Women’s rugby club confident heading into season opener
The first true test for the optimistic, but inexperienced Utah State University women’s rugby club comes Saturday in Pocatello, Idaho, at a tournament scheduled to start at 10 a.m.
Expected to be at the tournament along with USU is Idaho State University, a Salt Lake City club and Montana State University. The team USU is most worried about is Salt Lake, senior Lauren Dreitzler said.
“It’s always competitive,” she said. “We win and lose about the same amount against each other. They have a good team, but we have a lot of youth and that gives us a good advantage over them.”
ISU and MSU don’t pose as much as a threat as Salt Lake does, Dreitzler said, when talking about last year’s game with Salt Lake.
But from other teams view, the Aggies might not pose much of a threat either. USU only has six or seven returning players from last year and about 25 rookies. While others see this scenario as bad news, USU looks at it with enthusiasm, junior Michele Olpin said.
“We have substitutions for every position, giving us two full teams,” she said.
USU also doesn’t have to worry about the new players carrying on the lack of commitment that was seen in last year’s team, junior Lindsey Lovell said. Last year USU often practiced with only eight players.
This season the Aggies are applying the principle of no practice, no play, which is making a difference in their team unity, Lovell said.
“I think we’ll win all our games this season if the girls stay committed,” Lovell said. “I really think we’ll take it all this year.
USU received its first look at the team in a game-type scenario last weekend when the Aggies scrimmaged themselves, so they have little to base this season on. But the scrimmage excited and prepared everyone for the tournament, Olpin said.
-csmo@cc.usu.edu