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USA Sevens – Women’s International Invitational 7s in Vegas – Discount Hotel & Ticket Deals

Wendy Young — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:46:05 +0000

We have been able to secure discounted hotel rates at the same hotel that the International Women are staying at, as well as discounted 3-day tickets to USA Sevens. While the discounted ticket price is incentive enough, the better news is that this is one of the few opportunities to date for all the folks out there who so passionately support women’s rugby and want improvements in how the women are portrayed, funded and treated TO MAKE AN IMPACT!!!

Every USA Sevens ticket that is purchased using this code will send a portion of the price back to the women’s tournament and will also help to prove that there IS a market out there for Women’s International Rugby, that people want to support the women and watch them compete in top-notch tournaments!

Tickets – 3-day Field Level, ONLY $89! (vs. $140 at gate)

Includes Women’s Cup Semi-Finals and Finals!
Code: LVI200
Use link http://www.usasevens.com/lvitickets (have to include http://www) or http://ev2.evenue.net/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/EVExecMacro?linkID=unlv&evm=prmo&RSRC=&RDAT=&caller=PR

Hotel (Palace Station Hotel) $79 a night

Adjacent to the Strip
Free airport shuttle
Shuttle to USA Sevens
Same hotel as Women’s National Teams, including the USA Eagles
Low rates of $79 per night for Courtyard and $99 per night for Tower Rooms
Call 800-634-3101 and use Code: PCIRUFF to get discounted rates

Any help you guys can give in spreading the word as far and wide as possible and encouraging EVERYONE who is planning to go to Las Vegas in February to buy their tickets using this code is greatly appreciated. It is an easy way to take action to support International Women’s rugby, the USA team, and our tournament!

Note that the ticket deal expires this Friday, January 13, so folks will need to get online THIS WEEK to use this code and buy their tickets.

Thank you!
Alex Willilams

USA Rugby High Performance Manager

To see the teams, rosters and scores from the Women’s International Invitational Tournament, go here.

Wendy Young

Editor of Your Scrumhalf Connection. Passionate Rugger since 2001.

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Norwich University takes Inaugural USA Rugby Women’s College Sevens Championship

Wendy Young — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:41:29 +0000

See rosters and scores from the weekend, go here.

from USA Rugby:

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – As the sun set on the 2011 USA Rugby Women’s College Sevens Championships on Saturday evening one team found themselves recapping a children’s movie at halftime in the final.

“We talked about How to Train a Dragon,” said Austin Hall, Head Coach of Norwich University, and the first ever Women’s College Sevens Champions. “We used that movie as a backdrop to our team and style this weekend,” continued Hall noting that his team needed to continue to work hard and hope for the best.

It must have worked. Norwich University dominated Boston College in the cup final of the Women’s College Sevens 34 – 5. Norwich came out of the gates with intensity that was unmatched all weekend.

“We knew we would win if we just had fun, worked hard, and kept our game simple,” said Captain Kate Hathaway. And that they did. Norwich University exploited BC in the simple side of the game, completing more passes, making more of their tackles, and using possession to get points on the board.

They were crisp in their execution and showed that they were the better conditioned team outrunning and outworking Boston College in the open field but especially at the breakdown. Norwich continuously turned over the ball by thoroughly counter-rucking Boston’s vulnerable support.

Rebekah Bernheim was named MVP of the final, and undoubtedly deserved it. Scoring tries all weekend, Bernheim touched down twice in the final, showing her pace and hard support lines through the 20 minute game, putting up six tries to Boston’s one.

Norwich quickly fell into a pattern and found themselves thinking about the post-match interviews. “I actually thought about this interview during the game,” said Hall. “We were playing our game, and I knew we would win if we just kept playing the way we have all weekend,” continued the head coach.

Norwich University Rugby is a varsity program with the support of their Athletic Department and unyielding commitment of the individual players.

“We owe a lot of support to our alumni and Athletic Department, and the girls are just excited about playing rugby, whether for a championship or just a friendly,” said Coach Hall.

