The Chico State Women’s season came to end in the first round of the USA Rugby National Championship Competition. It was good to be back in the National Competition having missed out the last two years. We are still suffering the effects of not having a rookie class in 2010, but some of the effects were offset by the rookie class this season. While the season started out a little slow finishing 2-3 in the regular season, the team was able to bring it together to capture the Pacific Mountain Conference’s 6^th and final seed to the National Competition. Having taken 4^th in the newly formed Pacific Mountain North conference, we needed to compete against UC Davis (Pacific Mountain North #3), UCSB (Pacific Mountain South #2) and Colorado State (Pacific Mountain East #3) to win the 6^th seed. After beating UCSB and narrowly edgingColoradoState, we booked our ticket back into the Sweet 16 Tournament. We did not get the results we were hoping for, but we had two fairly solid performances at the tournament. We started EIGHT rookies in the first round and only carried a reserve bench of 5. By day two we only had 3 on the bench going into the consolation match.

This year we say goodbye to seniors Mackenzie McManus, Amanda Gardner, Katie Buzarellos, Ali King, and Genevieve Macaraeg. Mackenzie had a cracker of a season. She stepped up her leadership role and led the forwards from the front. Amanda’s season was plagued by injuries, but when healthy, she proved to have a stabilizing effect in the forwards. And as always, Amanda volunteered to take on an administrative role this season. Buzz juggled a pretty busy schedule but still made time to get to practice and was an invaluable part of the forward pack. She added much needed depth in the front row and finished the season strong. And Ali King, whose time with the Chico State WRFC was way too short. Senior rookie phenom, Ali King played a huge role this season. She brought much needed strength to the pack as a second row and led the team with turnovers at the tackle. She also spearheaded fundraising and did a magnificent job. Genevieve, another senior rookie, was finally granted her waiver and finished up the season strong. While typically reserved, out on the pitch Genevieve proved to be one of our scrappiest players. Why do they always wait so long to come out and play rugby.

We are looking forward to the start of our next season. We are only graduating a handful of players and we get to tap a few more that were unable to play this season. We will also be looking to add a 7’s team in the fall and competing in a few tournaments. Chico State Alumni Carrie White, who has been working with the Serevi Rugby group up in Washington will be coming down in the fall to hold a 7’s camp to kick things off.