Elegant Violence

Summertime and the livings easy...

2008-06-05T18:22:00.000-07:00

School's been out for a few weeks now and I'm just sitting back and relaxing. As I already blogged, we lost at Sweet 16s but I did make it out to Stanford to watch the DI championship games at Final Fours. The Stanford vs. Penn State game was a bit boring to be honest. I've really enjoyed watching Penn State the previous two years but this year it was like neither team could turn it on. It felt more like a game of attrition. As for the Cal vs. BYU game, that was more than a bit boring. Cal won and did so while playing some very pretty rugby but there was nothing truly exciting. At least the women's game had some nailbiting moments even if neither team was playing its best. In the men's game, Cal seemed to score before I even knew the game had started. In a championship there should at least be some chance that either team could win but BYU might as well not been on the field for all the fight they put up.

As for end of the year news, we had our banquet and said goodbye to our seniors. We also had officer elections and yours truly is the new president. Whee. Time for some tough love.

For anyone who's interested, I think we and the All Blues are putting together a joint 7s team. If you happen to be in the Berkeley area and want in, then contact me and I'll get you in touch with the right people. They'll be playing in the Palo Alto 7s tournament and the Midnight Rugby tournament in Las Vegas.

Lastly, a friend of mine and a former Cal player is looking to put together a team in the South Bay around San Jose. If that sparks some interest, lemme know and I'll get you in contact with her.

Sweet 16's in Alburquerque, NM

2008-04-22T10:01:00.000-07:00

It was a long weekend but so worth it. We arrived late Thursday night and had a walk through Friday morning. The rest of the day was spent either resting, doing homework or watching some of the other games.

Our first game was bright and early on Saturday against Texas A&M. We lost but honestly, that was probably the hardest our team has every played. We played good defense but our problem was ball possession. They were good ruckers and we...well, we were not. When we did have ball in hand we were able to do things but it just didn't happen that often. Despite all the hype of the speed in their backline, I think we had more and they weren't able to run around us. They were able to bang it up the middle and their scrum was really good. Our number 1 said that the prop she went against was probably the best she had ever scrummed against. They did get tired in the second half and their backs did not want to tackle, which helped us come back and score two tries. Overall it was a game to be proud of. We lost but we kept in the game the whole time.

The game against Vassar on Sunday was not nearly as fun. Our team was tired and it showed. They just looked like they wanted it more. We did score 12 points again in the second half so it's not like we gave up. It was interesting to watch the Vassar team. It was pretty much a team of the 8, 9, and 10. The centers either were skipped or passed the ball back to the flyhalf. The back three could run but their catching was not up to par. I like that our team has skills across the board, not just in one particular player. Their flyhalf was very impressive though. She had good field vision and could kick.

We lost our two games but I'm still proud of our team. Our coach gave us a breakdown of the experience we had in our starting 15 and it's obvious that we're a very young team. We had only two four year players and only 3 or 4 three year players. Everyone else was either a first year vet or a rookie. I think that's pretty impressive especially compared to last year. We had a team stacked with third and fourth year players last year and high expectations to go with but we still didn't make it to Sweet 16's. This year with a team, that quite frankly did not impress me when I first saw them play Santa Cruz in January, we made it. So even though it's over and even though we didn't win, I'm satisfied. I think we put ourselves in a good place for next year.

As a whole our league did pretty well. Stanford is in the Final Four, both Davis and Chico made it to Elite Eight, and we most likely maintained the ranking we had coming in. The Cal men, of course, owned and St. Mary's also made it to Final Four. Unfortunately, they will be playing each other in the semifinals.

As for the actual event, I liked that everyone was in one place but I did have some grips.

Medical prepardness: One of our girls had an ashma attack that required her to go to the hospital. It took 30 minutes from the time we told the event staff that she needed an ambulance to the time the ambulance got there. That's just ridiculous. Yes, they were doing on site stuff to help her but in a tournament that has 48 teams playing a high contact sport there should be an ambulance waiting on site. It's just stupid not to have that.

Event gear: They made pink shirts. Pink? Seriously? I bought one because that was the only medium left but the only time I'll ever wear it is when everything else is in the laundry hamper. I understand that some people may like the pink but they should have ordered more of the green and blue. Also, order more smalls next time! We may play rugby but that does not mean we're all of amazon proportions. In the end we're young fit women in college, which means that when the shirts are in men sizes that most of us will probably wear small or medium.

Stagger the games: I would have liked to watch the Chico vs. Penn State game but I couldn't because it was at the same time as our game against Vassar.

Make shaded seating: The players want to watch other games but we can't sit out in the sun all day without the sun draining us for our own games.

Countdown to Sweet 16s

2008-04-16T01:07:00.000-07:00

We're leaving Thursday evening for Albuquerque (Seriously, Albuquergue? A balloon park, wtf?). Between now and then I have several chapters to read, people I need to talk to, laundry to do, classes to sign up for, a resume to write and oh yea...a midterm. Wheee. Not that I'm not extremely excited. I'm just going to be running around like a chicken with it's head cut off until I get on that plane.

We'll arrive late Thursday night. On Friday, we'll have a short walk through and then just rest and maybe catch a game or two. Our game against Texas A&M will be at 9 o'clock Saturday morning. Whether we win or lose, our second game will be on Sunday at 8:30 am. Our opponent will either be Navy or Vassar.

Everyone has been going really hard at practice which is nice to see. We're just trying to do some last minute tune ups.

I don't quite know how to feel about Texas A&M. We are clearly the underdogs but that doesn't bother me. Honestly, we face some of the hardest teams in the nation during regular league season so I don't think they'll have anything that we haven't already seen. It will be whether or not we come out hard, and play smart. I'm not saying they're not good. I'm sure they are but between Stanford, Chico, Davis and even Reno and Humboldt, we've seen heart, speedy backs, scary forwards, and everything else. We've seen it; we know how to and can deal with it; we just have to do it. With us you never quite know which team is going to take the field. Anyways, like our coach said, we have to win because it just wouldn't be Sweet 16s without us playing a military school.

I'm really interested in how the whole 48 teams in one place is going to work. It's cool that they put everyone together. I never understood why they made half the the DI teams go to one state and the other half to another but I'm also not entirely sure that 48 teams is manageable. I'm ready for it to be a bit chaotic.

