Experience to help rugby this season
return to nationals this year.
Michelle Olpin, who played four years for USU, took over the head coaching responsibilities when the position was vacated this year.
Olpin will be working with a much different group of players than the team that went 13-1 in the fall and 11-3 in the spring, but suffered a disappointing loss to San Jose State in the first round of the Pacific Coast Playoffs.
The team lost over half of the players, including Erika Hansen, who left on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Tara Earl, who was deployed to Iraq.
The team will only have 12 players returning from last year’s roster, which qualified for the Pacific Coast Playoffs. Six of the 12 returning players were on the team that finished fifth at nationals two years ago.
But the key to the team’s success this year will be the development of the rookies.
“For the most part, we’ve been really lucky,” team captain Whitney Doe said. “Most of the rookies have been catching on really well.”
Qualifying for nationals is the team’s main objective this year, Doe said, and the talent level is there, so with enough dedication, the team could make it to the Elite Eight like they did two years ago.
Doe, along with Lissa Woolf, Sara Gilmore and Hayley McMillan, will lead a strong forward pack. The backs are young and inexperienced, but feature the team’s best all-around player, Brooke Lambert. The group of b acks will also be bolstered when veteran Bryn McMillan returns from an ACL injury in October.
A lot of the players on the team played their first competitive rugby game when they faced Colorado earlier this year in the Jackalope Tournament.
“After they got their feet wet, they played really well,” Lambert said. “I think if we make it past the fall season and keep the rookies there, we will rely on them to help.”
USU dropped the first two games of the tournament to Colorado and Colorado State, but rebounded to beat Nebraska 26-0 in the final game of the tournament. Lambert and Olpin said they think the momentum will carry over and are confident going into their next game against BYU at home on Saturday.
“We haven’t lost to BYU in three or four years,” Olpin said, “and we’re looking forward to a win on Saturday.”