As they are usually focused on fifteens rugby, Norwich used the traditional code to prepare for this inaugural tournament. “We never play sevens, we are focused more on fifteens, but we came to College Station to win. Whatever style we play, we are always focused on having fun and winning,” said Hathaway.

Although the weekend was filled with intense and exhausting sevens action, Norwich came out on top in the end though by managing their downtime properly according to Hall, explaining that in sevens it’s more about getting the body and mind conditioned for a whole day of periods of action and recovery.

“The girls were exhausted but knew that we had to turn it on for this match,” said the captain. “We just wanted it really bad, we wanted to win a National Championship,” added Hathaway.

Norwich is already looking to next year’s title. “We have fifteens this spring but we can’t wait to come back and defend our title in sevens rugby,” said the captain. Young programs will undoubtedly look to Norwich University as an example of stellar rugby. Be it their varsity sport status, intense simplicity on the field, or reliance on children’s cinema for inspiration, these girls know how to play rugby and are now the 2011 USA Rugby Women’s College Sevens National Champions.

There were a number of other hard workers through out the weekend and a few more champions in the Women’s Sevens Championships. The University of California won the Plate Final defeating Oregon State 19-5 while the University of Texas beat Arizona State 26-5 in the Bowl Final.

For more information and a full schedule of matches and results from the weekend please click here.

For replays of the games, click here.

For photos of the games, click here.

See rosters and scores from the weekend, go here.

Wendy Young

Editor of Your Scrumhalf Connection. Passionate Rugger since 2001.

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USA Rugby College Sevens National Championships: Where Olympic Journeys Begin – Dec 16-17, 2011

Wendy Young — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 17:06:03 +0000

from USA Rugby:

BOULDER, Colo. – USA Rugby is proud to announce that Texas A&M University has been selected to hold the inaugural USA Rugby Men’s and Women’s College Sevens National Championships from December 16-17, 2011.

The first-ever true College Sevens National Championship will see 24 men’s and 16 women’s teams (a combined total of nearly 500 student-athletes) play in over 100 action-packed games over the course of the two day tournament in College Station, Texas.

The tournament will be used by National Team scouts and selectors to identify players that could be representing the USA in the 2016 Olympic Games.

“Rugby sevens has grown by leaps and bounds in the last two years, and this tournament will really be the first comprehensive scouting opportunity at the college level for the USA men’s and women’s sevens teams,” said Jim Snyder, USA Rugby’s Director of Rugby Operations.

“The Championships will be very exciting, but on top of that, many of the athletes have an opportunity to showcase their talents and plug themselves into the international pathway. We expect to see a number of these student-athletes in the Olympics one day,” Snyder said.

Representatives of the United States Olympic Committee will be on hand as well to catch a glimpse of the newest Olympic sport and the athletes that may represent Team USA in 2016.

The women’s teams will be chosen entirely by a selection committee. Those selections will be announced on Wednesday November 16. NOTE: They have not released the teams yet…. (Nov 21, 2011).

YSC Rugby
We will at the event all weekend (coaching Texas Women), we will provide live updates via Facebook and Twitter. Also come find us for a free YSC Rugby Athletic shirt! Until we run out that is…

BROADCAST
USA Rugby is still finalizing the broadcast schedule, but it sounds like games on Field 1 may be broadcast. I am not sure if this will be for both days…Watch the broadcast at USA Rugby’s Ustream Channel. Since we will be there coaching, the YSC team will try to video tape as many games as we can and we will upload them to our Vimeo Channel after the event.

Schedule and Pools (Waiting on USAR to confirm teams)

Rosters

Univ of Texas
Joy Adeku
Cristina Cintron
Julia Fortkort (C)
Rachel Haungs
Sierra Jenkins
Natalie Kennedy
Melody Liao
Simone Lumsden
Rachael Madison
Calista Moses
Autumn Murrill (C)
Nicole Noack
Wendy Sun

Head Coaches – Wendy Young and Jacob Lieberman
Assistant Coach – Traci Schmidtke

Norwich
Emily Baugus
Rose Bernheim
Hannah Bushey
Vanessa Champagne
Joya Clark
Jackie Derocher
Marlene Dwyer
Katie Hathaway (Captain)
Emily Oor
Ferne Ryder
Meaghan Weppner