Good luck to all the NorCal schools!
Good luck to the Cal men, Stanford, Chico, and Davis!
Also, positive thoughts for Santa Cruz!
And for Claremont because that's my hometown!
And for UCLA because I'll always be a SoCal girl!
Finally, lots of good luck to US! Yay, we're going to nationals!

Now that I've used enough exclamation points to rival a middle school girl talking about her first crush, I'm going to go study. Tchau tchau.

Season and Playoffs Recap

2008-04-11T15:36:00.001-07:00

Okay so I've been really bad about blogging. It's just not a priority. Oh well. Moving on...

We had our home game against Humboldt on Witter Field. We won and it was pretty. It was too long ago for me to remember the score or even whether we won by a small margin or blew them out of the water. It was good to win in front of all the family and friends that turned out. We had our alumni banquet afterwards and raised a good amount of money which is always a good thing.

Our final game of the season was against Chico. We played in Memorial Stadium. We lost, and badly. Chico was firing on all cylinders and we just couldn't stop them from breaking through. We got better as the game went on but that meant there were longer breaks between them scoring on us, not a comeback.

Over spring break, we went up to Canada to play UBC. They beat us. It was freezing, windy and rainy but I played the entire second half, which is the longest I've played since coming back so I was happy.

Playoffs were this past weekend. We handily beat University of Oregon. Things were a little slow in the first half but we turned it on in the second half. It was a good game and I was impressed by their behavior after the game. They came over as a team to where we were stretching to congratulate us and wish us luck. It was very classy. I talked to one of their players for a bit and I feel sorry for their team. There are only 3 teams in their league and so it is hard for them to get games. Then they have to come down for playoffs where they get repeatedly beat. It's not that they're bad. I think it's just that we have more playing opportunities. OSU didn't even show so Chico got a bye.

We played Chico the second day for seeding going into Sweet 16s. We lost terribly. We had about zero ball possession. We just were not on our game. It was not pretty to watch. It was also not the most friendly game. There were a lot of uncalled penalties, such as playing the ball on the ground. There were so many in fact, that the touch judges talked to the ref at half time. Also, one girl took a swing at our center and another girl clearly played our wing when she didn't have the ball. I have a lot of respect for Chico. They play well and with heart and off the field they are generally one of the friendlier teams in our league. In the most recent games against them, I would say things have been pretty clean which is why I don't quite get what happened on Saturday. When you're winning by that large of a margin there is no reason not to play cleanly. Now I wasn't on the field so maybe there is stuff that I don't know about but that's how I see it.

Regardless of that loss, we're going to Sweet 16s! Yay! The team has been working really hard this past week. We're playing Texas A&M so that should be interesting.

On another note, Goff seems to think that we don't belong at Sweet 16s. To this I say, we earned our spot. We won the game that we needed to win. We have no control over the seeding. Whether or not it was "fair" to one team or another, we did what we had to do to get to nationals and I'm damn proud of my team for doing that. As for Goff's pet team, BYU, I don't think there is enough information yet to make a good judgement on them. They lost to Stanford and then won against Reno. Neither of those results are all that ground breaking. No, they did not lose to Stanford by all that big of a margin but neither did we when we played them in league. Truth is, Stanford is still good but not the team they've been the past couple of years. As for beating Reno, I saw a bit of the game and while I liked that BYU was flexible on offense, nothing that they were doing was all that remarkable. They look like another good, solid team. No more and no less. They don't deserve to be 8th in the seedings for regional playoffs but until they play a league season against competitive teams I don't think they should be touted as one of the best teams around as Goff does.

Two games, Two losses

2008-02-24T18:33:00.000-08:00

We played UC Davis on Treasure Island last weekend and lost hard. The final score was 20-5. Thankfully we did score one try but, after how well the team had been playing, it was still a disappointment. We just couldn't seem to get any momentum going. There would be a good individual effort but then we would lose the ball. It didn't help that there were some questionable calls made and that the Davis pack couldn't seem to stay on their feet in the scrum. I've never understood the point of diving on the engage. It's incredibly painful to hit the ground face first and there's a huge risk of injury. If a player can't scrum, don't have them in the tight five. It's common sense. At the end of the day though, we just didn't play our game and Davis took full adventage of that.

Yesterday against Stanford was a whole different story. We still lost but the final score was 19-10. We played well and we played together. The ref kept a tight game but I think that helped us, to be honest. Both sides had plenty of penalties called on them but I think we dealt with it better. Of course it would have been nice to get another win but considering that Stanford just recently beat Chico by a spread of 20 some odd points, I'm pretty proud of our team.

Bringing things up to speed...

2008-02-12T14:48:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since I last updated. In that span of time we had our clinic with UCSC, had Double Days, played in the Stanford Invitational, beat UN Reno in our first league match, and had a scrimmage with Stanford. Needless to say, it's been a busy month or so.

We kicked off Double Days with the clinic and game against UCSC. We lost. We got better as the game went on but in the end we still lost. A week later though, it was a whole 'nother story. We came in second at the Stanford Invitational, losing in the final game to Stanford. It was definitely a confidence builder to see the team come together and beat some pretty good sides. Then we went to Reno for the first game of the season. We won by a nice margin but Reno put up one hell of a fight. They played down a couple of players almost the entire game so their efforts were pretty impressive. They might not have numbers but they do have heart. Finally, this past Saturday, we played a Stanford mostly B side. We lost but not too badly and some of our key players weren't on the field. But guess what?! I played! It was only for about 10 minutes because I was still recovering from the lovely 103.7 degree fever I had a few days before and because I managed to sprain my ankle but still! I was pleased and it felt good to be back after over a year.

This weekend is our game against UC Davis. We'll be playing on Treasure Island and hopefully the good weather will holdout. TI in the rain and wind is no fun.

Sweet!

2007-12-12T00:21:00.000-08:00

It looks like Sweet 16s will be New Mexico and then Final Fours will be at Stanford again. I like that all the teams will be together for Sweet 16s, not split into 2 places like in the past few years. I always thought that was a bit odd. Hopefully, the fields in New Mexico will be full sized. The ones in Florida were so short that you could make penalty kicks from the half. Bit ridiculous. This whole thing does seem a bit unfair to the teams on the East Coast but its a pretty sweet deal for us. Not having to include a possible trip to Florida in our budget will make things so much easier, especially if we're going to Canada over Spring Break like I hope we are.

Hesitation...

