Royal Tribute to Queens Seniors

When Queens University of Charlotte added rugby to its athletic department, it wasn’t elevating club teams that already existed but creating programs. As Director of Rugby Katie Wurst began recruiting for the Royals’ first season in fall 2017, she scouted high school showcases as well as the student-athletes on campus and elsewhere. Today, there are three remaining seniors who helped build Queens into the DII NIRA program it is today.

Kelsey Lambert is Queen’s first-ever member and joined as a sophomore.

“The week after I took the head coaching position I put up signs for a ‘rugby interest meeting,’” said Wurst, who is DOR and women’s head coach. “She was the only woman to show up, and then recruited others, helped host recruits, and taught us how to do everything on campus!”

Lambert suffered an ankle injury that took her away from the pitch, but recovered in time to compete in the team’s final match of the 2019 DII NIRA season – a 23-15 championship semifinal loss to Brown. Additionally the music therapy major did incredible research on reducing stress in collegiate student-athletes.

“She was a walk-on who took a chance on competing in rugby, which was the catalyst for our program’s growth,” Wurst praised.

Softball crossover Lexy Richards also took a chance on rugby and later relied on the family she cultivated at Queens to pull her through a major life shift.

“I fell out of love with the sport. It became very repetitive and I just did not have the drive to keep doing it every day,” Richards confessed. “College sports are like a job, and I didn’t want to do it anymore. It was making me more miserable than it was happy, so that is when I knew it was time to let it go. It was easily the hardest decision of my life, but I am glad I made that choice or I would have never found rugby.”

Richards had heard that the athletics department was adding women’s rugby in fall 2017, and was intrigued.

“I grew up playing all kinds of sports, including basketball, and I would get yelled at for always being too rough, so I thought maybe this would be a good sport to try,” Richards explained. “I went to watch one of their matches, and I saw most of the girls were built like me, and that night I e-mailed coach Katie at 1 a.m. asking for a tryout.”

Richards joined the team as a sophomore in late fall 2017.

“I also liked how it was a combination of so many sports, which is why I picked it up a lot easier than I thought,” noted Richards, who found a home in the second row.. “I was always known as being a tall, strong athlete. I was never really fast, but my strength and height made up for it. Like in softball I was recruited for my hitting, basketball I was a post player, and in volleyball I was a middle hitter.”

Meanwhile, Richards rekindled a devout love for a sport, a welcome shift after the exit from softball.

“I loved the sport mostly because of the culture. I really felt like I had this second family full of my best friends,” Richards enthused.

That support system was soon called upon. Richards returned junior year, made it through pre-season and the first match of fall 2018, but noticed she was having back spasms.

“I figured I was fine and just needed some rest,” Richards assessed. “All my life I was told unless you’re dying or bleeding, you were to push through.”

While dead-lifting on her own, she heard a pop in her back and could hardly walk the next day. After a few months of therapy and no rugby, an MRI revealed a fracture in her spine, a herniated L4, and that her L5-S1 had blown into the sciatic nerve. Steroid shots helped with the pain but surgery was scheduled for July 1, 2019. Complications, a second surgery and an extra 10 days in the hospital followed.

“It was definitely the eye-opening experience of my life, but I am proud to say I deadlifted the other day for the first time in eight months,” Richards reported in mid-March 2020. “I know I will never deadlift 245 pounds again, but it felt good to do the exercise that cost me my athletic career.”

All the while, Richards remained connected to the rugby team, and vice versa.

“This program is special, man,” Richards reflected. “These people are some of the most generous people I have ever met in my life. Not to mention our amazing coaching staff. The relationships I built with my teammates are something I will cherish forever.

“I will forever be grateful for the relationship I made with Coach Katie,” she added. “I think once she met me she saw a little of herself in me, which is why I think we got so close and bonded so well. I am also thankful for all of the other relationships I built as well, like with our Strength Coach Travis, and other coaches like Coach Amy, and Kelly.”

Despite her injury and recovery, Richards was able to keep up with her academics and is currently student-teaching a 1st grade class at Nations Ford Elementary in Charlotte. The school has the highest percentage of English Language Learners in any elementary school in Charlotte and all students receive free or reduced lunches.

“This has been a life-changing experience for me,” Richards closed. “The bonds I have created with these kids has taught me how important unconditional love is. Some of these kids are in some tough situations, but I know that for some of them, school is their outlet. Every day I remind myself of this and try to give them every extra bit of love I have, because I know they need it more than me.”

Richards was offered an opportunity to continue her teaching career there next year after graduation.

Antares Lance is arguably the most recognizable name at Queens. She’ll graduate as the team’s top try-scorer and with Chula Vista 7s training on her rugby resume. Like teammates Lambert and Richards, her relationship with Royals rugby began with a risk.

“I decided to take a chance and play rugby at a higher level while also pursuing my goals of being a nurse,” Lance explained the transfer from UNC Charlotte after freshman year. “Queens gave me the opportunity to have my education while being a student-athlete playing rugby. Coach Katie was a huge advocate in my preparations on succeeding in my future career and encouraged me to understand that I can do both while at Queens.”

The camaraderie within the team and with opponents attracted Lance to sport. The fact that the founding class was charting new territory together really cemented bonds and helped assuage the growing pains associated with a burgeoning program.

“The feeling of family regardless of where you come from is the biggest thing for me,” the senior added. “Another thing that I love about it is the aggressiveness and power that comes with it. Being that rugby allows people of all different shapes and sizes to play; it presents itself to be one of the greatest sports in my book for sure.

Lance has a background in soccer, volleyball and basketball, and does damage from center and wing, and will play scrumhalf and hooker in 7s as well. She is fast and evasive, and knows how to finish out a scoring opportunity. That potency has not escaped teams like Scion, Roots, Old Blue, Old Toe or the USA 7s training squad.

“My experience at the camp was amazing,” Lance reflected on Chula Vista. “It was the hardest rugby I have ever played in my life. Coming from not that much experience and a club team before Queens, I didn’t have many fundamentals as the other girls there. I had to prove myself otherwise; which was through my speed and footwork. The players that I met were extremely helpful and I am extremely thankful I had the opportunity to go.”

Lance is understandably distraught by the shortened spring season, but fortunate that Queens competes in NIRA, which contests its championship (15s) season in the fall. That means the Royals had the opportunity to play toward at least one national championship this schoolyear, and came very close to advancing to the Tier II final after a narrow loss to Brown in the semifinals.

“Lord, our game against Mount Saint Mary was by far the best game our team has ever played,” Lance pointed to the 46-12 win to which she contributed three tries. “Being a new member of the NCAA, we were challenged with many oppositions, such as teams that have been playing in harder competitions for a while. However, us being new [to NIRA in fall 2019], it took a little trial-and-error before we could completely get comfortable. However, that game is the game I will never forget.”

The 22-year-old nursing major is currently finishing her clinical hours online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but once she graduates, she intends to work at Atrium Health (Carolinas Medical Health Center) as a Cardiac ICU nurse. She then wants to transition into travel nursing, where she’ll have the opportunity to play rugby and travel more.

“It’s beyond words how hard it is,” Lance lamented the unexpectedly short season. “I am saddened at the fact that I can’t finish with the team that I have grown to love. It still hurts every time I think about it, but I know my time playing rugby isn’t over.”