UVA’s Luma Abunimer /// Photos: Natalie Krovetz
Virginia Women’s Rugby (UVA) was in good shape heading into the 2016-17 season. The Charlottesville, Va., team had graduated only two starters, and the core group of returners was entering its fourth year together. In fall 2016, UVA went undefeated with several shutouts and entered the winter break having faced little resistance.
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And then on Saturday, Virginia Tech held a 7-5 halftime lead over UVA in the teams’ DI Mason Dixon matrix match.
“They were ready for us,” UVA coach Nancy Kechner said of the in-state rival. “Their whole game plan was designed to stop our backs and we didn’t adjust well.”
The scoreboard remained dormant for the first 30 minutes of the match, as Virginia Tech, in front of a hometown crowd, threw UVA off its game. Junior power center Summer Harris-Jones did manage to score the game’s first try, but then the home side ended the half with a converted try, 7-5.
“They had a lot of momentum and put us under a lot of pressure – good tackling, good in the rucks, and really shifty runners,” said Kechner, who tipped her hat to Virginia Tech captain Carly Mackey. “Tech has always had really good athletes, but they just came to play.”
The halftime assessments helped UVA regroup and saw Jones, Heather Thompson and Catherine Liptak all score, while Luma Abunimer added a conversion for the 22-7 win. But the performance wasn’t a comforting one.
“At one point I thought to myself: We’re going to lose this game,” Kechner confessed. “We were hesitating on defense. They did a lot of quick passing out of the tackle, and we seemed dumbfounded that players didn’t have the ball when we got to them.
“The backs just weren’t themselves – except Zoe Schmitt,” Kechner said of the co-captain, who shares duties with Liptak. “She provided some sanity back there; had some hard runs. She got the team focusing on what we could control – ourselves.”
Schmitt is one of several players who is capping four years on the UVA women’s rugby team. She’s joined by teammates like Joy Jefferson, Frankie Beller, Debbie Ledezma, Caroline Schmelter, Liptak and Abunimer – all of whom want to make this year special with another deep push into the playoffs.
The game also saw some players step up. Regular No. 9 Schmelter was absent, and after a trial with Hannah Turley in the halfback position, hooker Thompson did well running at scrumhalf. Exchange student Sophie Smietana then filled in at front row and held her own. Kechner has also been impressed with first-year sophomore Hannah Kirk Nass, who is at fullback while Cary Wingo recovers from injury, and will likely see time at flyhalf once the large Class of 2016 graduates.
“We haven’t had a hard game since the [spring] championships. In the fall, we rolled over everybody … and didn’t learn anything,” said Kechner. “We learned a lot this weekend and part of it was I needed to provide more dynamic coaching.
“If you’re never tested, then you don’t know what to work on, and we have a full agenda now,” the coach added.
UVA will retake the pitch in two weeks to end matrix play against the University of North Carolina. The conference will then host North-South crossover quarterfinals on March 18, with the higher seed hosting the lower seed. The following weekend, March 25-26, UVA will host the Mason Dixon conference championships.
USA Rugby has not yet announced how many seeds each conference will receive to the combined DI/DI Elite spring playoffs, but the expanded post-season now begins at the Round of 16 and divides after the spring quarterfinals.