It's Never Too Late to Learn

You've seen a flyer, or talked to someone on the team, and it sounds.... well a little intimidating.

Let me tell you, it's never too late to learn to play rugby.  And now is the best time to learn.  Practice starts back January 17th at 6pm on the fields at John Kirk.  

Yes, the team is nationally ranked, and has a great history, but a team is only as good as the people on it.  People graduate and move on and we are always looking for new players.  Very few (like 1 out of 10) have played before college.  We are all here to learn and grow.

If you think you're interested but want to know more, look around the site, come to the interest meeting (Thursday January 12th @ 6pm in Atkins room 123), contact one of the players, or just come to practice next week.  We can't wait to have you a part of the team!

Win One, Lose Some

UNC Charlotte just returned from a whirlwind trip to College Station, TX for the National 7s Championship.  Being new to 7s, the team was honored to be invited and knew the experience alone was worth the trip.  Texas weather was chillier than we expected but it didn't stop the the team from playing every minute possible.

Charlotte vs. Cal

In an eyeopener of a game, we lost 0-24.  Cal later went on to win the Plate finals, placing them 5th in the tournament.

Charlotte vs. Santa Clara

A little experience goes a long way. Charlote won 22-5, with two tries by Liz Alliss, one each by Meghan Bradsher and Nicole Floersch.  Conversion by Maddy Clark.

Charlotte vs. Texas

Sometimes home state advantage works.  Texas won 10-27.  Charlotte tries were made by Meghan Bradsher and Maddy Clark.  Texas went on to win the bowl.

Charlotte vs. Arizona State

Again Charlotte lost 5-20, with one try by Courtney Jessamy.

We're Leaving... On a Jet Plane

Thursday, December 15, 2011 the UNC Charlotte Women's 7s team is flying to College Station, TX for the  2011 USA Rugby Men's and Women's College Sevens National Championships!

This is an amazing opportunity and honor for our team.  We will be playing in front of national scouts and it will be steamed live for our friends and family to watch.

Raising the funds to go on such short notice was a daunting task, but with help we are all set.

Thank you to our Flight Sponsors: 

Gray's Bookstore 

Formalwear Outlet

Thank you to everyone else that donated, ever dollar made a difference: 

Cynthia Coleman, Susan Sisk, Erin Leonetti, Lou Andre,

and all those who remain anonymous.

Thanks to Tilt on Trade for hosting one of our fundraising events, and everyone who came out and joined the festivities.

Thanks to Charlotte Rugby for letting us borrow the pitch to practice when ours went dark one night.

Thanks to the UNC Charlotte Men's Rugby team for practicing with us in the cold.  Thank you to Dave Rayner for providing your expert 7s advice and coaching.

Thanks to Sydny Small who worked to raise money for her girls, without you, we'd still be walking.

Our Championship Schedule: 

Friday December 16, 2011: 

9:20am (CST) vs. Cal University on Field 2

3:20pm (CST) vs. Santa Clara University on Field 2

Saturday December 17, 2011: 

Games TBD based on Friday's outcomes.  We will play at least two games.

If you want to watch a streaming of the game go to USARugby.org and click on College Sevens or follow this link.  

Scores should also be updated on USARugby.org or you can go to Scrumhalf Connection (theirs may update faster).

Thank you to everyone who has supported us this year.  From the National Championships for 15s in April to the National Championships for 7s this December, we appreciate everything you do for us!

USA Sevens Collegiate Championship

Recently USA rugby put together the first ever National Collegiate 7s Championship.  Due to the event being new and unknown in the women's world, USA rugby took applications for the women's sides.  (Men's teams were determined by tournament winners).

UNC-Charlotte women started a 7s team this fall and decided to apply even if it was a long shot.  12 teams from D1 and D2 were chosen.  At first UNC-Charlotte didn't make the cut, but as one team had to back out, Mean Green was next in line to replace them.

On November 30th, USA Rugby called and invited the UNC-Charlotte women to play in the 2011 USA Rugby Men's and Women's College Sevens National Championships.  These championships will be played on December 16 & 17, 2011 in College Station, TX.

The tournament is serving as an opportunity for students to showcase their abilities to National Team selectors.  Selectors have their eyes focused on 7s as it will be played in the 2016 Olympics.

Congratulations Ladies. 

The only downside, the team has to pay to get there.  Plane tickets alone are $300.00 each.  If you can help, please contact Courtney Jessamy.  Multiple sponsorship opportunities are avilable and every dollar counts!

Sponsorship Packages:

One Flight: $300

This donation will cover the cost of one round trip ticket to Texas.  With it you will receive an appreciation letter and signed photograph of the team.

Three Flights: $1200.00

This donation will cover the cost of three round trip tickets to Texas.  With it you will receive an appreciation letter, signed photo, and a thank you from each team member posted on facebook (with a link to your establishment).

Half way There: $2500.00

This donation will allow the team to get half way to Texas.  With it you would receive all the above items, plus your logo and link on our website and your logo on our shirts that we will wear to the tournament and around Charlotte when we return.