2007-11-20T18:09:00.000-08:00

I leave Brazil on Saturday. Double days are in January and then it's straight into league season. I'm going back to rugby. I know I'm going back but every once in awhile I have to wonder if it's wise for me to continue playing or at least to attempt to play this coming semester.

I tore my ACL back in January and had surgery in March. It's been about 7 months, a reasonably long enough time that my playing rugby again isn't an absolutely insane idea. The catch is that those 7 months have not been filled with dedicated rahab. I was moderately good about it over the summer but once I got here rehab was pushed down the priority list. There was a language barrior to overcome, a new city to explore, creepy men to avoid, a family to live with, and new people to make friends with. It doesn't help that there is not a patch of grass in Salvador and the cobblestone sidewalks are definitely a no go for running with a post ACL surgery knee. I've jogged a few times on a treadmill but nothing too serious or all that regular. I just wonder if I'm setting myself for a retorn ACL. I don't think I can put into words just how that would suck. Going through it once was okay, not terrible, not great and I dealt with it. Going through it again would just be frustrating, maddening, heartbreaking, and a myriad of other not so positive adjetives.

This is of course all hinging on the assumption that my PT will clear me. I haven't seen her in months so I have no clue what she'll say. It's not as if the knee is bad. Daily walking is fine and I know it's a lot better now than it was when I first arrived but I still get twinges every now and then. Plus, I'm fairly certain I'm still a wee bit gimpy looking when I run at higher speeds. Again, I haven't really been able to test that out here. I guess I'll just have to wait and see but I've never been a very patient person.

Just my luck...

2007-10-08T14:44:00.000-07:00

The Rugby World Cup is happening in France but I'm in the ONE country outside of the US that isn't crazy about rugby! It's not like rugby isn't in South America. Argentina is in the quarterfinals! But Brazil is too damn good at soccer to care about rugby. Argh!

And in other non-rugby but oh-so-exciting news, Cal is #2 in the nation for football. Of course it has to happen during the season that I decide to go abroad.

Bad timing. Boo.

Complete change of subject but I found a site with really good rugby videos. It's called rugbydump.com. Granted it only covers the men's game but that lack of good judgement can be overlooked for the sake of quality videos of trys, tackles and other fun stuff all in one spot.

In Brasil...

2007-09-27T18:46:00.001-07:00

I'm going to be pretty silent this semester because well, it's kinda hard to report on team doings when you're not even in the country. I'm studying in Brasil this semester and it's amazing but I do miss rugby and my rugby girls. There was a poster for men's rugby in the airport but that's the only evidence I've seen of the sport in this country. Here it's basically soccer, soccer, and more soccer.

Next year hopefully...

2007-07-23T13:39:00.000-07:00

Several of my teammates went to the Alex Williams Rugby Camp. From everything they said it sounded like the camp was pretty amazing. They were exhausted and sunburnt but I think they learned a lot. I mean what's not to appreciate about one-on-one tutoring from Kathy Flores, Laura Cabrera, Ashley English, and other Eagle players. I'm hoping that the camp becomes an annual thing and that maybe I can attend next summer.

I'm cleared to jog!

2007-06-22T10:42:00.001-07:00

Hey! That's us!

2007-06-16T02:45:00.000-07:00

Goff just posted Plenty to Play for in U23 Tier B, an article about the U23 NASC. The article mentions a Chico player and features a picture of her in a game. The team she's playing against is us. For some reason I find this amusing. It's always fun to read an article and see the name of someone I know or a picture. It might be even funnier since our presence in the picture is inadvertent. I can even make out which teammates are in it.

It's amazing how rapidly my knee is healing. I am extremely impatient but when I sit back and think about it, it really does amaze me. It's been a little under 3 months since my surgery and my knee has stopped being something that I constantly think about. I don't have quite the same extension as I once did but considering that my knees naturally hyperextended to the extreme that's not necessarily a bad thing. Now I'm just a couple of degrees hyperextended instead of 5 or 6 degrees. My flexion is also much improved. While I still can't kneal down on my knees I can now sit crosslegged with no difficulty. Most importantly the limp is entirely gone when I walk and I'm back to my normal movement. I'm really hoping that the next time I have PT that I'll be cleared to jog. I tested it out the other day (told you I'm impatient) and it wasn't too bad. I could definitely feel my knee and it felt like I was favoring it a bit but besides a little soreness the next day, my knee wasn't really that grumpy. It didn't buckle or spasm like I was afraid it would. Plus, I'm also not sure if I was jogging differently because of my knee or if it had been so long that I didn't remember what it felt like to move at a speed faster than a snail's pace. Sadly, that little jog made me pretty sore. My lower half isn't used to exercise anymore. Getting back into rugby shape is going to be interesting.

Excuse me?!

2007-05-19T13:43:00.000-07:00

I know that some other blogs have covered this already but it annoyed me enough to post about it too. College Rugby America is a website that claims to be "the official site of Women's College Rugby." On the righthand side of the page is an announcement saying that "the nation's first college women's rugby game will be played this fall." Drop the act. Yes, you can go on and on about the linguistic technicalities of "varsity rugby," "college rugby," "college club rugby," and all the other possible combinations but in the end it's all a bunch of BS. I play college rugby. When I step on the field my jersey says Cal on it. We, the other teams in our league, and the teams across the nation who compete to be at nationals all play college rugby. Don't you dare take away from the commitment we have for this sport. Someday, I hope, there will be NCAA women's rugby but that day isn't here yet, so for now we are college rugby. Plus, I'm a little confused. Are you the home of women's college rugby or the EIU women's rugby page under a different name? I'm sure EIU has some great athletes but they don't have the only ruggers who exemplify "courage, character, accountability, integrity and sportsmanship" while maintaining a 3.0 or above GPA. And you can applaud your so-called record breaking winning season all you want but until you play against the best (Penn State, Stanford, Army, Chico, etc.) your program cannot claim to be the best.

More could be said but not anything fit for a PG movie. Plus, I think my coach checks in on me every once in awhile. *waves* Oh and on that note, I was recently informed that my blog came up in a conversation during Grizzlies a weekend ago. *waves again* I'm still surprised people read this but thanks.

Interesting Links

2007-05-12T15:52:00.000-07:00

Alex Williams, assistant coach to the All Blues and former Eagle, is starting a women's rugby camp this summer.
www.williamsrugbycamps.com
It's a three day affair and some elite players are going to be coaching. Looks like a great opportunity for anyone trying to up their game.

