This post is the start of a series of posts that will look at next year for the women’s team. We have a number of key recruits coming in and big core of returning players that sets the team up for another good year.
One of the remarkable aspects of this years success has been the large group of really committed players. When we had 6am practices, there were consistently 45 players at practice. While our active numbers were down this year from 60 to 50, the number of players what committed to being part of the team’s journey was as high as it has ever been. This meant that competition was fierce for traveling spots, especially with the reduced number of players we took because of financial constraints. There were 5th year seniors who had traveled previously who did not make it this year. 2 players that traveled to Florida did not travel to Stanford. Next year it will be even more competitive.
We lose 3 players that started the National Championship game. Hooker Christine Latini, flanker Leah Fadden and wing Rachael Muir. Meghan Byrnes is doing an internship in the fall and may be back in the spring (you do not need to have a full class load in your final semester) but that is not certain. We also lose hooker Leslie Walsh, center Erin Collins and wing Catherine Cruz-Ortiz. Sarah Dickey and Sarah Ziegler who both traveled to Stanford are on schedule to graduate in the fall, but we hope that they may consider staying for the Championship season in the spring.
While these loses are tough, we believe that we had a team of returning players that could have competed for the National Championship this year. We also had over 10 players that did not travel this year that would have been good enough in other years to travel to Nationals. We know of 11 incoming players this fall that are coming to Penn State to play rugby. There are probably another 10 that we don’t know about and that is before we even recruit on campus.
The next year is looking like a very exciting one and over the next couple of weeks I will share with you the outlook for next year. We will also be helping you to get to know the incoming freshmen who will be looking to make an impact as the team goes for a historic three-peat.