Title Trip Sponsor $5000.00

With this elite sponsorship you would cover the cost of the entire trip.  Doing so will earn you all of the above items plus your logo printed on our jerseys

We need YOUR help

While the NCAA lists rugby as an "emerging sport for women" , here at UNC-Charlotte we are a club sport.  The school provides us with a budget of $5,000 to cover all of our USA Rugby dues, referees, equipment and travel.  At the end of the day - that money doesn't go very far.  Our goal is to attend Regional and National playoffs just as we did last year.  We are already winning friendly games in preparation for matrix season.  The problem is that to travel to playoffs will budget us at about $25,000.  Therefore we NEED YOUR help.

You don't have to run out and drop us a check without expecting anything in return (although if you do, we would love you forever).  Right now we have a few fundraisers going on that are easy, have great returns for us and can even be free to you.

•  All of the ladies are selling DOMINO's Pizza buy one get one FREE cards!  Each card has 16 coupons attached to it.  So buy 1 card for $10 and 16 times you'll be able to buy a pizza and get one free.  That's $200 worth of pizza for $10!!!
• Recently we paired up with Scrumbot and opened our own gear store.  You can buy shirts, pullovers, jerseys, duffle bags, even warm-ups in support of your Mean Green Ladies! Every time you do, the team gets 20% of your sale!  plus shipping is only $4.95 for the first item and $1.00 for every item after that.  These make great Christmas presents!  Check out the Apparel link at the top of this page.
• Here's an easy, FREE, way to raise money for us!  Just start using Yahoo! powered GoodSearch.com as your search engine and they'll donate about a penny to the alumni association every time you do a search! In addition, do all of your shopping through their online shopping mall, GoodShop.com, where you can shop at more than 2,400 top online retailers and a percentage of your purchases will also go to the alumni association. You pay the same price as you normally would, but a donation goes to us! GOODSEARCH!
• We are looking for new and innovative ways to raise money, so if you know of one, please let us know!  And if you or your business are looking to sponsor us, please visit our sponsorship page!  Your donation is tax deductible!!!

YOU SEARCH OR SHOP...
WE GIVE!

Raise money for UNCC Rugbyjust by searching the web and shopping online!

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Friendly vs. College of Charleston

Last winter, UNCC faced the College of Charleston in the biggest battle of the Matrix season.  The team that won would go on to regionals, UNC-Charlotte barely scraped by with a 17-15 win.

Saturday College of Charleston travelled back to Charlotte to play a fall friendly game.  While the outcome did not matter as much as it had in the past, both teams wanted the win.  Charlotte fought hard and wouldn't allow any tries by CoC.  The final score 31-6, UNCC won by a much wider margin than 8 months ago.

MVP: Nicole Floersch

Pack Player of the Game: Victoria Ellis   Back Player of the Game: Dominique Williams

Defense Player of the Game: Maddy Clark Offense Player of the Game: Courtney Jessamy

vs. UNCG

When you put a lot of players in new positions, it can go very good, or very very bad.  Luckily when UNCC stepped on the field in Greensboro, they didn't care what position they were in, they were ready to play.

It took a few minutes for everyone to get their bearings, but 8 minutes into the game we used our assets and Meghan Sydney ran 50 yards to score the first try.  Minutes later scrumhalf Christina White was also able to score a try.  

Scrums were not our best, especially when the hookers from both teams had both feet on the ball - but we pushed through. We were able to get the ball out to the backline and Courtney Jessamy was able to score a try.  UNCG finally rallyed and used penalties to their advantage.  They were able to put up two tries before Meghan Sydney ran them down again for her second try. 22-10.

Communication made the game and Christina White was also able to score again.  UNCG came back for one last try making it 27-17 before Meghan Sydney put an end to it and ran in for another two tries.  In the last minutes of the game, the ball went to Liz Alliss in the backline and she ran for 40 yards.  5 yards from the tryline she started to go down but got the ball out to Courtney Jessamy for one last try.  Final Score 42-17.

Thank you UNCG for hosting us and providing a game everyone could enjoy.  Next week we play College of Charleston at home, it will be a tough one.  Come watch!

MVP: Victoria Ellis for being at everything offensive and defensively

Pack Player of the Game: Anjee McNary, for rocking a new position and pushing thru those rucks!

   Back Player of the Game: Meghan Sydney for making 4 tries.

Defense Player of the Game: Dominique Williams for making every tackle even when others missed.

Offense Player of the Game: Liz Alliss, for making runs up field in a new position.

Broken Curse

One would think a team as young as we are wouldn't have curses already, but that is the way Rucktoberfest feels.  Two years ago we went to Rucktoberfest as a rookie team and lost every game, but never expected much.  Last year we attended Rucktoberfest with a little more enthusiasm, but couldn't pull out a win (although later in the season, we came back and beat each team individually).  This year we had high hopes going in, until we saw our competition.

Competition is good for the soul.  Tough competition shows you where your faults are and what you need to work on.  Being the only division 2 team out of eight  in a tourney is a whole different level of competition.

Appalachian State, East Carolina University, James Madison University, NC State, University of South Carolina, and UVA (a & b side) all travelled to Boone NC to play in this year's Women Only Rucktoberfest Tournament.

