Women's club rugby headed for Final Four

While their friends have been worrying about what to wear and who to take to Houseparties for the past few weeks, the players of women's rugby have had something much more pressing on their minds. Princeton faces Stanford today in the national semifinal game at the Cardinal's home field in Palo Alto, Calif.

Getting to the Final Four was no easy task. Two weeks ago the team traveled to Gainesville, Fla., for the regional quarterfinals and semifinals. In the Sweet Sixteen, the Tigers defeated the UNC Tar Heels by a score of 32-24.

The following day they faced Chico State in the final hurdle on the road to the Final Four. Earlier in the season at a tournament in San Diego, the Wildcats handed Princeton one of its few losses this season, 18-10. With this defeat fresh in their minds, the Tigers took the pitch with a vengeance on April 17, earning the trip to the national semifinals with a 25-17 victory.

Princeton's opponent, Stanford, is a very skilled team. In its matches in Gainesville, the Cardinal first took on UCSD, a team that beat the Tigers earlier in the year, and handily moved on with a 22-5 win. In its Elite Eight game, Stanford faced UVA — a national semifinalist last year — and came away with the victory by 16 points.

Stanford's team is well regarded for its skillful play, particularly that of one wing, reportedly recruited for track, who has scored almost all of the Cardinal's points this year. Yet Princeton is confident, having improved through daily practices during both the fall and spring seasons.

Like most rugby programs nationwide, few players in the Orange and Black had played the sport before coming to college. This collective inexperience has led to a team atmosphere that allows the Tigers to have success even without their dominant players, such as senior co-captain Ruth Bryson. Bryson, a consistent leader on the field for the past four years, was absent for the UNC game, yet Princeton soldiered on for the victory nonetheless.

"I think our strength is really all-around play. It's hard to break our defensive line, and we really play as a team," senior co-captain Natalie Johnson said. "Everybody does their job and gets things done working together. It's hard to score on us; we just don't really let it happen."

Another star on the team is freshman Jackie Bello, who recently qualified for the US Under-19 national team, suggesting that this winning era of Princeton women's rugby is far from over. Sophomores Casey Gallagher and Liz Inkellis contribute greatly to the Tigers' speed, playing on the outside and scoring many long tries.

Much of the Tigers' ability to win as a cohesive team is attributable to a figure known to many simply as "the guru" — head coach Emil Signes.

"A lot of our success is due to our coaching staff," Johnson said. "[Emil is] a rugby legend in America. When we go to rugby tournaments anywhere, other coaches and players flock to him because he's coached so many teams and knows so much."

Signes, who came on halfway through last season, has helped Princeton compensate for the one weakness the program has against most other national powers — the smaller size of their forwards. This can be vital in a game as physical as rugby, but despite its lack of size, the Orange and Black have a strong tradition of excellence.

The Tigers last won the national championship in 1996, their second in a row at the time. Since then, they have been at least fourth in the nation five times, including a national runner-up finish last year. In the resulting national championship game, still in the minds of Princeton's ruggers, Penn State came away with a clearcut 24-8 victory after the Tigers lost an early lead and made late game turnovers.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

This year, Penn State again looms large, as the team is favored against Navy in the other semifinal match. Princeton has reason to hope that should it get past Stanford, the result of the final will be different from last year. In the Tigers' only previous game against the Nittany Lions this year, the match turned into a defensive deadlock that ended with a Penn State victory. Still, the 5-0 score was close enough to give Princeton hope that it can win if the two teams meet again.