The Midwest Girls Championships kicks off Saturday at the Moose Rugby Grounds in Elkhart, Ind.

It's an interesting mix of teams because teams from Wisconsin, where their main season is in the fall, come to compete with teams active in the spring. 

DSHA and Catholic Memorial, big rivals in the Badger State, come into Midwests looking for a trophy and gearing up for the national championship slates for May in Cottage Grove, Wisc.

Michigan's Sparta-Rock has been building nicely on what was a really strong season in 2022. They posted a solid record (4-1-1) at Tropical 7s and have posted some good wins. The weather, of course, has been horrendous so there's more rugby to be played.

A strong St. Joseph's Academy team leads a Ohio contingent that also includes Perrysburg and Brunswick. St. Joe's is 5-0 in league play in the single-school competition, while Perrysburg is 2-2 in the club division. 

"The girls are playing well together," said Head Coach Mary Wunderle. "We have not had any easy matches and we don't expect any easy matches to come our way for the rest of the season. I was very proud of the comeback our girls had in the second half (after being down 0-14) versus Medina. They kept themselves composed and really dialed in the focus to win it."

Could it be the fitness? Or, as Wunderle joked, "the perfectly-sliced half-time oranges." It all has some influence.

SJA faced some tough early challenges at Carolina Ruggerfest and those lessons proved important for the season so far.

"We have shuffled around our structure and player positions this season and it was nice to test that out with a bit less pressure than regular season matches," Wunderle said. "It's always great playing in an atmosphere like that, with lots of different teams, turf fields, nice facilities, nice weather, etc. We learned a few lessons down there and gained a bit of confidence from our new players as well."

Indiana sees Penn, Chargers, Forth Wayne, Noblesville, and Warsaw in the tournament. Warsaw is currently 1-0-1 in league play while Chargers impressed in their first league game of the season. Noblesville shook off an early loss to win two in a row, while Fort Wayne's defense has been outstanding with a 17-5 win over Mudsock (who beat Noblesville) and a 24-0 shutout of Westside (who beat Penn).