SUNY Cortland captains Julia Guercio and Zoe Barrington direct the Upstate New York DII team, and they both helped the Peace Frogs finish fourth at the NSCRO 15s National Championship back in 2016. The captains and their fellow seniors have been hungering for that final-four feeling ever since, but after a return to Division II in 2017, their playoff runs have ended in the Fall Round of 32. That changed on Friday night when Cortland hosted and beat Youngstown State in the Round of 32, and now the team has taken a step deeper in the USA Rugby DII Fall College Championship post-season.
RELATED: Fall Championship Brackets (use tabs at bottom of doc to move between competitions)
The team has a healthy roster that numbers more than 40, the biggest group that both captains have seen during their tenure. The squad also got a boost as Matthew Madden returned as head coach after a brief break.
“Last year we gained a lot of athletes, so we were very athletic last year,” Guercio said. “This year we built off that and got them playing the sport more and playing as a team.”
“It’s been so difficult to choose the lineup,” Barrington added. “Every single game we’ve had a different lineup because we have so much talent spread out across a lot of girls. There are a lot of people with good skills who do different things. It’s a good problem to have but it’s been difficult.”
Cortland experimented with those combinations in the Upstate New York conference’s DII/NSCRO hybrid league. The team finished the regular season 4-1, with the lone loss occurring in week two against NSCRO’s Colgate University.
“After Colgate we realized that we definitely need to work on defense more. We had focused on offense too much and our defense wasn’t up to par,” Guercio said. “We were frustrated with that game but in a good way that turned around our practices and showed us our weaknesses.”
“No one wants a loss but it was a good thing for us,” Barrington said. “It gave us an extra jump: We can lose. Even though it was early in the season, there was some complacency, but the loss put us in our place.”
“That game also showed me how close we’ve become [with each other],” Guercio added. “We ended up getting a few tries scored on us pretty quickly. Everyone was frustrated but we never got down on each other. We still remained a team and worked together. This could be a team that goes far this season because everyone is playing for each other.”
The team righted itself and took the top seed to the DII conference semifinals, where it took down Fredonia in a 112-0 decision. On the other side of the bracket, RIT battled Syracuse to a 29-28 win to advance to the conference championship.
“We were afraid that it wouldn’t prepare us for the final,” Guercio said of the massive shutout win. “I was also thinking that it’d go to our heads, that we can stomp on teams like that, but we also did realize, obviously, that Fredonia’s defense was not putting a stop to us. We took that into Monday’s practice and discussed that when we do go into playoffs and face new teams, the defense will be better. We’re not going to have 1-2 athletes who can run around and beat people with speed.”
But Guercio’s concerns were salved during a training session leading up to the Upstate New York final.
“There’s one play we haven’t been able to do for a long time because we haven’t had the right cohesion,” the backs captain detailed a specific set play. “We haven’t been able to pull that off at all really in the past two years. But this year, at one of the practices, we were able to do it and in the game against RIT, it was the first time we utilized it. I play 10, so it was amazing to sit back and watch it unfold.”
Regardless of the outcome, both Cortland and RIT would advance to the Fall Round of 32, but the conference champion would secure hometown advantage in that opening playoff round. Cortland was thrown off by the pitch, which contrasted greatly with its professionally lined rugby pitch back home. The captains described a hilly, narrow field, among other issues, but lauded their team for adapting to those conditions. Cortland prevailed in a 59-12 victory.
Cortland then readied for Allegheny’s Youngstown State and scheduled a Friday night game for the teams’ Fall Round of 32 match.
“I could tell that everyone, myself included, was a little bit nervous,” Barrington said. “We weren’t 100% sure of the lineup until 30 minutes before the game, so it was a pretty hectic situation for us. With that, you have people potentially playing in new positions and that creates more stress.
“We played in the stadium under the lights, which is cool, but new, and we’re not used to that,” the forwards captain continued. “So that heightened it for us. It’s a big game, make or break, and we really wanted to win this.”
Guercio had a prior commitment scheduled for that Friday but the flyhalf arrived five minutes before kickoff. The fifth-year senior’s presence went a long way, especially since Cortland had no information on Youngstown State and presumed it would be the best competition it’d face at this point in the season.
“As a team we tend to get lost if we let things get to our head,” Barrington said of pre-game focus. “But we kept possession well and played the game that we know and made it our pace. A couple times they had breakaways and they came back late in the half. At halftime, our coach said, ‘This is what we’ve been talking about, don’t let them make a comeback. Keep playing because we can stop them.’ That helped and that’s when the shift happened. We were playing well and having a good game but we really buckled down and came out tough after the half.”
Cortland sent the second-half kickoff deep into Youngstown’s territory and an aggressive chase forced a knock-on near the 15 meter. From that moment on, Cortland kept the pressure on and pulled away with an 82-12 win.
“Last year we lost to Maine in the Round of 32 so that was disappointing. And the year before that we lost to Coast Guard,” Guercio said. “Me and Zoe both benefitted from the final four when we qualified three years ago with NSCRO. We kind of know what it feels like and the competition we’ll be seeing, and we really want to advance. It’s a driving factor for a lot of people who are seniors.”
The duo noted that many of the starters are seniors but that the talented classes behind them will aptly fill those shoes going forward. Their growth will only expedite with this trip to Poughkeepsie, N.Y., where the team will face Rugby Northeast champion Bryant University in the Round of 16.
“Looking ahead, we’d like to advance and see the competition at final four again,” Guercio concluded. “I think we want it pretty bad. We’re working our butts off to get there. We have snow on the ground and we’re trying to practice every day, inside or outside, wherever we can.”
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