Photos: WB Taylor (view more)
It’s been a winding road for the Tulsa, but it’s currently cruising over the top of the table in Red River’s DII North. With one more regular-season match to go, Tulsa is 4-0 in the DII club league and has averaged a 57-point margin of victory. Last Saturday, the team kicked off the spring portion of the season with a 76-7 win over in-state rival Oklahoma Roses.RELATED: DII Red River stats • Women’s Rugby Results: March 9-12 • 2017 Women’s Rugby Calendar
But it has taken some time to reach this level of performance. The club formed in 2011 and had trouble matching the level of play in the Texas league. During the 2014-15 season, Tulsa logged several forfeits and finished at the bottom league.“We were a very inexperienced team playing teams like HARC and Austin, who have very veteran teams and a lot of girls,” said Tulsa captain and founding member KC Morgan. “It was really difficult for us and we ended up losing quite a bit of players. We’ve spent the last two years really rebuilding.”
Tulsa withdrew from league play during the 2015-16 season, focused on recruiting and built its base by playing friendlies. Summer 2016 saw a surge in 7s participation, and a good group of hard-working athletes with other sports backgrounds joined up.“Then the [Texas Rugby Union] formed a DII in Red River and that helped a lot,” Morgan said. “It was like a perfect storm. We could get the new girls experience without having to travel to Dallas. It was more manageable, not having to drive eight hours to Texas.”Morgan didn’t credit the uptick in 7s participation to the Olympics, but saw the Games’ effect on fan support.“They’re much more involved than in years past,” Morgan said. “People are coming out to watch. Before it was friends and family and stragglers – 4 or 5 cheering you on on the sideline. [The increased crowd] has a lot to do with the Olympics … and it’s what keeps the girls around – it’s fun to be recognized for your hard work.”
It’s also fun for fans to cheer on a winning team, and the clapping started with the first friendly match of the fall.“Going into Little Rock for our first match of the season – a friendly against a DI team with brand-new girls – it could have gone either way. We knew we had talent and potential, ‘So let’s see where we land,’” Morgan recalled her mindset before the fall opener.The newcomers experienced the confusion that is anyone’s first game of rugby, and yet Tulsa won 32-29.“Absolutely,” Morgan asserted the surprise in the outcome. “They have always been a challenging team for us and always bring their A game. That first match of the season was really going to be a test for a much higher level of rugby than a lot of the girls were expecting. … We set the tone with the win, and it gave the girls confidence to help them develop.”It also produced some insight into who might project onto the starting line. Shelby Haas proved to be a dangerous ballcarrier, and crossovers Rose Branscum-Anderson (basketball) and Jordyn Dunacusky (lacrosse) showed a natural talent for the game and belied their rookie status. Later in the season, Tulsa also picked up Neariah Persinger (below photo), former star for DI Elite Lindenwood University. She’s scored 15 tries and eight conversions in three games for Tulsa.
But it wasn’t until about a month after the Little Rock game that Tulsa got a true look at itself. In the team’s second league match, Tulsa squared up against the long-established Oklahoma Roses.“We really spent the season preparing for that match,” Morgan said. “We were expecting them to the be most competitive team in the division – nothing against DARC or Griffins, but we knew they were new and figured they were at the same level as us. So throughout the season, we were asking ourselves, ‘This will work against a new team but will it work against OU?’“Everything clicked for everyone in that game,” Morgan remembered the 67-15 victory and sent a special shoutout to the forwards’ breakdown work and the defense’s even coverage. “Everyone hit the ground running and saw how all the moving pieces from practice play in the game.”Tulsa ended the fall portion of the season with a 47-0 win over Dallas Athletic Rugby Club (DARC) and will end the spring portion on March 25 against the Griffins, a team that Tulsa beat 77-17 in the fall. The Red River championships – both DI and DII for the women – will occur May 6-7 in Tulsa, Okla., and the victors will move onto the national quarterfinals two weeks later.“So what’s the next step,” Morgan posed. “How do we get to nationals? How do we get ready for a DI team? We’re motivated to look at the bigger picture, the longer term.”
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