Women’s Division 1 – December 2025 Recap

It’s the holiday season, and that means there’s slightly less rugby to cover than usual. Most of the competitions in the northern half of the country are off for the winter; either waiting to decide champions in the spring or already having crowned their champions in the fall. The southern teams are a bit more active, we have some matches from December to recap, but only a few weekends. So in addition to our recaps this month, we’re going to dive into a bit of a preview of what the spring will hold as well as a look at the history books to see how it’s played out in the past. There’s still plenty of USA Club Rugby content to devour while you’re waiting for the rugby to return in 2026. 

As always – all of this information comes straight from team-entered data on Rugby Xplorer. If you see something that doesn’t seem right, please first check on there or with your local GU! The historical data comes from a couple other sources, there’s been a fair amount of movement in divisions and leagues that no longer exist, so I did my best. Obviously I can make mistakes; please don’t hesitate to reach out if you notice something off.

Without further ado, let’s dive into the last USA Club Rugby recap of 2025; Women’s Division 1.

The Midwest Women’s D1 competition finished in November with Chicago North Shore winning a thrilling game over the Pittsburgh Forge after defeating the Columbus Squirrels in the semifinal. Chicago will advance directly to the National Championship semifinal, where (if you base it on last year’s results) they will likely take on the Pacific Champion or the Atlantic Champion. 

Chicago North Shore aren’t new to the National Championship scene, they won the D1 title back in 2011, and came second in 2014 and 2016. In fact, Chicago North Shore are the only Midwest team to have made the Women’s D1 National Championship match since 2005, when the Minnesota Valkyries capped off a streak of appearances where they continuously fell to the Berkeley All Blues (who won like… nine titles in a row). North Shore went into the Women’s Premier League [WPL] back in the mid 2010’s, and only rejoined the Midwest D1 competition this year after the Women’s Elite Rugby [WER] changed the landscape for women’s rugby in the States.

It’s also worth noting that North Shore were National runners-up this year in the USA Club 7s. Now, the crossover between XVs and 7s isn’t a perfect science, but the ability to perform under pressure will certainly help the North Shore side when National semifinals come a-knockin’.

The Atlantic D1 competition is on a winter hiatus, due to return in March. There are a number of matches still to be played, but typically this league plays semifinals and a final before determining their seed to the National Championship tournament; giving everyone a second chance (as long as they finish in the top four). 

So far Philadelphia (4-0) and NOVA (4-0) are our front runners. Philadelphia has one more bonus point than NOVA, giving them the top seed on the table; they also have a larger point differential. The New York Rugby Club (3-2) and the DC Furies (2-2) are in the next group on the table, sitting comfortably above the bottom three teams, none of whom have recorded a win yet. 

The Atlantic Women’s D1 is one of the strongest D1 competitions out there, accounting for eight appearances in the last ten National Championships. Three of those were titles, and they all belong to NOVA; in 2019, 2022, and 2024. NOVA also has two runner-up finishes (2023 and 2025), the Raleigh Venom have two runner-up finishes (in 2017 and 2018), and Beantown (who has since folded but would have been out of this region) came in second place in 2015. Should anyone but NOVA make it out of the Atlantic, it will be pretty new territory, but beating NOVA would give them some serious street cred. And if it’s NOVA qualifying? Well, they’ve done this a few times before.

Before we can determine an Atlantic champion, we have to finish the regular season. All teams will play a total of six regular season matches, meaning everyone still has at least one to play, with the bottom three teams all still having three left. Once that wraps up, we can start to look at playoff pictures around April. 

The Seattle Orcas remain the one D1 side in the Pacific Northwest, guaranteeing their slot in the Pacific Super Regional. After a 31-5 defeat of the Santa Monica Dolphins in the semifinal last year, they barely lost out to the Utah Vipers in the final. The Vipers would go on to win the National Championship, all by margins larger than the one they beat Seattle by. 

Seattle has two of their own D1 titles in the last ten years, defeating Beantown 31-24 in 2015 and Chicago North Shore 54-21 in 2016. It’s been a bit since Seattle has made the trip to the National Championship, but Pacific teams have historically done very well. Given that Seattle narrowly lost to Utah (and the score was tied for about 20 minutes there at the end of the match), if Seattle can make it out of the Pacific region, I think they have a decent shot of going all the way. Since they don’t have to qualify from the PNW, all they have to do is prepare for who their competition might be come playoff time. 

