In a dominant run, the Vassar women's rugby team comes home as national champions

Emily Howell is a chemistry major who aspires to become a doctor. She can visualize it now, the wall of her office adorned with certificates and photographs, commemorating the milestones in her career.

She can also imagine a patient being jarred after noticing one of the pictures is of her carrying a ball while being chased by several women.

“It would put a little adventure into their life,” the Vassar College senior said, “to imply to a patient their doctor has probably been concussed before.”

A source of pride in Vassar fielding an elite women’s rugby team, the players believe, is Vassar fielding an elite women’s rugby team.

The small Poughkeepsie school is renowned for its academic standards and Biomedical Science programs, but not quite athletics. There is a perception, Howell said, that many of the students there are “nerdy” – and it’s one she won’t dispute.

Their rugby roster is comprised mostly of students majoring in science and mathematics, which probably isn’t the demographic that comes to mind when one imagines standouts in a violent sport.

“It’s funny when we line up against other teams because our team is tiny,” Howell said with a chuckle. “They’re looking at us like, ‘What is going on here?’ We’re not the biggest or the strongest.”

But the Brewers can now lay claim to being the best.

Vassar completed a sterling season by dominating Temple University on Saturday to win the American Collegiate Rugby Association Division II women’s fall championship in Matthews, North Carolina.

Howell scored three tries, leading Vassar in a 74-5 blowout that captured the program's first national title since 2018. The college resumed interscholastic sports this fall for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.

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“Mostly relief,” she said of the team’s reaction at the final whistle. “We were confident that we’d win about 20 minutes in. So right as it ended, the feeling was relief that we won, that nobody was badly injured. Then over the next couple days in really sank in, like, ‘We won!’”

Vassar upset the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, 36-20, in the semifinals and was favored against Temple. But that performance, which coach Tony Brown called “our best game of the year,” came even as a surprise to them.

“I told them, (Temple is) probably not better than Coast Guard,” Brown said. “But, beyond the result, I want you to be excellent so that anyone watching the game will respect us. ... I certainly hoped they would play error-free, but I didn’t expect the team to be this good.”

The Brewers raced to a 38-0 halftime lead. Vivika Sheppard and Julia Busby each scored two tries (the American football equivalent of a touchdown). Kira Nolan, Asia Baker, Hannah Thompson, Claire Zickl and Casey Drake each added one.

“We’re very good at the physical aspect of the game,” said Howell, who was named championship MVP. “What we lack in size, we make up for in toughness and physicality, and we’re good at tackling and rucking.”

Rucking, for those curious, is the release of the ball after a tackle. Unlike American football, the ball is still live after the ball-carrier is to the ground, and it can be handed off to a teammate or wrestled away by the defense for a change of possession.

Vassar went 11-1, excelling with its “technical and tactical” execution, Brown said. The group relied on strategy and its collective quickness in the final to overcome the size disparity against Temple’s forward line.

The Brewers accomplished this despite a lengthy layoff from competition. Their spring 2020 season was nixed when the pandemic forced the cancellation of all scholastic sports. The team practiced in fall 2020 and spring 2021, wearing masks and social distancing, and was permitted to resume competition this autumn based on the vaccination rate.

Rugby is 'empowering for women’

Recruitment usually begins outside the campus cafeteria early in the fall semester, the team hoping it can pique the interest of freshmen who usually know little to nothing about rugby.

The current players are the best recruiting chip, Brown said, as they can explain the sport to a novice and detail their own experiences of playing for the first time. The program’s success helps, too.

Rugby isn’t very popular in the United States, and even less so among girls, so their best bets usually are former high school soccer and lacrosse players who want to remain active and are willing to learn something new. All are welcome and they don’t scout for physical traits but, Brown joked, “if there’s a 6-foot-5 woman on campus, we’re definitely recruiting her.”

Vassar carries 35-40 players on its roster and each year they’ll get about 20 newcomers who show interest in September. Of that group, Brown said, “maybe eight or nine stick.”

“People know it’s a contact sport, but they don’t realize how much it hurts,” said Howell, a Connecticut native who rowed in high school but joined Vassar’s rugby team as a freshman. “The first game is always a shock, but once you get over that initial barrier, you begin learning how to move to minimize the pain, and start enjoying the sport.”

Some players adapt quickly, like Busby, a scrumhalf who earned a starting role a month into her freshman season. Others, like Howell, needed a few months to get acquainted. The newcomers usually play sparingly, “just to get their feet wet,” Brown said.

Zickl, a junior, plays soccer for Vassar and she joined the rugby team late this fall. The fullback scored two tries — one each in the semifinal and final.

A boon for the program, Brown said, is longtime assistant coach Mark Griffiths, a former professional rugby player whose training methods are geared around players developing the skills to excel at specific aspects of the game.

“We have four basic attacking patterns and we stay within those structures,” Brown said, comparing it to a football team with a dominant run game that sticks to its strengths.

As well, Howell said, rugby is “empowering for women.” It’s one of only a few full-contact women’s sports and they operate with the same rules as men.

“For most, it’s the first time they’re being encouraged to be aggressive and grapple,” Brown said. “They get a lot of satisfaction from that.”

There is the risk of injuries, of course. Among the Brewers there have been broken noses, torn ACLs, fractured legs and concussions. That fear, Howell said, is a “barrier” to overcome.

“For someone new, it takes a while to click, but when it does, it’s awesome,” she said. “You see them running with confidence, tackling, getting into scrums, and they love it. And it’s like, this isn’t the same person we met a couple months ago.”

Stephen Haynes: shaynes@poughkeepsiejournal.com; 845-437-4826; Twitter: @StephenHaynes4

This article originally appeared on Poughkeepsie Journal: Vassar College dominates Temple to win women's rugby national title