By Gio Gennero | Sports Writer
In just the team’s second full season, Baylor’s club women’s rugby squad is making the trip to Washington, D.C., for the 2023 Collegiate Rugby Championship. Argyle senior Grace Stricker said the team has played well all year, especially throughout the spring and believes they are in a good spot going into nationals.
“As one of the leaders of the club, I’m just super proud that we’re going and we’re able to represent Baylor,” Stricker said. “We get to all do this together as such a close knit group of friends, [and it] makes it that much more special. We’ve been training in the gym, training at practice, learning more and getting better every tournament that we play.”
Kimberton, Penn., sophomore and team captain Cici Brower said she and the rest of the team want to win it all. Brower said even though it’s a bit nerve-racking, the green and gold still have business to attend to.
“The goal, obviously, is to be [Division I] national champs and really show that even though we just started, we’re going to be taken seriously,” Brower said. “We’ve been putting in the work; just because we’re new doesn’t mean that we’re not as good or not as worthy as other teams that have been here for so long. I mean, you can have a sixty-year-old foundation but that doesn’t matter.”
Maple Grove, Minn., senior Katie Kim said part of what makes this team so effective is their chemistry on and off the field. She, Brower and Stricker all agreed they’d likely have never met had it not been for running into each other at practice. Kim said she knows the team is at its best when it’s overcoming the odds.
“I don’t think I’d ever have met [my teammates], we joke about it all the time,” Kim said. “Our majors are so different, and I feel like we’re all so different but we get along so well. That brings so many different dynamics to our team, which makes us all work together better.”
Nationals are this weekend, starting Friday and running through Sunday. The championships include other teams such as Clemson University, the University of Pittsburgh, Cornell University and Boise State University.
