Women's rugby heads to nationals

The Norwich women's rugby team is set to take on Texas Tech University in Sanford, Fla., on April 17 for the first round of the USA Rugby Division II Super-16.

According to Anita Moreno, Texas Tech "might have a little bit of an advantage over [Norwich]."

Moreno, 20, a junior criminal justice major from Long Island, N.Y. is the assistant captain of the Norwich women's rugby team.

Even though the Norwich women's rugby team plays its season in the fall, the playoffs are held in the spring.  

"Our season is from August to November, but a lot of the other teams have theirs from February to April," said Amanda Granillo, 19, a sophomore criminal justice major from Easton, Mass.

The team plays its regular season games in the fall, has a break from November to February, and then begins to prepare again for the national tournament, according to Moreno.

"It's tough for us because a lot of the other teams are in the meat of their season right now," said Ashley Potvin, 20, a junior international studies major from Biddeford, Maine. "Whereas we had that break."

While the other teams are just beginning their seasons, the NU rugby team is hard at work again to prepare for nationals.

"Once February came around, we were back to doing high intensive workouts," Potvin said. "We're still working on maintaining our fitness."

Moreno agreed, "We broke it down to the basics like we do at the beginning of every season, whether it's spring or fall. We go back to teaching everyone the basics of rugby so we're all on the same level," she said.

Breaking down to the basics helped the team on all levels, including rebuilding the team from the ground up.

"Coach moved a lot of people around so we're trying to get them used to the positions," Granillo said, "and a few people left for military obligations so we have to fill in for them."

During the winter, the team practices indoors because of the snowy conditions on the rugby pitch.

"We started in Plumley Armory, moved to Shapiro Fieldhouse, and now we're back out at the pitch again," Moreno said.

The team has played two games since its spring season began; one against Massachusetts Institute Technology and one against Dartmouth, winning both games by at least 40 points.

"We've been working hard," Potvin said. "We just had a match against MIT, the DIII National Champs, that we won 47-5."

The Cadets then went on to beat Dartmouth by a score of 55-10.

"So far, we'll be playing against teams we've never played before," Granillo said. "We have two games in Florida and if we win both of those, then we go to California."

"Win or lose, we have a game the second day. If we lose the first day, we play in a consolation game the next day," Moreno said. "But in order to make it to the final game, we have to keep winning."

"We're looking to compete hard and we're looking to get the win down there to continue on to California," Potvin said.

"We just want to play Norwich rugby. We want to come out and play our game every day and not go down to anyone else's level," Moreno said. "If we do that, we can pretty much defeat anybody."