Your Scrumhalf Connection

For this week’s rugby video, I thought we could take a look back to last year’s Dallas 7s Tournament! We had 10 women’s teams and of course the infamous Debutante Ball (prom dress rugby). Check out the highlight video of the Debutante Ball and the Championship match between the Glendale Raptors and the Satiated Beavers. If your team is interested in attending the 2010 Dallas 7s on June 3, 2010, check out the details here and if you have any questions email me!

Dallas Debutante Ball 2009 from Scrumhalf Connection on Vimeo.

Satiated Beavers vs Glendale – Dallas 7s Final from Scrumhalf Connection on Vimeo.

To view more YSC videos hover over the heading ‘Videos’ on the navigation bar up top and choose Rugby Video Monday.

Please continue sending in your videos and I will keep posting them! Send them to wendy@scrumhalfconnection.com.

from USA Rugby:

BOULDER, Colo. – Following last weekend’s National Collegiate Championships, USA Rugby has officially selected the 2010 Women’s Collegiate All-American Teams today.

This honor is bestowed upon the best women collegiate rugby players in the country and recognizes a high standard of performance throughout the year.

The 2010 selection panel included Women’s National Team Coach Kathy Flores, Women’s National Sevens Team Coach Ric Suggitt, Women’s National ‘A’ Team Coach Martha Daines, Women’s National Under-20 Coach Bryn Chivers, Women’s Collegiate All-American Touring Squad Coach Lisa Rosen and the Women’s High Performance Manager Alex Williams.

The goals of the nomination process were to ensure that all athletes in all divisions had an opportunity to be viewed, whether their teams made the playoffs or not, and to ensure that consistent information was submitted for each nominated athlete. The process was robust and inclusive and a large pool of athletes was nominated. The selection panel was very pleased with the participation in the process and hopes to expand participation even further next year.

The All-Americans were selected on the basis of match video submissions and/or performance at Collegiate Playoffs and Championships, all of which were viewed by members of the selection panel. Athletes from all collegiate divisions were considered for selection as First Team or Second Team Collegiate All-Americans.

“I would like to congratulate all of the Women’s Collegiate All-Americans named below,” said Williams. “It was a challenging task for the selection panel to narrow down this list. We are very happy to honor the selected athletes, their coaches and schools for their selection as a Women’s Collegiate All-American.”

Each athlete will receive a certificate commemorating the honor. The Athletic Director for each athlete’s school will also receive a certificate to recognize the significant honor achieved by a rugby student-athlete at that school.

Following this announcement, the Head Coach of the Women’s Collegiate All-American Touring Squad will announce selections for the squad that will compete at the Senior Women’s National All-Star Championship, to be held at the end of the month in Blaine, Minn.. The All-American Touring Squad will represent the eighth team at the event and will play against the senior women’s territorial sides, promoting the development of these young and talented athletes.

2010 Women’s Collegiate All-American – First Team
Sadie Anderson (Penn State University)
Kyle Armstrong (Penn State University)
Candace Barley (Lee University)
Star Bollinger (United States Naval Academy)
Danielle Cicuto (United States Naval Academy)
Lauren Daly (University of Colorado)
Chastity Dunnaville (United States Naval Academy)
Jozephine Gessner (Colorado State University)
Janae Grijalva (Stanford University)
Keelia Harker (Brigham Young University)
Lisa Henneman (Penn State University)
Nicole James (Texas A & M University)
Joanna Kitlinski (Grand Valley State University)
Adetayo Mafe (Michigan State University)
Kathryn McCormick (University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee)
Tyra McGrady (Indiana University)
Deven Owsiany (Penn State University)
Kaitlyn Rooney (American University)
Kasonni Scales (Stanford University)
Elizabeth Trujillo (United States Naval Academy)
Amelia Villines (Stanford University)
Jessica Watkins (Stanford University)
Frances Wehrwin (Stanford University)
Annie Zeigler (Penn State University)

