Women's Rugby Looks to Win More Than Their Next Game

"Plymouth!" yells senior captain Erica Hasse. "State!" yells the rest of the Plymouth State Marauders Rugby team. "PLYMOUTH!!" Hasse yells again, in which the team yells right back at her "STATE!!!!"

This is how the PSU women's rugby team starts off before the start of all the games they play in order to get them fired up. I haven't been to too many rugby games in my life, but I could tell right away that this was like any other team on campus; one family.

Family is what this team is all about, as these women will (and have) gone to battle against their opponents in their 2013 season. Once they step onto the field, they become a collective unit that has only one goal to mind, and that is to win. With this team, though, it isn't about just winning their meet, but it is about becoming an overall better team, and having the ability to help each other when they are put out of place. Against Bridgewater State on September 28^th, this team was able to not only win, but shut out their opponent as well.

It is one thing to go out and win a game, but to post a shutout speaks volumes as to how far this team has come. Against Bridgewater, captain Jordana Mineo, Leah Kenison, and Bianca Pelion were able to get tries (think a touchdown in football) to give Plymouth 15 points (5 points per tri), while Mineo added two more points on a kick after a tri (essentially a field goal in football). With a final score of 17-0, the new jerseys that this team has were able to get baptized by the win. This gave the Marauders a 1-0 record on the season, with a tough test against Wentworth Institute of Technology on October 5^th.

Against WIT, Plymouth was able to keep the ball in their offensive zone for the majority of the contest, but could only convert on getting one tri, as Lauren D'Iorio was able to get her first score of the season. While Wentworth came away with the 11-5 win, the experience that the Marauders were able to get against a high quality opponent can't be understated.

While winning and losing is ultimately what this game comes down to, the toughness that this team shows, as well as the unselfishness of the Marauders was quite a site. Just before halftime against Wentworth, D'Iorio had what I would classify as a pretty nasty ankle sprain, as her ankle was swelling up quickly, and became the size of a baseball. D'Iorio, who was limping around, told the medical personel that "there isn't a chance in hell I am coming out of this game." For a player to put her body on the line just to give her team the chance to win is awesome, and spoke volumes to me about how much this team cares about each other. I know that it is extremely cliché for teams to do this, but D'Iorio's ankle had quite the bruise/swelled up immensely.

The Plymouth State Women's Rugby team told me that you don't need to be a varsity sport in order to have a "team" mentality, and that hard work results in not only wins on the scoreboard, but friendships that will last a lifetime. With Homecoming weekend occurring last week, a number of former players (that have graduated) made the trip up to PSU to watch their former teammates, and friends, play. Amongst the alumni are former Clock members Brenda Shively and Allie Claire, who were more then ecstatic to see that the team had new blue and red jerseys (but at the same time were quite jealous that they weren't able to wear them!).

Watching this team play was not only a hell of a lot of fun to watch, but also quite an experience to check out a sport that you might not know a lot about. With their next home contest on October 19^th at 11:00 A.M., I recommend coming down to their home field (which is located behind, and to the left of the ice arena), and seeing what this team is made of.