The Portland Women’s Rugby team is in Virginia Beach this weekend competing in the Division II National Tournament.
There are eight teams from across the country participating, including clubs from Santa Monica, Pittsburgh, Sacramento, Burlington, Albuquerque, Raleigh and Memphis. There will be three rounds of playoffs over the course of the weekend.
The Portland team enters the competition as the No. 1 seed and plays Sacramento Friday at 3 p.m. The semifinals follow on Saturday with the National Championship game scheduled for Sunday.
The Portland Women’s Rugby squad has history in national competition. In 1979, the first Women’s National Championships were held in Chicago, the team from Portland came out on top.
This is the first time many of the current players have reached this level. There are two high school players, Abby Vogel and Emily Colesworthy, that competed in the Nationals in Salt Lake City in 2010. Just a few years ago, the Portland team was struggling against Division III competition.
The team advanced to this weekend’s tournament with a successful trip to New Jersey for the Northeast Rugby Union (NRU) playoffs. Portland won the NRU championship in late October to secure their trip to Virginia this weekend.
In the first game in the NRU tourney, Portland played Hartford in the snow and rain. Tara Stewart picked off a pair of Hartford passes and returned them for tries. Then Jaime Madore kicked two conversions to lead Portland to a 14-0 win.
The following day, Portland played Burlington. Elspeth Jeffers had two tries for Portland while Aja Darak added one. Madore converted two or her three kicks in the 19-5 win.
The Portland Women’s Rugby team is a non-profit organization, which was founded in 2005, and has roots dating back to the early 1970’s. The club is comprised of about 50 women, including professionals and students from Southern and Central Maine. Over the course of the year, the squad plays between eight and 10 home games and just as many road games as well as four summer tournament throughout the Northeast.
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