College Women
This weekend was an important one in Southern California, for both DI and DII women’s colleges, and a fantastic Friday night match initiated the action. Reigning DII conference champ Long Beach State proved vulnerable after a big loss to CSU Northridge, and Friday’s game against a solid UC Irvine was going to indicate just how vulnerable.
New Mexico is a top-10 team, and that ranking hinged greatly on its one-point victory over Women’s Cougar Rugby (BYU) last November. Since then, the Lobos have remained relatively silent, while the Cougars have been active, and Saturday’s rematch looked nothing like the fall fixture. Host BYU dominated New Mexico during a 105-5 romp.
Once the all-star championships were deleted from the national calendar, so followed the teams that used to compete in them (with some notable exceptions). It’s taken some time to realize just how important those teams and competitions were, and some regions are actively trying to fill the void.
Two weekends ago, it looked like Arizona was going to upset the Pacific Mountain Conference (PMC) South leader, UC San Diego, as it entered the half up 21-0. But then the scales of experience shifted the match into the Tritons’ favor and the win slipped away.
The Mason Dixon conference is two games away from determining its Women’s DI College quarterfinal match-ups, but the pairings haven’t been as straight-forward as expected.