After defeating the reigning national champions last season and securing a conference title this fall, Northeastern women’s club rugby team is set on proving its more than just a Cinderella story.
The Northeastern women’s rugby team, coming off of its conference championship victory in the fall, is continuing to make waves in the world of collegiate rugby. Most recently, it sent three players to the National Collegiate Rugby Women’s All-Star tournament in January.
The 15s team won the conference championship in November. The team plays in groups of 15 players in the fall, and in the spring the 7s team competes in groups of seven players. Three of the team’s players were sent to represent the Northeast conference at the All-Star tournament, which took place Jan. 25 and Jan. 26 in Atlanta.
“Getting to play in that elite level of competition is a really important stepping stone for our club,” said head coach Margaret Reiss, who was also the coach of the Rugby Northeast team at the tournament.
Northeastern women’s rugby team is no stranger to elite competition. The team leveled up from playing under the College Rugby Association of America to National Collegiate Rugby, or NCR, last season, giving them a more competitive schedule.
The team made its first NCR appearance at the national championships last season, where it created shock waves by defeating the defending champions, the University of Michigan, in the quarterfinal round of the competition.
“In the world of NCR, they didn’t really know what to think of us, so we were seeded as an underdog,” Reiss said. “Nobody was really sure what we were going to bring to the table.”
The championship upset compounded with the fall season’s victory set the stage for the three players — fourth-year full-back and wing Kourtney Bichotte-Dunner, third-year center Alex Peterson and fourth-year prop Kyra Grimes — who were sent to represent Northeastern in the NCR All-Star tournament.
The three players were placed on a team with other Rugby Northeast All-Stars to compete against other conferences.
“It was really fun to be on a team with a ton of girls who we normally play as competitors on the field,” said Grimes, who plays on and manages the 7s team. “Getting to be friends with them and getting to be on the same team was really special.”
The Rugby Northeast All-Star team consisted of players from Boston College, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the University of Connecticut and Northeastern. Players who previously held strong rivalries were afforded the opportunity to play on the same line, an opportunity that the Northeastern players revelled in.
“It was just a really cool experience,” said Peterson, 7s captain and a third-year computer science and media arts combined major. “We got to meet some of the players from other teams we don’t get to interact with as much and compare and contrast how we handle different things on our team.”
Going up against the best of the best in the nation is no easy task, Peterson said.
“It was a very challenging weekend,” Peterson said. “I feel like I learned so much within those practice sessions and from seeing the ways [that] different teams play.”
The transition to playing under NCR has afforded the women’s rugby team to play on larger stages such as the All-Star tournament, as well as the opportunity to have its matches streamed on The Rugby Network.
“It’s been really cool to see the growth, not only just for our team in coverage, but for all of women’s rugby,” Grimes said.
The All-Star team from Texas, The LoneStar Conference, ended up winning the 2024 All-Star tournament. However, the Rugby Northeast team still succeeded in making a name for itself on a national stage.
“I was incredibly proud of the whole team and how they came together,” Reiss said. “There’s definitely pride in putting New England on the map right at some of these NCR national tournaments.”
As the team enters the spring season, where it transitions from playing in groups of 15 to groups of seven, there’s high hopes for what they will achieve.
“We definitely want to make nationals again, we want to win our conference and we want to try to push that nationals experience further,” Peterson said.
The growth of Northeastern women’s rugby has been exponential over the past few seasons, from a switch in governing bodies to conference championship victories.
“Ultimately, we’re here to grow the game,” Reiss said.