The brackets were divided and we would be playing ECU, UVA, and NC State on Saturday. 

At 9:30 on Saturday morning we started with a little rain, some sleet, and a lot of snow.  ECU was quick to get on the scoreboard and were up 7-0 within the first 10 minutes.  Winning majority of the scrums, Christina White was able to get the ball to  flyhalf Dominique Williams who was able to then break through and score a try.  7-7.  Pouring snow makes for a lot of dropped balls and knock ons.   Scrumming is something both teams were good at, but hooker Maddy Clark won almost every one for UNCC.  Again off a scrum, an 8 man pick to the weak side by Liz Allis brought us our second try.  Unfortunately it was near touch so a kick in the sideways snow didn't make it.  7-12. In the last scrum of the game, again we

 won it, but the ball slipped right through our scrumhalf's hands providing opportunity for ECU's scrumhalf to pick up the ball.  ECU passed out quickly and was able to score a try and their kick, bring the final score 14-12.  A tough loss.

A two hour break gave us time to attempt to dry off, just so it could rain again.  At 12:30 we went up against UVA A-side.  UVA was ready and waiting to pound away at us.  With more experience in organization and communication, UVA had no problem putting up 5 tries to our none.

With a 10 minute break between the UVA game and NC State, we could not get our team back together.  NC State was able to use our exhaustion and defeat against us to put up 2 tries in the first half.  During the second half we finally started to play our game again, and fullback Nicole Floersch was able to score a try.  At that point it was too late as NC State was still able to put up another one.

Sunday brought clear skies and a new team to play.  The brackets were not just based on winners, but also points.  We started our morning playing USC at 11am.  Both sides were plagued with multiple injuries from the day before, but we were still able to put together a good team.  We decided to startover.  Play our game, knowing if we didn't get frustrated or over run, we could pull off a win.  The ladies just wanted it worse sunday morning.  Liz Alliss scored again from a substitution role at outside center.  Jessica James drove through and scored off a penalty. Meghan Bradsher was able to score from inside center.  The gamecocks were able to score two tries, but it just wasn't enough to take us out.  UNCC walked away with a win, and a chance to play for the third place title against ECU.

ECU- The same team we had lost by a kick to in the snow.  

At 1:30pm we took the field ready to play our hearts out.  We had finally won a game at rucktoberfest, and now we could even go for third!  ECU beat us to the scoreboard, 5-0.  But we quickly came back and drove up the field for a try by rookie Alex Spaugh.  5-7

ECU was not going to go down easy and snuck around the outside for another try.  We decided to mimic their try with one of our own by wing Raelyn Jehlik.  Score 10-12.  In the end ECU was able to put up one last try in the last 3 minutes of the game bringing the final score 15-12.

While we have always lost at rucktoberfest, the competition was fiercer this year than it has ever been.  Thank you to all the teams that went and to AHO for hosting.  We are grateful our curse is broken, and we will be back next year.

Alumnae Day

Thank you to all the alumnae who came out in support of Saturday's game.  It was a quick game as UNCC had three to play on Saturday.

The current team was slow to react at first, letting the alumnae score early on.  Alumnae thought they were set, when the current team remembered how to communicate and came back to score two more tries.  A learning game for rookies, everyone had a great time and all came out winners.

T-shirts supporting UNCC Women's Rugby are still on sale if you missed yours. They are $12.00 each (XXL are $15.00) with all proceeds going to the team.  Contact Murphy if you want one by email. 

UNCC vs. Chapel Hill

In college rugby, the fall is used to train new players and the season is set by the individual teams.  The first game of the fall is supposed to be against an easy team so you can teach your rookies without a lot of pressure.  Unfortunately - or fortunately - depending on your view,  no one easy wanted to play us early in the fall.  UNC-Chapel Hill was the only team willing to take us on.  

Chapel Hill is a D1, top eight school.  We are top eight, but in D2.  We knew on the first day of practice that we would have our work cut out for us.

Chapel Hill brought 46 players to our 26 and the game was set with 4 20minute quarters.  The goal of both teams was to have a scrimmage where everyone could play.  Mean Green wanted to teach not only the rookies, but Carolina that we are as good as they are.

The first quarter started off as a show down, UNCC scored two tries off the backline, but wasn't able to make the kicks.  UNCC dominated both the lineouts and the scrums, making it easy to pass the ball off to the backline.  Carolina was good on the tackle, and quick to poach the ball long before a ruck could be set.  Carolina quickly put in two more tries, and made their kicks!  Carolina was up, but not for long.  UNCC got it together and started to communicate on the field. We turned the game around with three more tries to win the game 27-14!

MVP: Maddy Clark, for keeping her cool and leading the team

Pack Player of the Game: Anjee McNary, for all the tackles & runs

   Back Player of the Game: Rise Shine, for playing every position, making every tackle, and those runs!

Defense Player of the Game: Jessica James for being at every ruck and taking those down who needed it.

Offense Player of the Game: Meghan Bradsher, for communication and the amazing runs.

 

Thank you to the Charlotte Men for hosting our game and Carolina for traveling to play us!