Single- and Multi-School Nationals Begin Friday

The Girls’ High School and High School Club national 15s tournaments occur this Friday-Sunday, May 16-18 in Madison, Wis. The multi-school event begins Friday with pool play and then finals are Saturday. Meanwhile, the single-school championship begins with quarterfinals on Saturday and finals on Sunday. All games will occur at the Wisconsin Rugby Complex across two pitches on either side of the clubhouse. The Rugby Network will carry the livestream.

The high school club 15s tournament has drawn six teams that are divided into two pools of three. Teams contest two pool games on Friday, and standings will set up Saturday finals. The top team in each pool will contest the championship (11 a.m. CDT, field 1); the second-place teams in each pool will contest 3rd place (11 a.m. CDT, field 2); and the third-place teams in each pool will contest 5th place (12:30 p.m., field 1).

Pool A: Belmont Shore, United, Chicago Valkyries

Pool B: Majestics, San Mateo Wolverines, Rockford

Five of the six teams are returners from 2024. Belmont Shore is the reigning champion and again has played a diverse 15s schedule ahead of the SoCal 7s season. United is the number-two seed in Pool A and is coming off a second-place finish to the Majestics at the Utah 15s championship last weekend. And the most local club team, Chicago Valkyries, debuted at DII nationals last year. There is no DII competition this year.

The Majestics headline Pool B and last Saturday won Utah with a 50-5 win against United. The Majestics finished runner-up to Belmont Shore at last year nationals. Like the Valkyries, the San Mateo Wolverines also debuted at DII nationals last year and won that competition convincingly. The Wolverines tuned up at the NorCal HS 15s championship the first weekend in May, dropping a competitive match to the Sacramento Amazons, which are not in Madison this year. And then Rockford, the Michigan state champion, is making its debut at nationals. Watch for some players who will continue their college rugby careers at Aquinas College.

Saturday is the fun day because there’s overlap of high school clubs and the single-school teams. The day begins at 9 a.m. CDT with single-school quarterfinals:

Eagle (Idaho) vs. City Honors (N.Y.)
Catholic Memorial (Wis.) vs. Warsaw (Ind.)
DSHA (Wis.) vs. Barbarians
Meridian (Idaho) vs. Hamilton (Wis.)

The quarterfinal losers move into the consolation semifinals, which kick off at 2:30 p.m. CDT on fields 1 and 2; and quarterfinal winners advance to Cup semifinals, which kick off at 3:30 p.m. On Sunday, all eight teams play to place and in this order: 7th, 5th, 3rd, championship.

Like the high school club tournament, all teams have been consolidated into one division. Eagle is the reigning national champion, but did drop the Idaho state title to Rocky Mountain 43-24 last Saturday. Rocky Mountain isn’t present in Wisconsin, but Meridian, which debuted at DI nationals last year and finished third, is also representing the state of Idaho.

Divine Savior Holy Angels is the 2024 national runner-up and has been steady this year, winning Wisconsin and then Midwests in late April.

“It absolutely affected our drive this year,” DSHA senior flanker and co-captain Lauren Stuart explained the impact of finishing second last year. “Typically we use our mistakes as learning lessons and we use them to see what we need to improve on throughout the season. Looking back on our game last year we know exactly what we need to do this nationals in order to succeed. Endurance and aggression were weaknesses and we have been working on it every day. I think after our win at Midwest we have definitely shifted into a new gear. We have more confidence and we are executing on the things we need to improve on.”

DSHA is one of three Wisconsin teams competing in Madison. Catholic Memorial is a long-time regular and finished runner-up at both states and Midwests this year. Hamilton is also a common feature, but featured in Division II last year. Same goes for Western New York’s City Honors, which is the only representative from the East Coast at nationals this year. And to complete the eight-team quarterfinals, a Barbarian squad, presumably from Wisconsin, is filling in the bracket.

For more information, as well as schedule and match-ups, visit https://www.eventcreate.com/e/hsgrugbynationals.