Shippensburg Women's Rugby Moving Forward

As everyone is now aware, there has been a shake up in the structure of USA Rugby. Many of the college teams have moved into conferences. Shippensburg University Women's RFC has chosen the independent path. Their schedule involves both local DI & DII teams.

As a team, they have remained flexible and although the process has been stressful it has also been successful. Playing against different program levels has allowed Ship to see where they are in terms of fitness and technique. Their attitude is to take every experience as an opportunity to learn and grow as a club.

Ship Rugby is hopeful that the conferences will be figured out soon and more schools will begin recognizing the hard work of the Men & Women who play USA Rugby. The  Shippensburg girls say that there is no other sport out there for them. Being a part of the culture as well as the only full contact women's sport keeps them moving forward.

Match Secretary, Anna Elliot

We've been working very hard to fill our schedule this season, not making it into the MARC.  We are so thankful for the teams that have been willing to competitively play us.  Although we don't have as many games as we would during a league season, we have been having a great time competing, and we've definitely been working hard this season

Coach, Lauren Herbert

This season has been filled with quite a bit of change. I took over as head coach when Scott Stratton left last spring. I played for Cumberland Valley High School for 3 years (2004-2007) then for Shippensburg for 4(2007-2011), assisted Scott last year and here we are. We lost quite a few starters to graduation but have recovered and recruited well. The team has been working very hard on and off the field. Over half of our team is also in the Universities honors fraternity and on the Dean's List.

I am grateful for the opportunity to coach this team. I try to put as much if not more passion into coaching this team as I did when I played for it. This has been and will continue to be an amazing journey. We hope to continue playing at the high level we have in the past and with the same intensity.

This year I have many talented athletes. Inside Center & senior Luci Renna has been an All Star through and through. She is always going the extra mile and giving her all to make spectacular runs and tackles. Also in the backline (junior) Nikki Fairman our once starting winger moved to full back and has flourished. One never has to worry about her making a tackle or her ability to move the ball. In the forwards we have a softball player turned flanker (junior) Mary Grace Seirra who has caught on very quickly. What she may lack in experience she makes up with aggression and passion. Our captains Erin Moore (Senior & outside center) & Katie Wallace (senior & hooker) lead by example. They are both skillful players and positive role models.

President, Meghan Yale

Coming in as a freshman with no experience in rugby I was in awe of our women’s team and I still am today.  Our main focus is unity and determination to play our hardest for our coach and one another.  This past year has been a struggle, our coach for ten years has left us, we lost leading players due to graduation, and we had to adapt to a new system of scheduling.  However, even with struggle there are always players who step up to take the lead on and off the field. Due to graduation we lost valuable players like Dawn Perwoski and Faith Biesecker, this lead to an entire new forward pack. Even with new starters, we still do very well in our scrums. Lucky for us this year our entire back line contains returning players that excels in attack. Our game against Maryland University was a challenge and learning experience for our team. Defensively we learned what we need to improve and techniques to handle strong forwards. Maryland is a strong team and even though we lost, playing teams like that make us stronger and more knowledgeable of the game. Our captains and Executive member s are one point to maintain Ship Rugby as 30 as 1. Every player is an asset to this team whether they are one of the starting fifteen or on the sidelines cheering. We work as a unit and we treat everyone as a contributor. Coach Herbert has done a tremendous job with our team this year we our very thankful she took the position as head coach. Her knowledge and experience has helped tremendously at practice and she is always there to push us harder during the game. Our goal for this season is to exceed our skills and play the game the best we can. As a team we are teaching new players and hoping to gain more recruiters so the team can continue to prosper.

Schedule and Results

9/15 Bloomsburg University @ Shippensburg; Ship 41, Bloom 0
9/22 Shippensburg @ St. Joesph's University; Ship 32, St. Joesph's 5
9/29 Shippensburg @ University of Maryland; UMD 42, Ship 7
10/20 Shippensburg @ Bloomsburg University
10/27 West Chester University @ Shippensburg, 11 am
11/10 George Mason University @ Shippensburg, 11 am