2010 Women’s Collegiate All-American – Second Team
Sarah Blanchard (Texas A&M University)
Megan Bonny (Washington State University)
Anneke Brand (Texas Tech University)
Erica Cavenaugh (University of Virginia)
Delaney Chapman (UC Davis)
Jennifer Cooper Rider (Stanford University)
Kayla Elingson (Brigham Young University)
Sharron Gianessi (United States Military Academy)
Tanya Gouws (University of Maryland)
Alexandria Hartley (Brown University)
Alicia Hartley (Brown University)
Carrissa Hsieh (UCLA)
Kristi Jackson (Brigham Young University)
Shawne James (Rutgers University)
Katie Lorenz (University of North Carolina)
Kaelene Lundstrom (Gustavus Adolphus)
Izraelle McKinnon (Brown University)
Ashley Miller (United States Military Academy)
Laura Miller (St. Mary’s College of Maryland)
Maria Muscara (La Salle University)
Jackie Osborne (University of Northern Iowa)
Andria Payne (Brown University)
Christiane Pheil (Penn State University)
Jess Sexauer (United States Military Academy)
Wendy Sherman (Colorado State University)
Kirsten Siebach (Brigham Young University)
Moira Somerdyk (Temple University)
Ashley Sorensen (United States Military Academy)
Gina Steffano (Texas A & M University)

In coordination with the release of the Women’s Collegiate All-American selections, a fantastic new resource and fundraising effort – RugbyMapUSA.com – is also being launched today with proceeds for the month of May directly supporting the 2010 USA Rugby Women’s Collegiate All-American Touring squad.

RugbyMapUSA.com is a custom GoogleMap, designed specifically to connect the rugby community with businesses, teams, and professionals who are supportive of rugby or who are members of the community itself. By listing a business or rugby organization on this site, it will build its visibility in rugby’s tight knit and ever-expanding community.

In addition to RugbyMapUSA, an active outreach effort is underway to locate and leverage the power of the 15 years of prior Collegiate All-American Women. Prior All-Americans are encouraged to visit the Collegiate All-American program on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/USA-Rugby-Collegiate-All-American-Women/104505422926588 and donate to the program itself.

For more information on RugbyMapUSA, please visit www.rugbymapusa.com. To learn more about the Women’s Collegiate All-Americans please visit www.usarugby.org/goto/women_allamericans or contact Alex Williams at awilliams@usarugby.org.

from The Dartmouth:

The Dartmouth women’s rugby team captured the Beast of the East tournament title, showing no mercy as it topped its perfect record with a complete shutout. The men’s rugby team, on the other hand, gave the rugby club team Mystic River a tough fight this weekend, but could not topple the Division I ranked team in the 27-11 loss.

The women traveled down to Portsmouth, R.I., over April 17 and 18 where the team blanked the University of Rhode Island, 17-0, Syracuse University, 27-0, and Yale University, 24-0, in the round robin set-up, before taking on Princeton University in the championships. The Big Green won without a problem, 10-0.

“We were definitely hoping to win but we knew it was going to be a struggle and that there was going to be a lot of tough competition,” co-captain Meghan McDavid ’10 said. “We just wanted to get some wins and were hoping to come away from the tournament having won the whole thing.”

The tournament, which Dartmouth has not participated in since 2006, took place over the course of two days, as the teams played in shortened 20-minute halved games.

After shutting out the competition in the round robin with relative ease, the Big Green squared up against Princeton, in its toughest game of the weekend.

“They had a lot of strong players and their forward attack was really tough and very strong,” McDavid said.

Scoreless after the first 20 minutes, flyhalf McDavid garnered both tries of the match during the second half, notching her first from a ruck on the 50-meter line and her second as a fill-in first receiver in the game’s final minutes.

“We had some really great moments, like when we had an extended goal line stand,” McDavid said. “We were pushed up against our try line and we stopped them from scoring repeatedly. We were defending our line for a good while at the end of the first half. It felt really good to not let them score.”

After mauling its round-robin competition, Dartmouth had to also contend against the onset of fatigue.

“Going into the championship game on Sunday, we could definitely feel it, having played all weekend,” McDavid said. “You’re sore and tired, and it plays a role [in the game], but it’s just something you have to fight through.”

In Saturday’s two games, Jenna Cunningham ’10 took control of the pace, recording a hat trick in her first game against the Rams before continuing her point-heavy performance against Syracuse, with another try and four point conversions.

Against URI, the Big Green defense stood its ground, earning its first shutout of the Spring and establish momentum for the following matchups.