Princeton
1. Morgan Arthur ’14
2. Olivia Garard ’13
3. Kristy Giandomenico ’14
4. Ariel Jespersen ’13
5. Devan Kreisberg ’13
6. Nida Leeuwenburgh ’13
7. Emily Miller ’12
8. Dorothy Mittow ’14
9. Mireille Pardon ’14
10. Hana Passen ’12
11. Lauren Rhode ’12 (Co-Captain)
12. Janet Thomassen ’12 (Co-Captain)

Coaches: Emil Signes and Chris Ryan

Virginia
MC Anderson (capt)
Kelly Frank
Meredith Nelson
Pemberton Heath
Anita Obasi
Leah Berry
Brianna Kim
Danielle Loleng
Gwen Garcia

Coach: Dana Creager

Indiana
Amanda Albers
Barbara DeLarm
Rachael Dickerson
Becky Grivas
Allison Hale
Celena Handojo
Sarah Hugus
Haley Katz
Tiffany Nguyen
Madeline Pound
Meredith Strunk
Caroline Walters

Coach: Vaughn Mitchell

Cal
Anna Bischoff ’12
Lizette Del Real ’12
Hannah Luke Edwards ’13
Brianna Ewing ’14
Gina Feracota ’14
Kristara Gipson ’13
Janae Henderson ’13
Aubrey Huey ’13, co-captain
Genevieve Ireland ’15
Laci Patiga ’14
Maricel Quirindongo-Crespo ’12, co-captain
Jennifer Sever ’12, co-captain

Coaches:
Ellen Owens, Head Coach
Brandon Sparks, 7s coach
Makenna Barris, Backs coach

Oregon State
Hannah Lockwood
Haley Dietz
Caroline Midkiff
Amee Svatos
Dani Riggleman
Isabella Hoffman
Ally Hoffman
Hanna Sprague
Victoria Brown
Meghan Mcguire
Liz Freund

Coach: Dave Dickson

Arizona State
Cat Conroy
Mariah Edmond
Julie McGuire
Kaitlin Sigado
Tyra Norlander
Mikayla Gilbert
Kylie DeMartini
Adriana DiMatteo
Kyla Roth
Lee Holland
Taylor Contreras
Kelsee Williams
Abby Vester
Kijana Gaines

Coach: Barry Carter

Boston College
Annie Abber 2013 Malden, MA
Josephine Bouquet 2013 Potomac, MD
Brittany Bruder 2012 Haverford, PA
Mayra Cardoso 2012 Dorchester, MA
Meghan Daly 2014 Arcadia, CA
Jackie Durant 2012 Dorchester, MA
Sylwia Handzel 2012 Webster, MA
Kate Mahoney 2012 Oak Bluffs, MA
Addison Powell 2014 Birmingham, AL
Stacy Reader 2014 Pittsburgh, PA
Thelma Rodrigues 2012 Dorchester, MA
Lily White 2013 Nantucket, MA

Head Coach: Ken Daly
Coach: Joanne Liu
Coach: Cristin Frederick

Wendy Young

Editor of Your Scrumhalf Connection. Passionate Rugger since 2001.

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Letter to the Editor: Reaction to girl’s rugby — or lack of it — on TV for CRC 7s

Wendy Young — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 16:42:23 +0000

Are you upset about the lack of women’s coverage? Let your voice be heard! Post in the comments section of this post AND at the original article here. Post on Twitter with hashtag #2011CRC and mention @USASevensCRC as well.

Re-posted from Rugby Buzz:

This arrived in my in box in response to the lack of TV coverage on NBC during the USA Sevens Collegiate Rugby Championship earlier this month. If you feel the same, or differently, drop a line at RugbyBuzz@gmail.com and get the dialog going. The question NBC asks, though, is there an audience for women’s rugby? The note below would indicate yes.

