Rachel Ehrecke / Photos: KJ Feury
Penn State is returning to the DI Elite national championship in hopes of defending its title once again. The roster and staff are familiar, and both boast lots of post-season experience. The team has been building to this final four phase all year, and they’re making sure they’re as prepared as possible for the last push.
RELATED: Spring College Playoff Brackets • Women’s Rugby Scores: April 20-22 • Support TRB: Become a Patron!
The team is led by senior captains Gabby Cantorna, Tess Feury and Fran Schaeffer, and they’re well supported by fellow graduating players like Rachel Ehrecke, Kristina Perry and Meg Lowe, among many others. To boot, both Feury and sophomore Kayla Canett helped the USA to a fourth-place finish at the Women’s Rugby World Cup. As the season wends through fall conference play, winter break and a fluctuating spring, these athletes set the example for the 45-player roster building toward nationals.
“Being in the Big 10 allows us to play some developmental games, and from there we schedule as many competitive games as we can,” Penn State coach Kate Daley said of the scheduling strategy over the course of the year. “Spring break is great because it gives a lot of competitive games in a different environment, which is nice. … [But] finding highly competitive 15s games in the spring is difficult.”
During the Ireland spring break tour, the third game against the University of Limerick Bohemians was the most beneficial. In adverse weather conditions, a close game evolved and tested the players’ tactical decision-making. A handful of canceled games back home left some gaps in the schedule, and Penn State regretted having to miss D.C. Ruggerfest, a tournament that allows the team to play up in the Women’s Premier bracket against senior clubs.
The best U.S. game of the spring occurred on March 25, when Penn State drove to North Carolina (a last-minute location change due to the weather) to face Life University in a competitive friendly. The 22-10 win was a valuable fixture, one that not only challenged players and aided growth, but allowed Daley to identify some work-ons heading into the final leg of the season.
“In college, I feel like it’s a constant routine of tweaking and always trying to improve,” Daley said. “For sure we took away things we needed to fix [from the Life game], but the same could be said for every game.”
Penn State was back in North Carolina for last weekend’s first rounds of the DI Elite / DI Spring playoffs, and akin to 2017, faced Mason-Dixon’s James Madison on Saturday.
“We gave everyone who probably wouldn’t play after this weekend the opportunity to play,” Daley said of the 84-7 win. “It was a good developmental game and gave a lot of the younger players the opportunity to play in playoffs and gain experience in those big games. They stepped up, and they played up.”
Daley acknowledged freshman Claudia Norton for her performance on Saturday and her potential in the future. State College graduate Darina Roe also drew attention, integrating into the back line after spending the fall sidelined with an injury. She also played on Sunday.
“I’m excited to see what she and Kayla [Canett] can do together next year,” Daley said.
Sophomores Ellie Fromstein, who was being groomed as a scrumhalf but is now getting time in the back row, and fellow loose forward Madison McCormack are also playing well and likely to see time during the final weekend.
On Sunday, a very familiar roster propelled Penn State to a 57-0 spring quarterfinal win over UVA. Az Nalbandian, Maggie Carly, Carly Waters, Sophie Pyrz, Gianna Solomon and Corinne Heavner joined the majority of the previously mentioned veterans on the pitch Sunday. The outing allowed the squad to work on its continuity, which was a struggle at times.
“We were challenged with penalties, which seems to be a common theme in all the DI Elite games [last weekend],” Daley said. “We had to adjust how we were reacting to the ref, which we could have done a better job of. Overall it was a good opportunity for the team to play together and work through our different attacking phases.”
Penn State and Life will play each other on Friday, May 4 in the DI Elite national semifinals in Fullerton, Calif., and Daley anticipates an eager, improved Running Eagles team looking for a final’s berth.
“They’re just excited to get back to the final four, excited to represent our program and see what they can put out on the field,” Daley spoke to the honor of competing for a national championship. “Yeah, it can be a lot of pressure to perform, but they enjoy the competitiveness of the games.”
The players also enjoy gauging the program’s progress and seeing how they contributed to it, and the same goes for the coach.
“The girls who are seniors or fifth years have been with me for four years,” the Penn State alumna said of her first four-year class while serving as head coach. “For me, this is a special group and no matter how things play out, I’m excited and a little sentimental about this year. They’re my first graduating class and I will miss all of them.”
After the trip to Fullerton, Calif., Penn State will host a 7s tournament the following weekend in preparation for the USA Rugby College 7s National Championship on May 20-22 in Colorado. Two weeks after that, it’s the CRC 7s in Chester, Pa., so although the end of the season is nearing, there’s a solid concentration of good games to come.
PennState #2018SpringPlayoffs