Stars and Stripes Women's Teams Picked for End of USA Assembly

GLENDALE, Colo. – USA Women's 15s Head Coach Rob Cain and staff have selected rosters for the upcoming Stars vs Stripes match presented by DAC. Following a 60-minute pre-scrimmage on Tuesday, Cain evaluated player roles for the intra-squad match with a few adjustments and settled on rosters for the Saturday, July 10 curtain call. Kate Zackary will captain the Stars side while Emily Henrich will captain the opposing Stripes squad. Henrich, the 2019 MA Sorensen Award-winner as the top collegiate player in the country, is one of three Sorensen Award-winners in the squads, with prop Hope Rogers (2016), and center McKenzie Hawkins (2018) also there. Nominees and finalists such as Bitsy Cairns, Olivia Ortiz, Maya Learned, Cassidy Bargell, Eti Haungatau, and Kate Broughton are also involved. With a handful of uncapped players slated to play, the full 80-minute competitive setting will stage a positive opportunity for development towards Rugby World Cup 2021 in New Zealand. The teams have a mixture of experienced internationals and players new to test rugby. The match is closed for general spectators, but will be streamed LIVE on USA Rugby Facebook at 5:30pm MT. “It’s great for the players to have this opportunity to showcase both their hard work and development across their areas of focus," Cain said. "The previous three weeks have allowed us to cement and refine some key concepts in terms of both our playing philosophy and our identity as a team on and off the pitch. We as a collective staff are very excited to see some very interesting match ups as we continue to have one eye on our own November Test match window which is on our horizon.” Closing out a third Daily Training Environment in the last year, the Women’s Eagles will compete through Stars vs Stripes while also looking ahead to a November test match series this fall. With traveling rosters on the horizon for Cain, Saturday’s matchup offers a prime opportunity for each player to put their hand up for selection. “We have seen some great inner competition, ownership and leadership continue to drive standards and behaviors on and off the pitch, we’re very excited at the prospect of the teams showcasing this and more as we become internally focused on our performances these next 14 months.” It's been a tough job to get even these assemblies done. “Again we want to thank the very thoughtful and supporting USA Rugby community for all your support and the incredible donors for helping make such a crucial game happen. It means so much to the players, our collective aspiration is to not only put on a show we can celebrate, but to use this platform as an opportunity to continue to develop as people competing on the world stage and celebrating our wonderful USA Rugby community while we do.”     USA STRIPES No. NAME CLUB CAPS 1 Hope Rogers-Dellermann Life West Gladiatrix 29 2 Saher Hamdan Life University uncapped 3 Nick James Houston Athletic 8 4 Stacey Bridges Beantown Rugby 40 5 Jenny Kronish Colorado Gray Wolves uncapped 6 Evi Ashenbrucker San Diego Surfers uncapped 7 Elizabeth Cairns Life West Gladiatrix 11 8 Rachel Johnson Exeter Chiefs (ENG) 7 9 Carly Waters Colorado Gray Wolves 4 10 Katana Howard Twin City Amazons 4 11 Kayla Lawson San Diego Surfers uncapped 12 Amy Talei Bonte Life West Gladiatrix 6 13 Emily Henrich Dartmouth 8 14 Jennine Duncan Exeter Chiefs (ENG) 7 15 McKenzie Hawkins Colorado Gray Wolves 3 16 Jett Hayward Life West Gladiatrix uncapped 17 Emerson Allen Life University uncapped 18 Catherine Benson Life West Gladiatrix 23 19 Matalasi Morissette Brigham Young University uncapped 20 Olivia Ortiz Davenport & Chicago North Shore 5 21 Neariah Persinger Life West Gladiatrix 1         USA STARS No. NAME CLUB CAPS 1 Maya Learned Colorado Gray Wolves 2 2 Joanna Kitlinski Colorado Gray Wolves 14 3 Charli Jacoby Chicago North Shore 6 4 Hallie Taufoou ARPTC uncapped 5 Alycia Washington New York Rugby 22 6 Rachel Ehrecke Colorado Gray Wolves uncapped 7 Kathryn Johnson Twin City Amazons 2 8 Kate Zackary Exeter Chiefs (ENG) 15 9 Cassidy Bargell Harvard University uncapped 10 Megan Foster San Diego Surfers 5 11 Bulou Mataitoga Berkeley All Blues 3 12 Gabby Cantorna Exeter Chiefs (ENG) 8 13 Fane “Eti” Haungatau Lindenwood University 3 14 Sarah Levy New York Rugby 2 15 Tess Feury New York Rugby 6 16 Kathryn Treder Beantown Rugby 2 17 Kaitlyn Broughton Atlanta Harlequins 5 18 Erica Jarrell Harvard University uncapped 19 Sam Luther Colorado Gray Wolves uncapped 20 Shelby Lin Berkeley All Blues uncapped 21 Kelsie O’Brien Colorado Gray Wolves uncapped USA WOMEN’S XVS NATIONAL TEAM STAFF Women’s High Performance Director | Emilie Bydwell Head Coach | Rob Cain Assistant Coach | Rich Ashfield Assistant Coach | Jamie Burke Assistant Coach | Kate Daley Assistant Coach | Jenny Lui Assistant Coach | Neil Harris Strength & Conditioning | Sylvia Braaten  Assistant Strength & Conditioning | Albert Sasu  Performance Analyst | Callum Howells  Assistant Analyst | Grant Thomas Team Doctor | Terrence Cronin Athletic Trainer | Bri Arsenault Athletic Trainer | Crystal Pawlak Athletic Trainer | Jade Callen Team Manager | Louise Stewart Logistics Coordinator – Denver | Dee Nash