BzMcRugby

Thank you for being one of the very few people to even pay attention to the fact that women competed in the CRC, and thank you too for not belittling their participation. I love Sevens. I certainly loved watching the men’s games, and the coverage of those games was commendable. But it’s regrettable, offensive, inexcusable, unjustifiable, patronizing, ridiculous, passively misogynistic, and (fill in your own various negatives here) that not only was the women’s competition barely mentioned, but there was zero coverage of it. We didn’t get to see it broadcast on TV and, to add insult, can’t even watch it on universalsports.com. Other than a couple highlight moments that can be found if one digs hard enough, it appears that, as far as Universal/NBC is concerned, there was no women’s competition. The biggest attention paid on-air was to rub salt in the wound by mentioning the inequitable GoDaddy scholarships — $20k to the men, $5k to the women. I’d like to believe we were slowly but at least surely evolving past the “oh, they’re just playing the girls’ version; girls can’t really play sports; no one cares or wants to watch them; men play the real game” mindset, but the complete lack of coverage combined with that discrepancy in scholarship rewards pretty much belies any hope of doing so. My mother’s and grandmother’s generations probably would have been less excited about Title IX if they’d known how little things would progress in the four decades since.

I understand that you were not personally responsible for Universal’s/NBC’s error, and in fact you’re to be applauded for not blindly following their lead in ignoring the women altogether. But yours was the address I managed to find when trying to figure out to whom I could send this complaint, so I’m afraid you “won” by default. Feel free to pass the message along to more appropriate recipients if you think there’s the slightest hope it would ever actually make a difference.

And now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, I guess I’ll go don pearls, pumps, and hoopskirt and find something appropriately estrogen-acceptable and nonathletic to do. (I suppose if I wanted to preserve any chance of this viewpoint being paid attention, I should pretend I’m male, but I just can’t bring myself to do it.)

Thank you for your time and for your respectful articles.
Raven McKnight

Wendy Young

Editor of Your Scrumhalf Connection. Passionate Rugger since 2001.

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Army Consumes Penn State to Win the First Annual Collegiate Rugby 7s Championship

Wendy Young — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 14:07:37 +0000

Are you upset that you couldn’t watch any Women’s Rugby matches from the CRC this weekend? Join the angry twitter feed at #2011CRC and donate to the YSC Media Team so we can be at future events and provide LIVe broadcasts.

from USA Sevens:

Philadelphia – Reigning DI national champion Army is now the closest thing the country has to a women’s collegiate 7s champion, having put away Penn State 14-5 in the USA Sevens Collegiate Rugby Championship title match.

“It’s pretty amazing,” Army captain Jess Sexauer (seen hoisting the trophy in photo right) said. “Our program is so new that it’s crazy to come so far so soon. We’re graduating 10 seniors this year, so next year will be a change, but this was our year. It was one of our goals from the beginning of the year. We knew both national championships were doable.”

The sevens aspect of the championship duo was a bit of an afterthought, however. The team only had a week to prepare, with players joining practices after training sessions in the field, sleeping in the woods for a week. Sexauer herself only joined the team on Thursday.

“Some of us have never played 7s before, so we just needed to come together, have fun, and play some rugby,” Sexauer added.

It was the mentality that many teams took into the first women’s CRC, since the tournament boasted six teams that were still recovering from DI nationals. But that doesn’t mean the final game wasn’t hotly contested. Both teams hit the ground – and each other – running. Throughout the tournament, neither squad had faced as physical an opponent in the breakdown, which meant some skittish ball at times and frequent possession changes in close.

But the teams did well to work the sidelines, as both teams boast excellent speed out wide. Army’s Sexauer, Annie Lee and Kayla Orvik took on Penn State’s Lisa Henneman, Sadie Anderson and Deven Owsiany.

Spending most of the early minutes in Army’s end, the ball works out to Sexauer, who had a two-on-two forming. As Barber drifted out to cover the sideline, Sexauer split the defenders and took off for the fences. With only Bianca Dalal to beat, Sexauer planted a massive stiff-arm on the petite sweeper and sent the crowd into a frenzy. Sexauer dotted the try beneath the post and Marie Timm converted the score, 7-0.

