The women’s rugby team has started their 2025 season with two wins, two losses and one tie.
The Pioneers took a 45-21 win against Brown University and a 91-0 win over Queens University of Charlotte in Emmitsburg, Maryland, where they also tied with Mount St. Mary’s. Their most recent matches were two losses, 43-7 at American International College (AIC), and a 43-29 at their home opener to Dartmouth.
Source: Contributed by Reese Torticilli, ’27
However, only three games apply to their rankings in the National Intercollegiate Rugby Association (NIRA). The games against Mount St. Mary’s and AIC do not apply to their record, as they were cross-divisional matches in which SHU played their B-side. In conference matches, the women are 2-1.
“Only our A-side, or our varsity team, did those results count towards the association’s power rankings,” said head coach Michelle Reed. On Saturday, Sept. 20, in the Pioneer’s match against Dartmouth, the women said the final score doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story.
“In this last Dartmouth game, we played really well in the first half, but then in the second half we just lost our momentum,” said junior Reese Torticill.
“Even though the score was 43-29, it was really a one score game for 77 minutes,” said Reed
Looking ahead, the women have four matches left, two at home and two on the road, before the NIRA playoffs. At the halfway point of their season, the women reflected on their team expectations that have not changed since their first match. They are focused on the student-athletes as people, not just their results as a rugby team.
“Our mission, every season, is to make an environment that makes us feel good, that we get better, we improve one percent every day,” said Reed.
These expectations translates down to the players as well.
“Our goal is to continue to get better, and really just to grow. I think that’s been the goal throughout the last few years because we’ve seen such a growth of rugby getting better at SHU. Putting ourselves on the map and showing people we can compete with those high level teams,” said junior Olivia Woods. “Not just compete, but we can win against them as well.”
The players and coaches make it a point that they are a tight-knit group, and put focus and care into their culture.
“We talk a lot about team culture and what that looks like for us, and then we build off of that,” said Woods. “When you’re playing 80 minutes of a high stress game, there’s a lot going on, and mistakes are going to happen. So when things go wrong, how do we come back to our culture? How do we come together and succeed in those moments?”
The Pioneers will take on Army at home for their senior day game on Oct. 3 for their next matchup.
Athletic Communications contributed to this article.