Article from SF Chronicle titled Stanford women ready to rumble says "Cal's women's team is nothing special." Yes, I know we don't have the million titles that the men's team does but still, that's a bit harsh.

Final Fours 2007

2007-05-06T15:22:00.000-07:00

Final Fours were this past Friday and Saturday. Friday had the semifinals for the DI men and women. The first game was Stanford vs. Davis and unsurprisingly Stanford won easily. Stanford just played their game and Davis simply wasn't able to do much about it. Then it was Penn State vs. New Mexico. New Mexico had heart and put up a fight but Penn State stayed focused and the exploited any mistake that New Mexico made. After the women's semifinals were the men's games with Cal vs. Navy and BYU vs. Penn State. Cal and BYU both won. Cal made it clear fairly early on that they were going to win. BYU did not. At the half it looked like it could go either way and it was a really messy game. Both sides were dropping the ball, knocking it on, and doing other random stuff. In the end though BYU pulled it out and so we ended with the same lineup for the DI championship games as last year.

Saturday were the championship games for DI and DII men and women. I wasn't able to see the DII games but I do know that Iowa won the women's game. Condolences to UCSC. Not that 2nd place in the nation is something to be ashamed of. After the DII games was the Stanford vs. Penn State game. The final score was 21-22 with Penn State barely winning. The score does not reflect the game very accurately. Penn State killed Stanford for most of the game and then at the very end they just fell off and let Stanford score again and again. I'm not sure what happened. Maybe the subs weren't able to play at the same level as the starters or maybe Penn State thought they had it in the bag and could relax. I'm not sure but they almost let Stanford take it away from them just like last year. The only thing that saved them was the clock. For the first 65 minutes of the game, Penn State was very impressive. Their forwards were disciplined and their whole team played amazing defense. There were some amazing tackles. Penn State layed out a Stanford flanker on multiple kickoffs right in front of us. Plus, Penn State's fullback is damn good. Their entire back three were fast but you could tell that she was the brains behind the operation. After the women's game, was the men's championship game which Cal took easily. The first score came only a minute and half into the game and they just kept coming. I expected more of a showing from BYU but Cal was able to keep them from doing much of anything the entire game. So Cal is the champion for what seems like the 100th time.

Just a small sidenote but how impressive is it that Penn State had both teams in the Final Fours? Wouldn't it be cool to win it the same year? I believe one school has done it before.

WTF?!

2007-04-30T13:46:00.000-07:00

Final Fours are in a week and the line up for D1 women's is interesting. Stanford is there, of course. Penn State too. The two surprises are New Mexico and Davis. I hadn't heard much about New Mexico before now but congrats to them. As for Davis, my feelings are mixed.

I have too many things to say to make a coherent paragraph so I'm just going to list.

1. I'm bitter. Yes, Davis beat us fair and square. However, they got a much easier path to Final Fours than we did last year. We played Air Force, the West #1, on the first day and if we had won we would have played another military school. Davis got to play Virginia and UNI. I'm not saying those were easy games but I don't think it quite holds up to two military schools.
2. If any team from our league besides Stanford deserves to be in Final Fours it's Chico. They're better than Davis but their pool was ridiculous. It had three teams ranked #1 in their league, including Penn State who has been in the final game the past two years, and then Chico who is #2 in PCRFU. How is that fair?
3. PCRFU should have 4 spots in Sweet 16s. Stanford and Chico are consistently two of the top teams in the country. We're good and Davis has proven themselves up to par too. Take seeds away from the South. Why do they have two seeds? They got killed last year and they got killed this year.
4. Why does SoCal only have 1 seed? Again, the South has two. Are you really telling me that the South has better teams than UCSB and UCSD?
5. I don't mean to totally bash on the South but their results both last year and this year demonstrate that their league is just not up there with the rest of the leagues. Every league had at least 1 team advance to the Elite 8 except SoCal and the South. Fold the South into a different league or make them DII. Maybe in a few years they'll be able to compete with the best but right now, they're not cutting it.
6. On Friday, it's going to be Stanford vs. Davis. For the first time in my life I might just root for Stanford.

Good luck to everyone! Yes, even Davis. May the best team win.

Not the ending we wanted...

2007-04-09T10:19:00.000-07:00

Pacific Coast playoffs were this weekend. We played OSU on Saturday and won by an good margin. We came out hard, scored first and kept scoring. There were some things that needed to be tweaked at half time but overall it was a good game.

Sunday was our game against Davis and it was an agonizing game to watch. We played hard and with a lot of heart but we just couldn't get anything going. There were good individual moments but we couldn't string them enough of them together to result in points. We did score at the very end which was good but this game was a heartbreaking end to our run.

This has been a difficult season and in some ways I'm relieved that it's over. It's just been a bit emotionally draining, for me at least and I think for other people on the team as well. We still had some beautiful moments. The fall was great with a fun bunch of rookies and we did well at Stanford 10s and Scrum by the Sea. The league season also went well. We got off to a slow start against Stanford and Chico but we improved and beat Humboldt, Davis, and Reno. So it's not like this year has been dismal but it wasn't the glory season that we thought it could have been. We had so many amazing returning players and after our successes from last year, all the vets and especially the seniors had high hopes coming into this year. Injuries really took their toll though. We had broken bones, concussions, and torn ligaments. We've already had three players have surgery this year and there are several who are looking at possible surgery this summer. The injuries took several of our star players out of contention and just made it hard to have a consistent lineup.

I simply can't believe it's over. The entire team is in a bit of a daze. I don't even want to imagine the rugby team without the seniors. I'm really going to miss them.

Here's to a great year despite the ending. Here's to a well deserved break. And here's to coming back bigger and better than ever next year!

Davis, you better do something with this opportunity. Soak it up because next year, Sweet 16s are ours!

Wish us luck!

2007-04-05T20:33:00.000-07:00

Because playoffs are this weekend! I admit that I'm nervous. We've been looking good in practice but we're really gonna have to bring it.

Besides our own games, I'm really excited to watch the Chico/Stanford match. Chico has the momentum but I'm sure Stanford would love nothing more than to take back the number 1 spot.