“I heard them during the stiffarm and during the replay on the jumbotron,” Sexauer said of the fan’s reaction to her stiffarm. “I’ve never played in a stadium this big with a crowd this size, so it’s pretty fun. I heard the crowd go wild when i missed that tackle, too, so it goes both ways.”

Penn State remained calm and steadily worked the ball back to Army’s tryline, getting help from the referee’s whistle to keep possession. After a poor decision to not utilize the overload on the try zone, the subsequent breakdown ball worked out to Lisa Henneman, who turned the corner and for the try, 7-5.

At the half, it was anyone’s game. Owsiany played some great defense to contain Lee when she got some space out wide; Orvik was fierce in the contact area and able to change the tide of momentum with a single hit. Army’s Sharon Giannessi put in some try-saving tackles as well.

Substitute Scostia Peterson put the game away for Army, who seemed to recognize and work overloads a little better than Penn State. Timm made the conversion, 14-5, with four minutes to go. From there, it was a matter of gritty defense and Army waited it out.

“We came out hard and our defense was strong, but we made a couple of mistakes and in 7s, little mistakes are big mistakes,” PSU freshman Lauren Barber said. “We came into the weekend having fun and just enjoying the experience. Our team will have a stronger bond because of it.”

To add to the joy of Army’s victory, its men’s team has advanced to the final against Dartmouth, set to kick off shortly. It’s been a great weekend for the academy, and now the Army women have inaugurated the women’s CRC 7s record books.

For all the scores from the tournament, go here.

Wendy Young

Editor of Your Scrumhalf Connection. Passionate Rugger since 2001.

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USA Sevens Women’s Rugby Championship (CRC) Philadelphia – June 3-5, 2011

Wendy Young — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 00:09:09 +0000

Venue:
Friday:
Drexel University
Vidas Athletic Complex

Saturday / Sunday:
PPL Park, Home of the Philadelphia Union (MLS Team)

Broadcast
I’ve asked USA Sevens for a schedule of the broadcast but so far haven’t gotten anything concrete. UPDATE 6/1: Looks like only the Semis/Finals for women will be broadcast. Must be because they will be in the stadium.

Sunday
Universal Sports:
Noon-2pm
Men’s Cup Quarterfinals
Women’s Cup Semifinals

Versus:
2pm-4pm
Men’s Challenge (Plate) Semifinals
Men’s Cup Semifinals
Women’s Final

NBC:
4pm-6pm
Women’s Final
Men’s Challenger Final
Men’s 3rd/4th
Men’s Final

PREDICTIONS
Predict the winner of the tournament yourself, here.

Schedule and Pools

Buzz McClain with Universal Sports predicts makes predictions for all the matchups on Saturday. He also predicts a rematch between Army and Penn State. Read his article here.

Predict the winner of the tournament yourself, here.

Wendy Young

Editor of Your Scrumhalf Connection. Passionate Rugger since 2001.

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Women’s Rugby: Army vs. Penn State in Rematch?

Wendy Young — Wed, 18 May 2011 14:51:10 +0000

By Buzz McClain, Universal Sports:

Future women’s Olympians heading to Philly

Something to look forward to at the USA Sevens Women’s Rugby Championship in early June that I wrote about yesterday.

I predicted Penn State to run the table in the eight-team tournament — but Anne Lee might have other ideas.

Lee scored 33 points for the women of West Point in Saturday’s Division I National Championship final. In fact, the winger scored ALL of Army’s points, converting her own tries and taking the MVP trophy for her efforts. The final score was 33-29.

Who did they beat? Defending national champs… Penn State.

This is going to be quite the rematch.

Wendy Young

Editor of Your Scrumhalf Connection. Passionate Rugger since 2001.

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Friday Fun Day! I’m a Rugger Youtube Video from Jeremiah Bindrum and Bullfrog Audio Production

Wendy Young — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 15:31:28 +0000

This is a GREAT video from Jeremiah Bindrum and Bullfrog Audio Production. THANK YOU so much for including women’s rugby so much in the video! Enjoy the weekend everyone!

Wendy Young

Editor of Your Scrumhalf Connection. Passionate Rugger since 2001.

Website - More Posts

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