Eagle Pool for Women's World Cup
Eagle Pool for Women's World Cup
USA Women's National 15s Head Coach Pete Steinberg has named his player pool for the 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup.
Steinberg beings back some experienced heads into the squad, notable Phaidra Knight, who made her Eaqle debut in 2000, and Kristin Zdanczewicz, who has played in multiple World Cups. In addition, Steinberg has named a large chunk of the women's 7s program - not a surprise given that Steinberg said in 2016 that many of those players would be in serious consideration for the Eagle 15s backline.
Also of note, the 2015-16 Sorensen Award Winner as the top college player, Hope Rogers, is in the list, as is former USA 7s captain Kelly Griffin.
Steinberg will be able to work with this team for two spring test matches, but, he added, the squad is always swimming against the tide when it comes to international experience.
"As a program over the past five or six years, we've really tried to push international competitions because we don't play enough," Steinberg told USARugby.org. "We don't have an international calendar that gives us five or six games a year, so we basically blooded a bunch of new caps in 2015 - players that now have seven or eight or nine test matches under their belts."
Of the pool of 44, 32 played college rugby in the USA. Only 11, as far as we can tell, played high school rugby. That is a small number (only 25%), but still represents an improvement over previous years.
NAME | Current Team | College Team | HS Team |
Baylee Annis | Seattle Saracens | Norwich | Burlington (Vt.) |
Kathryn Augustyn | Berkeley All Blues | Northeastern | |
Catherine Benson | Life West | Penn State | |
Sylvia Braaten | Twin Cities Amazons | Marquette | |
Stacey Bridges | Twin Cities Amazons | Texas A&M | |
Nicole Burr | Augusta Women | ||
Kayla Canett | Penn State | Penn State | Fallbrook (Calif.) |
Ryan Carlyle | USA Women 7s Team | South Carolina | |
Sarah Chobot | Glendale Raptors | Central Michigan | |
Kate Daley | New York Rugby Club | Penn State | Penn HS (Ind.) |
Cheta Emba | USA Women 7s Team | Harvard | |
Joanne Fa'avesi | USA Women 7s Team | Sacramento Amazons (Calif.) | |
Tiffany Faaee | New York Rugby Club | ||
Tess Feury | Penn State | Penn State | Morris (NJ) |
Megan Foster | Life West | Chico State | |
Jordan Gray | Life West | BYU | Centennial (ALb.) |
Hunter Griendling | San Diego Surgers | ||
Kelly Griffin | SB ODA (Coach) | UCLA | |
Abby Gustaitis | NOVA | Maryland | |
Nicole Heavirland | USA Women 7s Team | West Point | Black & Blue (Mont.) |
Alev Kelter | USA Women 7s Team | ||
Molly Kinsella | San Diego Surfers | Stanford | |
Joanna Kitlinski | Glendale Raptors | Grand Valley State | |
Phaidra Knight | New York Rugby Club | ||
Bulou Mataitoga | USA Women 7s Team | AIC | |
Samantha Pankey | San Diego Surfers | ||
Sara Parsons | NOVA | Nevada Reno | |
Annakaren Pedraza | Lindenwood | Lindenwood | Fullerton (Calif.) |
Ashley Perry | ARPTC | ||
Christiane Pheil | Chicago North Shore | Penn State/Colorado | |
Naima Reddick | Seattle Saracens | Chico State | Piedmont (Calif.) |
Jamila Reinhardt | San Diego Surfers | Cal Maritime | |
Hope Rogers | San Diego Surfers | Penn State | Chambersburg (Pa.) |
Kimber Rozier | Scion Sirens | North Carolina | |
Nicole Snyder | Bloomsburg University | Bloomsburg University | |
Kristine Sommer | Seattle Saracens | UC Santa Barbara | |
Kelsi Stockert | USA Women 7s Team | Budd Bay (Wash.) | |
Nicole Strasko | USA Women 7s Team | Life University | |
Naya Tapper | USA Women 7s Team | North Carolina | |
Kristen Thomas | USA Women 7s Team | ||
Alycia Washington | New York Rugby CLub | ||
Jess Wooden | Aylesford Rugby Club | Florida | |
Kate Zackary | San Diego Surfers | ||
Kristin Zdanczewicz | Minnesota Valkryies | UW-Whitewater | |
USA WRWC 2017 Coaching Staff | |||
Pete Steinberg - Head Coach | |||
Roshna Wunderlich - Manager | |||
Richard Ashfield - Assistant Coach | |||
Peter Baggetta - Associate Head Coach | |||
Liz Kirk - Assistant Coach | |||
Richie Walker - Assistant Coach |