In other news, I'm off crutches! Actually I've been off them for about a week. I walk with a bit of a limp but my range of motion is good and my knee is relatively pain free. I think my doctor may have a slightly unorthodox approach. I just saw my physical therapist for the first time and she about had a heart attack when she realized that I wasn't wearing a brace. I've gotta admit I'm glad my doctor is this aggressive. My leg has already atrophied some. I can't imagine what it would have looked like if I'd worn a brace for a month.

Cal vs. All Blues

2007-03-25T15:55:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how differently a team can play on any given day. The caliber of play this past Thurs. night against the All Blues was so much higher than when we played St. Mary's. We lost but we pressured them like mad and we even scored. There were some amazing individual moments. There were great punches, good decision making, and one of our girls juked Laura Cabrera...TWICE. We also played well together. Something clicked and it just looked smooth. Plus, no injuries!

This game gave me a lot more confidence going into playoffs. I have been worried about numbers and how we would deal with having some of our regulars in the gimp club but this game showed that we can still play with the best of them. Spring break will give everyone a breather and then hopefully we'll come back ready to crank it out.

I had my surgery Tues. and it went well. It wasn't the 3 day misery that I thought it would be. In fact the worst pain was in my back from having to lie with my leg up for so long. I'm on crutches but I can already put some weight on it and the swelling has gone down some. Now if only I could get all the yellow streaks from the iodine off.

I'm not a big fan of the new erugbynews.com. I liked the simple layout of Goff.

Cal vs. St. Mary's

2007-03-20T00:50:00.000-07:00

The break between league games and playoffs is both a blessing and a curse. It's nice to have that break so that people can rest up and take care of injuries but at the same time it makes it difficult to stay focused, which is why we scheduled the game against St. Mary's. We put out a mostly B-side squad with a lot of people. It was a chance to get people more playing time and to throw some people into new positions. Unfortunately, injuries have hit us pretty hard this year, which means the more depth we can develop at each position going into playoffs the better off we'll be.

It was a fun game to watch even though we ended up only scoring one try and losing by a large margin. There was more cohesion than I had seen in previous B-side games and a lot of people gave some awesome individual performances. Plus, there was spirit. Even when they got scored on, they kept their heads up and continued working. They adapted and there was a huge improvement from the beginning of the game to the end. Overall, I'm just glad that the B-side got some time on the field and that they were able to hold it together without A-side starters on the field with them.

Cal vs. Reno

2007-03-11T21:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our last league game and it was a nice way to end the regular season. Not only did we play on Witter but we also shutout Reno 39-0. We had control of the ball most of the game and there was some beautiful continuity. We did have some diffifulty with penalties though which contributed to us being on our end of the field a bit more than I had expected. Reno fought with everything they had which is to be respected. In the end it was a great game for all our friends and family to see. Plus, we were able to rotate most of the seniors onto the field so that they had the chance to play on Witter. The only true downside was that we had a number of people hurt. This year has just been full of injuries. Luckily we have some time before playoffs for everyone to rest up and heal.

I would like to make a correction to a statement I made in a previous post. Apparently, this was the first time we had played on Witter in at least five years, not the first time ever.

Apologies, Jealousy and Miracles

2007-03-05T00:13:00.000-08:00

Alright so I said that I wouldn't comment further on the subject but hey, a girl can change her mind. I understand that I've upset some people. Sorry. I have a tendency to put my foot in my mouth. I would just like to clarify a few things. First, I love this game, respect this league, and give props to every girl who steps out on the field and goes balls out. Those are the people I admire on my team and on every team. I also will give credit where credit is due. The games that we have lost this season are games where we were simply outplayed. Plain as that. I believe that we have improved drastically in the last two games and if our game against Davis is any proof, we've got heart like no other but we did lose soundly in the first two games. Secondly, maybe I shouldn't have generalized to entire teams being dirty. It was a lazy statement. What I should have said is that there have been instances that I highly disapprove of but those most likely have to do with individuals. All teams, including my own, have individuals who do questionable things and those players can create a bad rep for the team. I shouldn't have labeled whole teams but honestly I didn't expect anyone would read this and so it never occured to me that I should be more specific. To the accusation that my team plays dirty, I would say that I believe we play a fairly clean game but you are free to form your own opinion of us. Also, I don't equate injuries with playing dirty. I don't blame anyone for my torn ACL. I went into a tackle like I had a million times before and for some reason it popped. Injuries happen in a contact sport. I get that. So it wasn't the injury count that led me to believe that the game was dirty it was the verb "punched."

Once again I apologize for giving offense. It was not my intention. Now that I know that people might actually read what I babble, I'll try to edit/clarify better. However, if you are going to read this please remember that I am human with all the flaws that entails. So if I write something stupid feel free to correct me but don't get so angry that you lose sleep. Nothing that I write will ever be so important that it should envoke that much of an emotional response.

Good luck to all in playoffs. Hope to see you at Sweet 16s.

Now that hopefully that is over and done with and everyone is reasonably satisfied, I have three completely different points. One is a rant, one is a boo and the last is a huge but tentative hooray.

First, the rant. Saturday's a Rugby Day credited some photos of the Stanford vs. Chico match to the CSU Chico newspaper so I went to the site in hopes that there'd be more photos. No such luck but there was a pdf file of the front of the most recent issue. Know what was on the front page? The game! With a gigantic photo! I bet we'd have to win nationals to make it into the Daily Cal. Even then there'd probably be a huge article about the men winning for the bajillionth time and at the end it would say something like, "And the women's team also won that day." I'm jealous.

Second, the boo. We have news that the third seed from our league will most likely be facing a military school for Sweet 16s. Basically if we make Sweet 16s, that's us. Damn. They're just so bloody fit.

Now for the tentative hooray. Our game against Reno is this coming weekend. It's our only home game of the season and we're scheduled to play on Witter Rugby Field! FINALLY! I'm a bit bitter that I won't actually get to play there but I'm truly happy for our seniors. It will be so cool for the seniors to play their last league game on campus on the actual home rugby field.

You're kidding right?

2007-03-03T11:22:00.000-08:00

Some people take my words a bit too seriously. I am a college student blogging for myself about a sport I enjoy. If other people read what I write great but I tend to write my posts quickly and I don't go back to edit them later. Therefore, my posts should be taken with a grain of salt. Also, please remember that these are my words and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of people or groups I am associated with. Finally, I take offense with the accusation that I am not being truthful. Truth is subjective (Don't believe me? Ask anyone on the losing end of history). There are multiple sides to every story. This is my blog and so it will tell my side. You are welcome to disagree but just because you don't like what I said doesn't mean that I am intentionally lying. It simply means that we have different opinions.

