W. rugby defeats West Chester to secure EPRU Championship

You should definitely be scared of the Princeton women's rugby team — if you are another women's rugby team, that is.

Over the weekend of Nov. 1-2, Princeton hosted 19 different schools from the Eastern Pennsylvania and Central New Jersey regions at West Windsor Field to compete in the Women's Regional Rugby Finals. The Tigers ended the tournament by beating No. 14 West Chester to regain the Eastern Pennsylvania Rugby Union Championship.

"The final game had a lot of history for us since [West Chester] killed us last year and kept us from going to MARFUs [Mid-Atlantic Rugby Football Union], a bigger division of which EPRU is a sub division," senior scrumhalf Jia Shen explained.

This year, the Tigers began their inaugural season under head coach Dan Williams, the first coach the team has had since Alex Curtis left in 2001. During the interim, Princeton has essentially coached itself. A perennial powerhouse in and out of the Ivy League, the Tigers have grown via new leadership, which has focused on preparing the girls more completely than ever before.

"This is pretty much a calendar year for a lot of developing and setting things up for future years," Shen said.

With an 8-0 record this fall, a stretch in which the women outscored their opponents 233-32, it is hard to imagine what remains to develop. The defending Ivy League champions simply dominate every opponent.

After an unbeaten fall season, the Tigers took part in the regional Division I competition, where they faced Shippensburg in the semifinals on a sunny Saturday afternoon. A slightly nervous first five minutes created some tension on the field as the underdogs from Pennsylvania camped out in the Princeton half. But a couple of great runs turned the tide, and the Tigers soon found themselves 20 meters from Shippensburg's try line, rugby's equivalent of an endzone. Within 10 minutes of the start, Princeton scored its first points on a try by junior Chia-Ying Chung that put Princeton up by five.

In what Williams described as "a scoring barrage," the Tigers, led by Chung, sophomore Gretchen Tonnesen, freshman Liz Inkellis and senior captain Kim Nortman all found holes through the leaky Shippensburg defense to put Princeton up 37-0 at the half.

Given the physical nature of the game, and the fact that the finals take place only one day after the semifinals, Williams rested several of his regular starters before the game and took the opportunity at halftime to remove four more from the fray. The second half was a scrappy affair with less continuity of play, but the Tigers wound up comfortable winners by a score of 42-7 and advanced to play regional powerhouse West Chester in the finals.

A one-sided affair

The game was a completely one-sided affair, and scores from Tonnesen, senior Deirdre McGinty, junior Ruth Bryson and senior Yuvon Mobley helped Princeton emerge victorious, ending the final match with a 26-0 romp.

"Sunday was a day of reckoning," Williams said. "With rested starters and a thirst for revenge, the girls put on a hugely impressive performance."

The team now looks ahead to its crucial matchup against James Madison in the MARFU quarterfinals on March 20, 2004. A place in the national Sweet 16 is at stake.

All-star tryouts

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This week also found some of the Tigers at tryouts for the divisional all-star team. Shen, Bryson, junior Nat Johnson and Chung were all selected to the regional all-star side to play in the East Coast championships in Baltimore this coming weekend. This selection could be the first of three steps to All-American recognition, which looks like a real possibility for these amazing young women.

"I am so proud of the effort the entire team put in this fall," Nortman said. "We have reestablished Princeton as the unparalleled dominant force in the region because of the hard work, determination and passion of the entire team."