournament, the Cadets looked back at some of the important games they played and how they were able to overcome adversities.
“I think the North East Championship game really sticks out in my mind. We were playing Stonehill, which is always a tough game, we are very equally matched. Very early on in that game we had two of our starters go out because of injury and we had two substitutes come off the bench. Stonehill was really close to scoring multiple times, there was a 15-minute stretch where they were just in our end of the field. We were just patient and we came together and we held them. I think that is a good example of how we need to come together in Florida,” Potvin said.