Coach Mark Andrade recruited players from Hawaii, California and local all-stars throughout Ohio to bolster a team that included well knowns like Leah Walsh, Hannah Gauthreaux and Rebecca Swainson. The first test came in the form of Mary Washington, USA Rugby’s DII champion from the spring prior.

 

It was a slaughter. The South Euclid team was faster and more mobile than the year before. The scoring distribution was much more even, and the level of talent had ticked up significantly. The disparity in performance was shocking. Viewers indicated that Notre Dame College had the firepower to compete at the DI level, so the Falcons put that theory to the test.

 

On Oct. 4, the Falcons played DI champion Penn State to a 41-17 loss – a respectable result for a DII friendly. Andrade later announced that NDC planned to move to DI in the 2015-16 school year.

 

But the Falcons had some unfinished business and entered the DII fall championship as the top seed. In a rematch of the 2013 ACRA final, Notre Dame College took on Winona for the title, and won convincingly, 45-10. There’s one more to-do before NDC graduates to DI: Beat the spring champion in the DII national championship on May 9.

 

We like the Falcons in 2014 because they managed intense change so well. In the beginning of the year, the squad was a little lopsided and suffering from attrition, but still kept playing (and bagging titles, including ACRA’s DII 7s championship). When the team convened for the fall season, there were so many new players, varying in age and experience, and the young leadership held it together and kept everyone moving in the right direction. It’s pretty incredible considering the dramatic change that can evolve in a new, scholarship-fueled varsity program, and Notre Dame College handled it with grace.