Moving into its next game that day, Dartmouth squared up against the Orange and laid out a strong attack-minded game. The Big Green kept possession and implemented set pieces to garner its highest margin of victory of the weekend.

“For the most part, we were able to gain a lot of possession, and it was shorter games,” McDavid said. “If you’re on defense for an extended period of time, even if you’re not allowing the team to gain ground, if you can’t get the ball back, you can’t score.”

Dartmouth concluded the round robin on Sunday against the Bulldogs. Although the Big Green could only secure a 7-0 lead at halftime, Dartmouth extended its lead in the second half with tries from Cunningham, co-captain Leah Weisman ’10 and Sarah Toupal ’10, along with one conversion.

This weekend the women also participated in a tournament in which they beat Middlebury College 17-0, and lost to the University of Vermont 0-10.

On the men’s side, Dartmouth could not conjure up similar results against the 2009 New England and Northeast Champion Mystic River Rugby Club. Playing the powerful Division I club team did not intimidate the Big Green, however, as it was first to put points on the scoreboard, courtesy of a penalty from captain Tommy Brothers ’11.

Mystic River quickly answered with a penalty conversion to tie the game. Dartmouth was then left grounded after Mystic River found its tempo and scored three successive tries.

Sam Gehret ’11 closed the gap with a try, bringing Dartmouth’s total to 11. A subseqent missed conversion and another try from Mystic River, however, ended the game.

The women will be back in action with a game against the University of Connecticut on May 1, while the men will face the Boston Irish on the same day.

PALO ALTO, Calif. – Penn State came out firing on all cylinders and playing impeccable defense against hometown favorite, Stanford University, on Saturday in the USA Rugby Women’s Division I College Championships at Steuber Rugby Stadium.

Penn State held Stanford scoreless until the final three minutes of the match and was able to stop Stanford’s typically strong offense from nearly every angle.

Not only did the Penn State Lady Ruggers disrupt Stanford’s plan of attack, but they stole momentum early with textbook hands down the line to Lisa Henneman, who touched one down in the first 13 minutes. Sadie Anderson converted and PSU never looked back.

Player of the match Deven Owsiany scored two tries on the day, one just before half to help clinch Penn State’s only consecutive Championship.

“We are familiar with the way Stanford plays and how dangerous they can be in open space,” Penn State’s Coach Peter Steinberg said. “We have been working on this high pressure defense for two years now and I was really happy with how we executed it today. Both teams played very good rugby, but we were just able to stop them from getting their ball out wide.”

Penn State has now played Stanford six consecutive years for the DI Women’s Championships, winning three times. In all, Penn State has secured six titles to date, and although this rivalry has become a staple at the National Championships, Stanford’s head coach recognizes that this may be a turning of the tide.

“Penn State could very well be unbeatable for the next 15 years,” Stanford’s Jonathan Griffin said. “They are coached by the best defensive coach in the country. When we were able to make line breaks we executed well, unfortunately that was for about only 10 minutes of the match. Penn State beat us in the contact contest.”

Stanford’s one try in the 77th minute at came at the hands of Frances Wehrein, who was able to capitalize off a breakaway by Jess Watkins and touch one down after a phase of play near the try line.

To watch the archived video of the match, go here.

USA Rugby National College Championships Women’s Division I Results

Saturday, May 1, 2010 – Championships

Penn State 24, Stanford 7 (halftime 12-0)
PSU Tries: Lisa Henneman, Deven Owsiany (2), Rachael Muir
Conversions: Anderson (2)

Stanford Tries: Frances Wehrwein
Conversion: Jamie Lawrence

This weekend was the USA Rugby Collegiate D1 & D2 Championships! Thankfully, USA Rugby Ustream’d the videos and so they are available to watch on Archive. To watch the Women’s Finals, view below!

To view the D1 and D2 overall brackets, click on their respective link.

D1 – Penn State vs Stanford

First Half

Second Half

D2 – Temple vs Washington State Univ.

First Half

Second Half

To view all of the archived videos from the Collegiate Championship weekend, go here.

To view more YSC videos hover over the heading ‘Videos’ on the navigation bar up top and choose Rugby Video Monday.

Please continue sending in your videos and I will keep posting them! Send them towendy@scrumhalfconnection.com.