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The College Rugby Association of America (CRAA) will host its Division I women’s 15s playoffs on Thursday-Sunday, March 26-29 at Stanford University. Eight teams are traveling to Palo Alto, Calif., for quarterfinals and semifinals (or consolation matches), and those Round of 4 matches inside Steuber Rugby Stadium will be live-streamed. The DI teams that go 2-0 across the four-day event will advance to the April 11 championship in Sacramento alongside the Pacific Four Series (read more). [lead photo: Beni Thiongo / Mianya’s Photography]
There is one more regular-season game that needs to be played before the match-ups are finalized, but the seeding is known. Arizona State and Grand Canyon University will close out their Pacific Desert Rugby Conference (PDRC) seasons against each other, and since both are moving onto regionals, this Saturday’s match impacts seeding into regionals only. Claremont Colleges went undefeated through the season for the #1 seed out of the conference.
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The Pacific Mountain Rugby Conference (PMRC) is all sorted. Western Washington went undefeated in the PMRC North (Pacific Northwest) and takes the #4 overall seed. The PMRC South (NorCal) wrapped up the regular season last Saturday and had three teams go 5-1 overall: Stanford, Cal and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, the reigning DII 15s champion. But the Cardinal got the job done with a larger win, 26-5, against the Bears last Saturday to get the top seed out of the league.
Life University and BYU take the top two seeds, as one might expect from programs that competed in the now-nonexistent DI Elite competition.
DI SEEDING
1. Independent #1: Life
2. Independent #2: BYU
3. PMRC #1: Stanford
4. PMRC #2: Western Washington
5. PDRC #1: Claremont
6. PDRC #2: Grand Canyon or Arizona St
7. PMRC #3: Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
8. PDRC #3: Grand Canyon or Arizona St
The BYU side of the bracket is playing a Thursday quarterfinal / Saturday semifinal (or consolation match) schedule, while the other half is playing Friday/Sunday.
SCHEDULE
THU MARCH 26 (all times Pacific)
6 p.m. BYU v Cal Poly SLO
8:30 p.m. Western Washington v Claremont
FRI MARCH 27
11 a.m. Life v PDRC #3 (GCU/ASU)
1:30 p.m. Stanford v PDRC #2 (GCU/ASU)
SAT MARCH 28
10 a.m. Semifinal (between THU winners)
12:30 p.m. Consolation (between THU losers)
3 p.m. WCRC Playoff: SJSU v SCU*
SUN MARCH 29
10 a.m. Semifinal (between FRI winners)
12:30 p.m. Consolation (between FRI losers)
*Note that there will also be a Division II presence as well. The Saturday match between DII Santa Clara University and San Jose State University of the West Coast Rugby Conference (WCRC) isn’t listed in the schedule as a league final, per se, but a “playoff match,” so TBD on the implications of that game. Nonetheless, the duo lead that DII conference and will face DII Pacific Desert’s CSU Northridge or UC Irvine (presumably, but not confirmed) on Friday, April 10 in Sacramento.
The caveat here is that the DI CRAA 15s finale includes both a title match and a 3rd place match, which as been dubbed “Challenger Bowl Match.” So teams that win their quarterfinals on Thursday or Friday are guaranteed a spot in the April 10-11 championship event in Sacramento alongside the Pacific Four Series international test matches.