Over in the Rockies, there is one final game for the regular season left to be played between the Utah Vipers (3-0) and the Colorado Gray Wolves (0-3). The result won’t change the standings, as the Vipers have already done the damage needed to secure first overall. We’re unsure if there will be a final qualification match in the spring in order to proceed to the Pacific Super Regional, but even if there is – it’s going to be hard to top Utah. The Vipers are the defending National Champions, defeating NOVA 45-36 last year in Indy. It was payback for the year before, when the Vipers finished second to NOVA. Before that, the Colorado Gray Wolves had their own appearance in the National Championship match in 2022, falling to (guess who!) NOVA 27-19. 

As you’ll read in the other Pacific sections, this region is stacked for Women’s D1 rugby. Seven of the last ten D1 National Champions have come from the West Coast/Rocky Mountain, and two of the three years they didn’t win – they came second. The path may be tough through league play and regional playoffs, but the payback is pretty good if you can win out the Super Regional and make it to the final four.

Northern California listed one match in December, Life West hosting the Sacramento Amazons (0-1). We haven’t seen any score updates for that one, so nothing much to report as far as recaps go. We do know that at the close of the season, the NorCal champion will head to the Pacific Super Regional in order to compete for their spot in the National Final Four. 

NorCal historically has been very successful in Nationals, with Life West taking back to back titles in 2017 and 2018 after earning the D2 National title in 2016. The Sacramento Amazons also won their own D2 title in 2019, and the Berkeley All Blues had their fair share of championships in the early 2000’s (nine in a row to be exact). However, since the 2020s began, we haven’t seen much of NorCal Women’s D1 on the national scene. Last year Life West declined the D1 bid to the Pacific Super Regional, while Berkeley went in the D2 comp. 

I wish I could update you more, but I don’t have all the answers. With Berkeley’s dominant performance over the Zons in November, and their success in Austin at the preseason tournament, perhaps the tide is turning back and NorCal will become a national powerhouse once more. 

We’re still waiting for the formal SoCal schedule to be posted in Rugby Xplorer, and no individual teams have yet posted their schedules on social media, so I’m still guessing on this one. After the regular season, the SoCal Champion proceeds to the Pacific Super Regional to take on the champions from NorCal, Rocky Mountain, and the PNW. Last year, Life West pulled out of the Super Regional, granting an additional berth to SoCal, which was filled at the last minute by the Santa Monica Dolphins. 

The last three years, it’s been the San Diego Surfers advancing to the next round of playoffs, including two trips to the National Championships in 2023 and 2024, winning the D1 title in 2023. The Surfers also have quite the collection of National 7s titles, winning four championships between 2012-2019; so they’re used to the high pressure environment. 

Once the regular season wraps up this year, it’s not an easy road to the National Championship, but it is a rewarding one. Seven of the last ten Women’s D1 National titles have been won by teams from the West Coast/Pacific region; quite the record of success. 

The Texas Women’s Premiership officially kicked off this past month with all four D1 teams taking the pitch and getting their taste of what’s to come. Life University (1-0) certainly made a statement with their inaugural D1 league match; defeating last year’s table leaders, the Dallas Harlequins (0-1) 122-0. Yeah, you read that right. With the numbers that Life put up against the Atlantic D1 teams in fall friendlies, we kind of thought this might happen. Life very well could win a National Championship their first year playing club rugby, I wouldn’t be surprised. One of the most impressive things about this win was the accuracy off the boot by Life’s inside center, Angelina Mason. Mason slotted 16 for 18 kicks on the day, accounting for a whopping 32 points. 11 different players scored for the Running Eagles, showcasing the depth in the side. 

The Houston sHARCs (1-0) also started their season off well with an opening win over the Austin Valkyries (0-1). The sHARCs ran out to an early lead, scoring 31 points with no response from the Valks. In the middle of the match, Austin found their footing and Houston stalled out for about 20 minutes, staunching the flow of Houston players to the try zone. However, when that 50 minute mark hit, Houston restarted, scoring three quick tries in eight minutes. The final score was 53-19, not as painful as Life over Dallas, but still a confident win from last year’s Nationals representatives. 

Texas has only ever had one team make a Women’s D1 National Championship match, and that was when the Austin Valkyries made the trip in 2019. After defeating the Glendale Merlins at the Western Qualifier, the Valks traveled to Ohio to take on NOVA. They fell 24-22 after scoring at the final whistle, with no time left to find the winning score. A heartbreak, but also the furthest a Texas has team has gone as far as Nationals is concerned.

Back to this season – crossover games will start in January, with the sHARCs hosting the D2 San Antonio Riveters. The Quins will host the Valkyries before traveling to Georgia to face Life once more on January 10th and 17th. At the end of the month the sHARCs will host Life, while Austin hosts the Quins; and after those games, we’ll have a good idea of how everyone stacks up.