Take it or leave it people. If you don't like what I write, don't read it. My opinion really shouldn't mean that much anyways.

And on that note, have a wonderful Saturday!
Besos to all, even those who don't like me!

Stop talking about the men!

2007-02-28T14:09:00.000-08:00

Both the ref report and Goff, who I suspect got it from the ref report, credit the Cal men's team with lifting our spirits during halftime of the Davis match. If it were true, I'd be fine with it being mentioned but that's the thing. It's NOT true. I know that at other schools the men's and women's teams have close ties and that sometime the guys help coach the girls and that the teams often party together. That is not the case at Cal. We practice all over the city of Berkeley because we often can't get grass time on campus. We consider Treasure Island to be our home field. And yes, we have to pay a bridge toll to get there. Once or twice a year we're allowed to use the men's scrum machine but we have NEVER played a game on Witter Rugby Field. We're hoping that our game against Reno will happen on Witter but every year we hope that we'll play a game there and it never happens. The women's team would welcome friendlier relations with the men's team but until that happens, STOP talking about the men! It takes away from our achievement. We came back from behind because of our own determination and hard work, not because a few boys showed up.

Injuries & Ref Reports

2007-02-27T14:02:00.000-08:00

Two of Stanford's players, a locke and their starting flyhalf, sustained season-ending injuries this past weekend in the game against Chico. It must have been a brutal game and I'm sure both teams were playing dirty. Chico always does and Stanford did this year in their game against us. This year just seems to be the year of serious injuries for multiple teams.

I really like referee reports when they're informative. I hate the ones that mention all about how the ref was feeling that day and whatnot but only say about two sentences about the game. The ones that I love are the cheesy reports. The one for our game against Davis is over the top. It's hilarious. The ref latched onto the fact that we are the Bears and ran with it. He called one player dangerous like an angry bear and then referred to the rest of the team as den mates. CORNY!

Cal vs. Davis

2007-02-24T17:28:00.000-08:00

We won! It didn't look like we were going to and it did come down to the wire but we won all the same. Davis scored twice on us in the opening minutes but once we buckled down and got our heads in the game we dominated. They did score off a penalty and for a bit we were really suffering from lack of discipline but we had the momentum for most of the game. In the end we won 17-15 and that final try was amazing. We were all on pins and needles hoping and praying that it would happen and then the ball was sent wide, our wing just ran it up the side, and the game was ours. I'm so glad we won. This is the game we needed to win. Last weekend against Humboldt was beautiful but that game didn't mean nearly as much as this one. Stanford is the traditional rival but we also have a rivalry with Davis. They're the team that we battle for a spot at Sweet 16s and it always feels good to win against them.

The blue side match was also a good game. We lost but we were able to score a try and make the conversion kick. Our blue side players are really coming along and some of then are developing at such a fast rate that they are going to be vying for gold side spots soon.

It really was a weekend of upsets. I don't consider our win a complete upset simply because I think that Davis is on about the same level as us but I know that outsiders would have bet on Davis beating us. Also, Chico beat Stanford 25-5 which is a HUGE upset. Of the teams in our league, Chico would be the one to beat Stanford but that they beat them by 20 points is stunning. I think the dynasty is crumbling. Maybe it's a bit premature to be saying that but they aren't as solid as they were before.

UBC

2007-02-23T01:22:00.000-08:00

We played UBC yesterday on Treasure Island. They're a really good team and they shut us out. I'm not sure what the final score was but it was a lot to nothing. The side we put out was interesting though. We rested a lot of our starters because we play Davis on Saturday and we want them ready to go for that. At the same time we couldn't put out our entire B-side because some of them aren't ready to play a team like UBC. Plus, a bunch of people couldn't make it because of classes and midterms. So we put in an odd mix of A-side and B-side players with alumni/All Blues players to fill out our numbers. It was actually really cool to see old friends back on the field and the game looked like a lot of fun to play even if we lost. We got pretty close to scoring a few times but UBC plays a hard, physical game and they were fitter than us by a lot.

The Davis coach was there scouting us. He even taped part of the game. It made me laugh because that was no where near the team we'll be putting out Saturday.

Cal vs. Humboldt

2007-02-18T10:01:00.000-08:00

We trampled! We killed! We WON! And it was beautiful to watch. Something clicked and suddenly there was continuity, ball retention, and everything else we had been lacking at times. The final score was 48-0. We scored more than either Chico or Stanford did on Humboldt and unlike those two teams, we shut them out. The other great thing about the score is that those tries were scored by so many different people on the team. Forwards scored, backs scored, and they were all team tries with beautiful punches and set ups.

We needed this more than anything. The energy was amazing. It is one thing to be told that it is okay to lose the first two games because they were against the two hardest teams in our league but it is an entirely different thing to believe it. This game made people believe. You could almost see the faith and trust form on the field. It carried over into the B-side too. We might have lost 0-12 but Humboldt played most of their A-side and our girls played hard.

Things are looking good and if we take what we did this weekend and improve on it, we are gonna rock Davis.

In other news, my surgery is scheduled for the week before Spring Break. Here's to being hopped up on Vicodin during my week off. Boo, but it will give me plenty of time to recover before heading back into school.

Cal vs. Chico

2007-02-04T17:11:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was our league match against Chico State. For the first game, our B-side combined with Chico's B-side to play Sac State. It was a good and exciting game and our combined side came back big for the win. The A-side game ended on a slightly less spectacular note. Our playing improved greatly over last weekend but we ended up getting shutout 0-29. Now we have a two week break before Humbolt and hopefully in that time we can shake off our two losses and focus on making the improvements that will allow us to play our game.

The MRI confirmed that I have a completely torn ACL and there is some damage to my meniscus too. Watching the games this weekend was painful. I have never wanted to be out on the field more.

Cal vs. Stanford

2007-01-30T00:16:00.000-08:00

I honestly thought that we had a chance this year but it wasn't meant to be. The B-side game went fairly well considering that we played down 1 or 2 players the entire time and that they had U-19 players on the field. The A-side game was disheartening. At the half, the score was 5-9 with Stanford up and then in the second half Stanford just racked up the points. Some of those tries were from lucky bounces and one was from a blatent penalty that wasn't called but even without those points we lost by a wide margin. This is not to say we didn't play well because I believe that we did at times but fitness was a huge factor and they were able to exploit the fact that we had inexperienced wings. I still think we're a good team but it'll all depend on if we can bounce back from this. Chico is coming up and once again I believe we can win. We just have to want it badly and improve on what we did wrong in the Stanford game.

