Lindenwood won a 15s tournament and 15s match with two different squads last weekend.
All of the spring-oriented DI conferences have held their respective championships and named their regional post-season reps. The brackets are full and it’s time to update the Women’s DI College Spring Rankings.
RELATED: DI & DII College Playoff Brackets • Womens’ Rugby Results: April 1-2 • Vote: Canterbury College & HS Players of March
The most exciting post-season occurred in the Pacific Mountain Rugby Conference (PMRC), as Chico State banked two one-point wins to earn third. First place was off the table, as the PMRC West’s top two teams – UC Davis and Stanford – advanced straight to the final. It was the third time that the teams played each other this spring, and the Aggies posted a 52-19 win. Washington State finished fourth, while Oregon beat Cal 38-14 for fifth.
Mason-Dixon played out as expected in terms of Virginia Women’s Rugby (UVA) retaining its title and Virginia Tech finishing second, but there were still some surprises. Kent State knocked out North Carolina in the quarterfinals 46-0, but the Tar Heels’ season is not over. The University of Florida withdrew from the DI spring Round of 16, leaving a vacancy at the Life University site. UNC filled in and will play Life in the opening round.
Virginia Tech just escaped unranked Pittsburgh 15-7 in the quarterfinals before shutting down James Madison 57-5 in the semifinals. In the championship match, UVA put some space between itself and Virginia Tech with a 48-7 win.
Arizona claimed the Gold Coast title, topping UC Santa Barbara 52-31 in the semifinals and Arizona State 45-22 in the final. The Sun Devils had a tough schedule, though. The Phoenix-area team traveled to San Diego for a 39-22 semifinal win over UC San Diego on day one, and then double-backed to Tucson that night for Sunday’s final against Arizona. The Wildcats played those back-to-back games at home. Both teams are heading to northern California for the spring Round of 16.
Other than the Florida conference, which is sending undefeated UCF to Marietta, Ga., on April 22-23, that covers all of the DI teams competing in spring conferences. The rest of the rankings concern DI Elite and/or independent teams.
The top-four teams are DI Elite and did not move rankings wise. Penn State, Lindenwood and Life have been hitting the tournament circuit. The Nittany Lions and Running Eagles had a productive weekend at the D.C. Ruggerfest. Lindenwood spent last weekend dominating the St. Louis Ruggerfest AND defeating the Glendale Raptors 80-12 in 15s. BYU overwhelmed New Mexico and will host Central Washington this weekend.
That leaves Notre Dame College. The team finished runner-up in the LVI 7s’ college division, and then hasn’t played any 15s against outside competition. Check the team’s online schedule, and the only 15s fixtures listed are the late-April playoff games at State College, Pa. (that said, the team isn’t well represented on the school’s athletics department site; there is a two-year gap between announcing the new coach in March 2017 and the previous news brief, which announced women’s rugby becoming a varsity sport).
We know Notre Dame College will bring a good team to the DI Spring Round of 16 – they have solid talent that propelled a successful fall, and the players have been working hard to coalesce during turbulent times. But any team – even the best team – needs field time against live competition, especially with post-season around the corner. We’ll keep our eyes peeled the next two weeks.
* Remember the caveat on the below records: Teams that compete in conferences only have their league and post-season games included in their records – no friendlies. Teams that don’t compete in a DI spring league have all full-length 15s games included, except alumni games.
