The College Rugby Association of America (CRAA) is into its women’s spring 15s season, and both Division I and Division II competitions have launched into league play. These teams and conferences are building toward the spring championships, which will culminate on May 6 at a TBA location. The word is those title games will be part of a larger CRAA event on May 5-7, which will include a college 7s championship, but those details will come from CRAA. [Lead photo: Grand Canyon vs. BYU / Jeff Dalton]
RELATED: Women’s Games & Scores: Jan. 26-29
Stanford improved to 2-0 in the DI Pacific Mountain West, defeating Chico State (0-1) 83-5. Lock Elly McKay accounted for 23 points on a try and nine conversions, while Laura Bocek and Gabriella Mesa scored three tries apiece. Kaela Verner (2), Alissa Vuillier (2), Nadia Hemmat and Sydney Hsu also dotted down. The Cardinal get the bye this weekend and will host Fresno State on Feb. 4.
Cal opened up its season with a 26-0 win against Fresno State (0-1) and will travel to Chico State this Saturday. The Bulldogs will host UC Davis (0-1), which dropped its Jan. 14 opener to Standard 54-5.
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The PMRC North resumes league play since the fall, and two teams are currently 2-0 heading into Saturday’s matches. Western Washington (2-0) beat Washington (0-2) 27-12 and Oregon State (0-2) 81-0 in fall 2022. Oregon (2-0) topped the Huskies 24-20 and Beavers 59-10. The two undefeated teams meet this Saturday in Eugene, Ore. Meanwhile, Washington travels to Oregon State, as both teams look for their first win of the season.
The Pacific Desert kicked off last weekend and afforded three Division I teams their first wins of the season. Reigning spring champion BYU beat 2022 runner-up Grand Canyon Univ. 45-0 (lead photo/Jeff Dalton). Arizona State hosted UCLA in a 44-10 win at home, UC San Diego topped UC Santa Barbara 32-15. This weekend, CSU Northridge travels to UCLA for its first game of 2023. The two Phoenix-area teams – Grand Canyon and Arizona State – do battle. And Arizona kicks off its season with a home game against UCSD.
There were some friendlies in Pacific Desert’s Division II last weekend, but this Saturday should see some league games in the books. Reigning spring champion Claremont, which ran its B side against Occidental last weekend, will host USC in the teams’ opener. UC Irvine, which ran around with the Fullerton Women last Saturday, take on Occidental. 2022 spring runner-up San Diego State takes on MiraCosta College, which had six players on the West All-Star team that won last weekend’s NCR All-Star 7s Cup LINK. And UNLV hosts CSU Long Beach in its home opener.
There was just one league game in the DII West Coast conference last Saturday, but it was a goodie, as Cal Poly (1-1) rallied for a 24-17 win against Santa Clara (2-1). The Mustangs had dropped a 12-5 match to UC Santa Cruz (1-0) the weekend prior, so it was a nice rebound. Cal Poly hosts USF (0-2) this weekend. Santa Clara heads to UN Reno (1-1) this Saturday, and Sacramento State (1-1) hosts UCSC this Saturday. Reigning champ San Jose State (3-0) takes the pitch on Feb. 4. [Note: There were a couple of forfeits/cancelations in the fall portion of the season and they’re currently reflected as wins in the non-forfeiting teams’ records. If those games are rescheduled in the spring, then the records will adjust.]
On the opposite side of the country, the DI/DII Florida conference got moving as DI Univ. Central Florida beat Florida 58-8. UCF is scheduled to face DII Florida International this weekend, while Florida will look to rebound against fellow DI Florida State. DII Miami and South Florida are schedule for season openers as well.