Radcliffe Rugby Rises to Top

Their faces told the tale. Splashed with mud, pelted with rain, sweating, shivering, laughing, yelling--these faces glowed, positively glowed, through a cold, gray afternoon last Sunday.

Never mind the weather or the sullen opponents or the fatigue. The players on the Radcliffe rugby team, savoring a 17-0 trouncing of arch-rival Boston College, weren't letting go of this thrill.

"All our seasons of hard work have finally culminated in this win, and it feels so good," said senior Sarah Schooler, the Radcliffe team President. "We've waited a long time for this."

With the victory on Sunday, Radcliffe moved its record for the 1995 season to 5-0. Despite club-sport status and the attendant lack of recognition from much of the University community, the team clinched the top seed for the New England Rugby Football Union championships, which begin this Saturday at Harvard. It also defeated a formidable rival which had entered the game undefeated and which reigned as national champs just three years ago.

These facts sound even more impressive when one considers the humble origin from which the current Radcliffe squad began.

Once Upon a Time

Schooler and her senior classmates remember how differently things stood when they joined the team as freshmen.

Entering the program just a year before many of the top players graduated, the current senior class enjoyed only a short honeymoon before finding themselves thrust into key positions.

"That was scary," senior Farah Stockman said. "The first thing I was told when I stepped on the field was, 'You're in the wrong place.'

"I thought I'd just play one game, and then my body would be too broken to go on. I thought it'd be heroic, you know, to say that I'd played rugby once for Radcliffe."

Stockman and her classmates persisted, however, through the drudgery which typifies much of the club-sport experience.

They forged on despite having to schedule their own practice times and matches, hire their own referees, arrange transportation to other schools, and, in some cases, buy and sew their own uniforms.

Besides such logistical hassles, the players sometimes had to confront skepticism from classmates. The Black and White's reputation for partying, it seemed, exceeded that for playing.

"People would come up to me--they still come up to me sometimes--and say, 'Oh, you guys are just a drinking club,'" senior Jane Kim said. "It's become a lot more of an athletic thing, though. It's not just social."

Coach Lisa Gartner agreed. "I think we have a great bunch of people. They have fun, but they work hard, too. It's a good combination, and they make it happen," she said.

As if to prove their doubters wrong, the Radcliffe players have over the years dedicated themselves to numerous early-morning practices and to off-season play.

Captain Patty Seo, for example, recalls heading to chemistry classes at nine in the morning--sweaty and exhausted after two hours of practice.

The toil has yielded dividends. In addition to steadily improving performances every season, the team drove south to Washington, D.C. and Virginia during last year's spring break to compete in a club tournament.

"That sort of thing got us better known on the circuit, and it helped us gain some experience against the veteran club teams," Kim said.

And the beat goes on. While plans for this year remain indefinite, one possibility under consideration is a trip to Italy, according to Stockman.

The Great Leap Forward

Radcliffe rugby's ascent has been a long time coming, but this season's successes undoubtedly constitute a significant step up.

After a preseason tournament in which Radcliffe won two out of three matches, the Black and White has gone undefeated in five contests, including a victory over UMass that avenged its lone preseason loss.

Bolstered by its strong senior contingent and an unusually talented group of young players like sophomores Maggie Hatcher, Kelly Gilbride, Emily Yee and Bex Wallison, the team has yielded only three points all season.

The reason for success? In the spirit of the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates, one word comes to mind: family.

"This team really holds together well," said Greg Studen, a parent who has followed the program since his daughter Liza, a senior, joined three years ago. "They have such spirit and drive, and it's obvious that they love the game."

The team's spirit, Gartner said, brings tangible benefits. Because of it, approximately 30 players come out to every practice, which adds important depth to the program.

The depth of talent allows Radcliffe to field a B-side, equivalent to a junior varsity team, which has itself gone undefeated this year while not surrendering a single point.

"[The younger players] contribute a lot to our overall success, because they provide excellent practice partners for the A-side, and they're getting themselves ready for the future," Gartner said.

Hope for the future, of course, does not detract from the here and now. The Black and White will enter postseason play this weekend for the first time this decade.

This Weekend and Beyond

Radcliffe's first playoff match will begin on tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. on the fields behind the Stadium against Vermont. If the Black and White wins, it will face the winner of BC-Yale on Sunday afternoon.

Although scouting reports on Vermont remain sketchy, since neither Radcliffe nor any of its competitors played the Wildcats this season, Gartner expressed confidence in her team.

"We have an excellent chance," the coach said upon reflection. "We've always had a strong set of forwards, with Patty and Sarah having so much experience up front, but this year the backs are really good, too. If the team plays like it has been, I think we're in good shape."

Seo echoed the sentiment.

"This is our chance to move up another level," the Eliot senior said. "Everyone is confident, but not overly so. We just have to play our game and be aggressive."

If the team wins, it can look forward to the Northern Territorial Championship, and beyond it, the national championship. The process is a long, drawn-out one, spilling over into the spring season, but the Ruggers would be happy to go through it.

These are veterans, after all, people who have slogged through mud and rain, and so much else, to experience sweet victory. They did it last weekend, and one gets the definite sense that they remain hungry for more.