A Unique Matchup as Life Women Face Peaks Academy in CRAA Fall Classic

12.04.2025College Women

Life hones their skills.

Author: Alex Goff

The CRAA Fall Classic brings a special and unique women’s game to the weekend.

As has been chronicled here in these pages, Life University was in a position of having really search for games. With the collapse of D1 Elite after Lindenwood joined NIRA and Central Washington’s rugby team had their funding pulled, Life became an independent in CRAA’s D1 but an independent that few teams were willing to play.

Life Addresses Isolation With New Comp Plan

To the result was the Gulf Coast women’s D1 club league. Between that league and the collegiate teams willing to play them, they formulated a fall season. By the time they reach the playoffs Life will have played over 20 games.

And one of those games will be this weekend at the CRAA Fall Classic against the Peaks Rugby Academy.

Peaks addresses some of the issues Life faces, but on the individual player level. Peaks is an elite training and playing opportunity for rugby players in a variety of codes, including 15s, 7s, touch rugby, and rugby league.

This team for the CRAA Fall Classic will be a mostly U23 group of players from California, Colorado, Utah, and Idaho. Fixtures for 2025 Event

There are college players, recent grads, and young players playing in WER. They are all players looking to play at a professional or international level.

“We still have a huge disconnect for players who are in strong programs and then looking to get into the club system,” said Tiff Lopez, who oversees women’s college rugby for CRAA.

They are players looking to be seen. They are players looking to play tougher games. They are players looking to try a new position, or get back into high-level play after having a child.

Alycia Namosimalua is a Central Washington alumna who has mostly played flanker, but she sees her future at hooker. With Peaks, she can play hooker and work on the required skills.

Jade-Alexandra McGrath is a new mom who wants to get back to playing seriously. Stephanie Rosales plays for the Mexico national team, but needs more high-level game time.

Peaks

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12.06.25
4:00pm

Running Eagles

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“This is a great opportunity for these players to make something happen,” said Lopez. “They need competitive games, they need reps.”

This is the team that will take on Life, offering a difficult and somewhat unknown challenge to a Running Eagles team that is currently 6-0.

“We expect Peaks to be tough on defense and good in set piece and have a strong counter-attack, so we’re preparing for that,” said Life Head Coach Ryszard Chadwick.

One quick look at Life’s fall and you’ll be thinking it’s all been easy—six wins, 20 points allowed, and the closest game being a 40-5 win over the Atlanta Selects 2.0. They beat multiple WPL finalists NOVA 74-5. They beat NCR D1 fall finalists Southern Nazarene 85-0. But Chadwick said it’s facile to think of the games as easy.

“The players have been working hard,” said the coach. “Our biggest challenge is how do we make better decisions based on the pictures that present themselves. We have young players who have ambitions and we are trying to get them to where they make the right decisions and the right calls. Can we maintain consistent play for long periods of time on attack and defense? We need that mindset because when a player gets a callup, they need to be ready.”

Life will send players to the Global Youth Sevens (Bella Vogel, Olivia Frisby), the U20 camp, and the 7s program, all while improving the overall team’s GPA by 0.6. Chadwick says the big wins are a result of the players working toward a high standard.

“When I first came here we played Central Washington and won 19-17,” explained Chadwick. “The last time we played we won 48-0. You don’t score 70, 80, 90 points on a consistent basis without being pretty accurate and consistent. We want the standard of play to increase across the board, and this game is part of that.”

So you have a team of players who have something to prove, either to observers or to themselves, and a team at Life that probably doesn’t have a lot of prove, except that they are rarely, if ever, satisfied.

These two teams will face off at the CRAA Fall Classic in Spartanburg, SC at 4PM on Saturday, and, along with the NIRA final between Harvard and Lindenwood, could be the most compelling and important game of the fall at this age level.

Carly Waters and GRR Editor Alex Goff will be on the call for the live stream of the game, which will be here>>