Spring Break
Club sport focus: Women's Rugby
Team concludes season with 4-4 record, one of three squads to earn spot in Midwest playoffs
Janelle Gergen
Issue date: 11/5/09 Section: Sports
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The UW-Eau Claire women's rugby season came to an end Sunday following a weekend tournament in Eagan, Minn. This was the first time in five years the team made it to the Midwest Playoffs.
"It's pretty exciting," said Sarah Laplante said prior to the tournament. Laplante usually plays eightman for the team.
The top two or three teams from states around the Midwest participated in the Midwest Playoffs, and the Blugolds gained entry as the third seed from Wisconsin. They lost Saturday to Winona State University (Minn.), 0-52 but pulled out a win Sunday in overtime against North Dakota State University, 15-10, ending the season with a win and a 4-4 record.
The greatest accomplishment for the team this year was definitely making it into that tournament, Laplante and junior club vice president Lindsay Savat said.
"This year …, our team overall is a really strong team," Laplante said, adding the players all worked well together. "We have a really strong connection with all our team. … We all get along really well."
Savat, generally a flanker for the team, said one their strengths this season was that they had more experience than last year. "We have a lot of sophomores on our team," she said, "… rookies last year, and now they're second year in."
Nevertheless, she said, something they need to work on for next year is getting more experience for the first-year players, although they contributed to the team's success as well.
"We have a lot of really good rookies this year," Laplante said, "so next year, we're going to lose a lot of really good seniors, but we're going to gain a lot of good players too. … The team definitely is building up."
Rugby is a club sport at Eau Claire, and the women's team was started in 1997, according to the club's Web site. Every year, they have to petition to get funds from the sports club, Savat said, but the players still end up covering a lot of the cost.
"Rugby is a really expensive sport," she said, "as far as we have dues that each player has to pay. We have your individual dues for USA rugby, the team has Wisconsin dues, they have Midwest dues, they have USA rugby dues … our coach has to pay dues. So that all adds up to a lot."
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