I, however, won't be a part of the bouncing back. About 35 minutes into the B-side game, I went into a tackle and heard a pop coming from my left knee. I went to the ER Saturday evening but they couldn't tell me much of anything. Today, the doctor confirmed what I was afraid of. I have a torn ACL. I haven't had a MRI yet but he manually examined my knee and he's pretty certain that I tore it. It's all just so frustrating because I spent last season on the sidelines and I'm going to spend this season the same way. I was really looking forward to playing this season because I could feel myself improving and now I'm looking at surgery and being unable to play rugby for at least 6 months, if not much longer.

Stanford Tournament

2007-01-25T17:10:00.001-08:00

This past weekend was the Stanford Invitational and it was a great way to gear up for our season. Saturday we played BYU, UCLA, and Oregon. Sunday we played Colorado, Stanford, and Davis. We ended the tournament 3-3 in 4th place but like always there is so much more to the story besides the numbers. BYU was the only game that was a true disappointment. It served as a wake up call and we improved from there. Although we ended up losing the games we had a great comeback against Stanford and the game against Davis was decided by a penalty kick in sudden death. Apparently, our playing caught the attention of others. The Goff called our game against Davis the most exciting of the tournament and the ref also seemed impressed in his report.

I really enjoyed playing. I was scrumhalf for the entire Oregon game and for half of the Colorado game. I played the best I've ever played in the Oregon game. Something clicked and I made some key tackles. Colorado didn't go quite so well but I'm improving and that's always a good feeling. I'm cautiously hoping that I might have found a position home.

This coming weekend is the beginning of league season and I'm so excited. The tournament eased my worries a lot. There is plenty of room for improvement but this past weekend proved that we have the talent, the potential, and most importantly the heart to win. We fielded a bunch of different line ups in each game and they worked. People adapted to each other and that will be key in the next couple of months.

Stanford here we come and we're itching for an upset! I believe, I believe, I believe!

Double Days, Slugs, and Heights

2007-01-13T19:59:00.000-08:00

Double Days were a lot of fun. The twice a day practices made us all sore but we worked hard and also got some good bonding time in. The firewalk was a lot of fun too and a great way to jump start the week.

Saturday was the annual clinic and friendly with UCSC. It was a clear, chilly day and compared with the torential downpour of last year it felt like paradise. The clinic lasted two hours and mostly just covered the basics of passing and such. The game lasted for 90 minutes played in three periods. We started off sloppy but steadily improved over the course of the game and in the last few minutes we were playing beautifully. We won just barely with a score of 27-26 but it's an improvement over last year when we lost. Also, everyone who wasn't a gimp got playing time which was cool and since various people switched positions during double days this was an adjustment game for some.

I have officially become a scrumhalf. I wouldn't be surprised if in a couple of months I got switched to something else but for now I think I'll mainly be put in at scrumhalf. I played during the second period and it felt odd. I'm certainly not used to it. I don't run like a back but I also don't ruck like a forward. It's an weird combo of the two. And I completely flubbed a penalty play which now is semi funny but at the moment made me want to kick myself.

Sunday was our ropes course team bonding event. I got a lot of splinters but like last year I really enjoyed leaping around in the air.

DOUBLE DAYS ARE OVER. Let the season begin!

It's starting...

2007-01-06T00:08:00.001-08:00

And the fun begins...
DOUBLE DAYS!

Goff's Fall Review

2007-01-02T22:24:00.000-08:00

Goff posted his review of the college women's rankings. Not only are we mentioned but we're mentioned positively. Yay!

"And who should we watch out for? That's a tough one to answer but it's clear that Stanford will remain the team to beat going into the New Year. In addition in California UC Santa Barbara and UC San Diego will be very strong and could move up the rankings with some speed.

Someone in the Northwest will emerge, but whether they are better than, say, Chico State or Cal is hard to say. And from the South you wonder if Clemson or Florida or North Carolina might jump ahead."

Finally...

2006-11-17T13:42:00.000-08:00

Goff updated the women's college rankings and finally mentioned us. We're not ranked but at least our rather strong fall season effort has been acknowledged.

"Honorable mention: California could easily be here but may have to wait a little, and the same goes for UCSB and Clemson. Teams that had decent falls but need to step it up a little in whatever competition they can get include Northeastern, Dartmouth, and UMass (who drop out this week because we decided Cornell isn't as good as we thought, so UMass' loss to them has a different meaning), as well as Clemson and possibly Virginia Tech. Watch out for Chico State - enormous will to win, as always - and UC Davis. It's very possible that the winner of this weekend's Oregon v. Oregon State game could break into the Top 20, as well."

Scrum by the Sea

2006-11-13T23:10:00.000-08:00

This weekend was UCSD's Scrum by the Sea tournament. We left Friday morning by bus and then had two teams play Saturday. My team, the Blue team, played in the social division. We played 5 games and went 1-4 so we did not move on to playoffs Sunday. However, I don't think that reflects the improvements that we made from game to game. Our squad was entirely rookies except for myself and two other first year vets. There was some monster tackling and amazing effort. Also, a bunch of players tried positions they had never practiced at, including myself. It was just an amazing learning experience for the rookies and I'm proud of the way they handled it.

Our other squad, the Gold team, won all their games Saturday (UC Davis, CSU Sacramento, UCSD) and moved into playoffs seeded second behind ASU. They then won their matches against Chico (22-21) and UCLA but lost in the final against UCSD 7-24. It would have been nice to win the tournament for the second year in a row but second place ain't bad.

This weekend was really bad as far as injuries. By the second game Sunday, the Gold team roster was severly depleted, which probably contributed to our loss to UCSD. I think we had more injuries in two days than we had all of last year. In total we had a broken collarbone, a broken finger, a severe contusion, a possibly fractured wrist, a concussion, a badly sprained ankle, and several black eyes including one that caused the entire side of the girl's face to swell. On top of that we had two players get really sick. Luckily, we won't play again until league season starts so everyone will have plenty of time to rest and heal.

