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Rugby club to nationals
BY ARIK FORSMAN
STATESMAN STAFF WRITER
iISSUE: 78/27
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UMD senior Theresa Kraemer fends off a tackler during a women’s club rugby match last fall. Kraemer and the
Fighting Penguins will be heading to nationals.
For the first time in school history, the UMD women’s rugby club team is headed to the national tournament. After steamrolling through the Midwest Regionals in the fall, the UMD Fighting Penguins are on their way to Albuquerque, N.M., this weekend. On Saturday, they will take on Western Washington University in the first round of the Division II women’s collegiate club championships. “Amazing,” said senior Theresa Kraemer. “We’re making history.”
The Fighting Penguins leave tonight for the tournament. If they play well this weekend, UMD could qualify for the national semi-finals, which are held in Stanford, Calif., on May 3-4. Although they would need to come up with the money to be able to go, UMD is excited to test themselves against the nation’s best teams. “I feel like we’ll probably dominate,” said Kraemer.
Of the eight teams that qualified for nationals, UMD is seeded No. 1. But it wasn’t easy. The team faced a long trip in the fall to qualify for the national tournament. First, they won the Minnesota Division II Collegiate state championship for the third year in a row by beating Gustavus Adolphus College, 19-5. That victory earned them a spot in the 16-team Midwest Regionals.
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Senior Erin Nolan begins to run with the ball.
In the first two rounds of the Midwest Regionals, UMD beat St. Cloud State and UW-Stevens Point by a combined total of 118-0. For the first time in school history, UMD had advanced to the Midwest Final Four. Senior captain Nicole Benja- min said she and co-captain Cassie Karp were thrilled just to reach that milestone. “This is our final year and we were thinking ‘Wow, we get to end our college rugby career at the Midwest Final Four,’” Benjamin said.
But UMD wasn’t done winning yet. In the Midwest Final Four, the Fighting Penguins took care of Grand Valley State, Mich., beating them 17-10. In the championship game, with a ticket to New Mexico on the line for this spring, UMD beat UW-Milwaukee, 38-12, clinching the Midwest championship.
After that game, Benjamin said her team was in shock that they had clinched a spot at nationals. “When that final whistle blew, we freaked out,” she said. “We piled on top of one another crying, hugging, screaming. “Karp honestly had the ‘beauty-queen hands to the face’ shock reaction.”
In rugby, points are gained similarly to football. A try (touchdown) is worth five points; a conversion kick (extra point) is worth two points; and a goal (field goal) is worth three points. Played on a “pitch” (similar to a soccer field), rugby is full contact with almost no padding. “I still feel it’s all a dream,” Benjamin said. “If we win the national title … I’ll collapse
on the pitch as soon as that game ends.”
