0
0
ncr.rugby — National Collegiate Rugby (NCR) has assembled 40 of its top women’s rugby players for a weeklong high performance 15s camp, culminating on Saturday, July 11 with a Women’s Elite Rugby (WER) curtain-raiser match. The camp is currently underway at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and Saturday’s intrasquad match will occur at Benedictine University Stadium in Lisle, Ill., ahead of the Chicago Tempest vs. New York Exiles Week 8 match. [lead photo: Jackie Finlan]
Attendees hail from 29 schools and all four NCR divisions, and they’re all living, eating and breathing rugby in an environment that simulates a national team assembly. A staff of 12 is leading skill-specific training, gym sessions, practice and video work ahead of this Saturday’s WER doubleheader.
Harvey is a highly decorated international 7s and 15s player for Canada, and in 2014 was named World Rugby Player of the Year. She made her NCR All-American coaching debut last month at Algarve 7s, earning a third-place finish in Portugal. Fa’ae’e is a USA-capped 15s international and former Eagle captain. Most recently, she was named head coach of DI NCAA varsity Princeton University.
View this post on Instagram
Iowa’s Gillian McRae and Notre Dame’s Mia Blocher are joining the camp fresh off the trip to Algarve. McRae will be pitching up, while the injured Blocher is helping with social media off the field. They’re joined by fellow Big Ten standout Anna Rimatzki from Michigan, whose head coach, Jamie Frech, returns as the Women’s High Performance Director. Frech led the staff in Portugal, where Brown’s Olivia Baptiste was on the field as a player. For this assembly, Baptiste has graduated to the coaching staff, taking a role as a developmental coach.
Northeastern, national champion in both XVs and 7s, boasts the largest representation in camp with four players – Kourtney Bichotte-Dunner, Mira Mahmoud, Sierra Palecek and Vicky Hajjar. Division II powerhouse Univ. Wisconsin Eau Claire has three players in Madison Cornell, Maggie Kane and Olivia George. Colorado School of Mines, Colorado Mesa, Penn State, Southern Nazarene and New Hampshire have two selections apiece. Penn State’s Cara McManus, St. Bonaventure’s Natalie Lamar, Colorado’s Lucia Hoffman, East Stroudsburg’s Tara Bogansky, and Eau Claire’s Liv George were all Player of the Year finalists in their respective divisions, and they could all be teammates or foes next week.
View this post on Instagram
Saturday’s All-American game is set for 2 p.m. CT, and it will be streamed live on National Collegiate Rugby’s YouTube.
High Performance Camp Roster
Grace Anderson – Bowling Green
Sunshine Aofia – Texas
Kourtney Bichotte-Dunner – Northeastern
Mia Blocher – Notre Dame
Tara Bogansky – East Stroudsburg
Holly Brazigian – Boise State
Elizabeth Breiby – New Hampshire
Kaylee Burns – Colorado Mesa
Chloe Coop – Colorado Mesa
Madison Cornell – Univ. Wisconsin Eau Claire
Corinne Dragwa – Towson
Sierra Gallup – Colorado State
Olivia George – Univ. Wisconsin Eau Claire
Vicky Hajjar – Northeastern
Lucia Hoffman Farmer – Colorado
Ireland Jeffery – Wheeling
Maggie Kane – Univ. Wisconsin Eau Claire
Campbell Kerr – North Carolina State
Sierra Kraemer – Coastal Carolina
Natalie Lamar – St. Bonaventure
Danica Luzak – Penn State
Aliya Lynn – Colorado School of Mines
Mira Mahmoud – Northeastern
Cara McManus – Penn State
Emma McNab – Niagara
Gillian McRae – Iowa
Jasmine Mendez – Coast Guard
Lily Morrison – Arizona State
Kate Osborn – Colorado School of Mines
Sierra Palecek – Northeastern
Allison Radcliffe – Marist
Anna Rimatzki – Michigan
Annekkia Ritter-Truxal – AIC
Palu Sau – Southern Nazarene
Jordan Shannon – North Dakota
Lesieli Vaeno-Tonga – Southern Nazarene
Abigail Wegener – Aquinas
Sarah White – New Hampshire
Keyonna Wilson-Rhodie – North Carolina State
High Performance Staff
Women’s Rugby Director – Alycia Washington, NCR
High Performance Director – Jamie Frech, Michigan
Head Coach – Karameli Fa’ae’e, Princeton
Head Coach – Magali Harvey, Former Canadian International
Assistant Coach – Dani Harris Keil, Aquinas
Assistant Coach – Brad Dufek, NCR
Development Coach – Matja Saarenheimo-VanderHorst, Yale
Development Coach – Olivia Baptiste, Brown
Strength & Conditioning – Jared Keith, Yale
Head AT – Kristin Oliphant, California Legion
Manager – Jake Koenigs, Wisconsin
Assistant Manager – Liv Stager, Wisconsin