As for myself, I really enjoyed the weekend on several levels. Although I would have enjoyed at least a couple days warning and a chance to practice, I really enjoyed playing scrumhalf for two games. I think I'm a rather tall scrumhalf but it seems like a fun position and I wouldn't mind having another go at it. I was also a co-captain for the Blue team so it was interesting to be in an offical leadership position. Finally, I got to bond a little better with the rookies and that can never be a bad thing.

Lastly, the All Blues lost to New York in the final at Disney World, which makes me sad. I'm sure they must be a bit disappointed but second place is nothing to be ashamed off and next year they'll just have to come back even harder.

Flawed rankings...

2006-11-01T22:59:00.000-08:00

I have a bone to pick with Goff. He recently updated the rankings for the women's college teams and I find the thinking behind the rankings a little flawed. I'm not saying that my team should be ranked but if we aren't then certain other teams shouldn't be ranked either. We placed second at the Stanford 10's. ASU finished below us and then lost 67-0 to Stanford. So why are they ranked?

Just to clarify, I know that I'm annoyed by something that doesn't really matter and I have no beef with ASU. I'm just a little miffed that ASU gets the benefit of the doubt while other schools with strong programs don't.

Happy Halloween!

2006-10-31T22:14:00.000-08:00

The field we practice at on Tuesdays was super empty tonight. The hordes of elementary school soccer players must have had the night off for trick-o-treating. The All Blues also weren't there. I suppose they needed a break after this weekend. Congrats to them for making the final four!

Stanford 10's

2006-10-29T09:17:00.000-08:00

The Stanford 10's tournament was yesterday and I'm really proud of what we did. I was on the Cal Blue team. We went 3-2 in pool play and then were eliminated by SF Fog in the first game of the playoffs. The Cal Gold team made it all the way to the final but lost to SF Fog. While winning again would have been great, taking second place to a good women's club team is great considering we're at the very beginning of our season. We played some good rugby. Our rookies really stepped up and there are some who are going to be phenomenal. A couple of our forwards also had some amazing runs that resulted in tries, which I think happens more in 10's than 15's. I also have to hand it to the vets who played game after game in the heat, some of them playing out of position, and who really gave it everything they had. Of course, the tournament exposed the things that we have to work on but there was nothing that cannot be fixed. We need to work on spreading out of defense and coming up flat. Also, we need to have one person to a tackle and better communication. However, given that in many of the games the lineup was majority rookies I would say that we did quite well.

The tournament showed me just how much I personally have yet to learn. I played three different positions: inside center, flyhalf, and then outside center. I wouldn't say I was horrible at any of them but I definately am not comfortable as a back yet. Plus, I really need to work on my speed and for some reason my dropkick deserted me for the game I played flyhalf. That was a bit embarrassing. I gave it everything I could though and I have the bruises to prove it, including a right knee that is gigantic and swollen.

On a different note, while I was sitting on the sidelines yesterday I noticed the different styles of the various coaches that were there. There were two teams who had rather loud coaches. The kind that go hopping down the touchline yelling stuff at their players, the other team and the ref. It made me grateful that I don't have a coach like that. I find it rude and I have difficulty respecting such a person. Calm leadership and disappointment work a lot better with me than shouting and anger.

Lastly, congrats to the All Blues for winning yesterday and good luck today!

Big Saturday!

2006-10-27T22:51:00.000-07:00

Stanford 10's are tomorrow! We've got two teams in the tournament with a mix of vets and rookies on each team. I'm super excited. The rookies are finally going to get to play. This is gonna be fun!

Also, the women's club Sweet 16's are this weekend. Good luck All Blues!

Flyhalf again?

2006-10-24T22:20:00.000-07:00

Tonight's practice was a really good one. We ran lines and did some tackling drills. Then we ran general motion although with 10 to a side instead of the usual 15 because we're gearing up for Stanford 10's. We ended up having enough for 3 sides and so we switched off playing each other. They stuck me at flyhalf this time around, which was rather interesting since I haven't played there since early last fall. As much as I like being the utility player I'd like to stick to one position and really get to know it inside and out. I don't feel like I have much experience at any one position. However, as a vet I do find myself talking more and that's always a good thing. Now if I could only get back my tackles...

Beantown

2006-10-22T21:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our game against Beantown's b-side. The All Blues first played at 10. They won but Beantown put up an impressive fight. Our game was scheduled to start at 12 but actually started around 12:15. It was a hard game and we lost 12-27 but we have a lot to be proud of. It was our lack of fitness that eventually allowed them to really pull ahead but that's to be expected since we're at the beginning of our season and they're at the end of theirs. We did the basics well and we pressured their backs into fumbling the ball quite a bit. Now we need to work on solid defense and getting to the break downs in time.

From a personal perspective, I was actually really pleased with this game. I went in at the half at outside center, a position I'd only played once before for about 20 minutes. I missed tackles and was breathless but I was able to do some good things and my legs held up which was what I was really worried about. Everything else can be improved as long as the injuries stay healed.

Falling back in love...

2006-10-17T22:28:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that I've been a bit bummed out about rugby lately. Mostly it's because I'm still battling injuries and it's hard to remain 100% positive when it seems like nothing will ever heal. Also, school has been super stressful what with me getting sick and having midterms so it's been hard to attend practice knowing that I should be studying. Tonight was different. I still have a midterm tomorrow but I'm positively giddy about rugby. Tonight at practice we did tackling and then general motion play for the first time with the rookies. Practice was just a huge confidence booster. My tackling still needs major work but I got a good hit tonight that just reminded me that I can handle it. Then during the general motion play I was the one directing the rookie flyhalf and outside center. It just felt good to be reminded that I know this game and that I still love it. Until today I was really nervous about our game Saturday. Now I'm just excited to get out there and play again. I don't even care that I'll be playing in a position I've never played in before. Maybe I'll love inside center and I'll have finally found a position home. If not, baby 8 is always there for me.

In the beginning...

2006-10-15T15:35:00.000-07:00

This is my second year playing rugby. Before rugby, I figure skated recreationally and took a couple dance classes through my high school. I never would have even considered rugby if my roommate last year hadn't picked up a flyer and brought me to the intro meeting. Even though I've been plagued by several chronic ailments, I'm hoping to play consistently this year.

We had a special vet's practice today because next week we're facing Beantown's b-side. I'm probably going to be an inside center for this game just because we're hurting for numbers. After spending all of last semester as a forward, back plays are completely foreign to me. It was great just to get out and run around though since I was sick the past week. Now off to ice and study!