Horizons Online Edition

Issue date: 10/27/06 Section: Sports

Rugby has been a growing sport at Embry-Riddle; the men's team has more than doubled in size over the past two years. Now the Prescott Women's Black Sheep Rugby Team is making an appearance. "We're excited to finally have a full side," says the team president, Holly Szumila. A full side consists of 15 players, but there are variations of the game which can be played with either 10 or 7. The team consists mostly of students from ERAU, but there are a few members from Yavapai College.

The women's team started out with one player, Nicole Lovett, who began practicing with the men's side in fall 2004. In the following semesters a few more girls came out to play, but only five or six stuck with the sport.

Finally, this fall, the team has enough members to play as their own team. On Friday, September 22, they traveled to play their first game as the Women's Black Sheep against Arizona State University. They suffered a loss of 0-27, however many of the girls saw it as a good way to get a feel for the game.

"That's alright," said a veteran team member, "it's our first time playing together and for most of the girls, this is their first time playing, ever. With less than a month of practice we did pretty well."

The next day, the Black Sheep played against another rookie team, the Thunderbirds. With a little more experience than the day before and a better understanding of the game, the Black Sheep were able to pull an amazing victory of 32-3.

"We kicked butt," said Mi-Ya Mata, "and I can't wait to play Northern Arizona University in the Tens Tournament."

There is an annual Rugby tournament in Flagstaff, in which the Men's Black Sheep have played several times. In the past, since the Women's Black Sheep did not have enough members for their own team, they had to team up with NAU. Now the team can represent Prescott and ERAU as their own team, and show the other teams what they have.

They did just that on Oct. 10, when they played in the Flagstaff Tens Tournament. Although they did not win, they showed how tough the Black Sheep are. In the game against ASU, the Black Sheep were short on players, but still played 7 on 10. They suffered a heavy loss but that did not stop them from playing two more games that day. In the final game against Flagstaff's Timberdoodles, the Black Sheep were able to prevent them from scoring until the very end.

Both Szumila and Lovett said that the ladies played well together and learned a lot. Other teams have professional coaches and have members that have been playing together for years. The Black Sheep are a brand new team with no professional coach, just help from the men's side. "We play for fun, and if we win, that's awesome," says a freshman on the team.

The Women's team is still looking for players. Anyone interested in playing can contact Holly Szumila at [szumi1e0@erau.edu] or just come out to a practice on Thursdays at 6pm.

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