Women’s Division 2 – 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 2.

The Midwest Women’s D2 conference had their championship back in November; the Milwaukee Scylla besting South Buffalo in a 97-point shootout. As the top two teams advance to the Northern Super Regional, it was really the semifinals that had everything on the line. Milwaukee took out Fort Wayne 68-0 while South Buffalo defeated Buffalo in a much closer 22-12 battle. 

This won’t be either team’s first time representing the Midwest; Milwaukee Scylla won the D2 National title in 2017 while South Buffalo made the national semifinal in 2024. Both missed out last year though, the Grand Rapids Growlers topped the division and Palmer College finished second. However, Palmer bowed out of the postseason, leaving the Rochester Renegades to fill their slot at the Super Regionals where they ended up losing by only five points to the St. Louis Sabres, avoiding an all-Midwest final.

In fact, a Midwest Women’s D2 team has won the Super Regional the last three years – Milwaukee in 2023, South Buffalo in 2024, and Grand Rapids last year. Unfortunately, all three years, the Midwest failed to get beyond the national semifinal stage and represent in the National Championship match. That’s just the last couple of years though. If we look back at the last ten National Championships, we’ve got four appearances by the Midwest, including titles in 2014, 2015, and 2017. With fifteen total regions competing in the Women’s D2, four of ten championship appearances is pretty impressive. The Midwest teams are certainly ones to watch out for. 

In Mid-America it’s all about the St. Louis Sabres (5-0). And honestly, it has been for a while. They’ve won the conference the last three years, representing Mid-America at the Northern Super Regional. They remain the only Mid-America Women’s D2 team to make it to a National Championship match, back in 2018, eventually falling to Charlotte Rugby Club 46-28. They were serious contenders last year, coming within three points of winning the Super Regional.

This year, it’s more of the same. They’re undefeated with maximum bonus points and an average of 58 points scored per match. Unfortunately, they’ve only played three matches this year, as there’s been a couple of forfeits in the league. One thing the Sabres need is strong competition to push them to be better. The KC Patriots (2-3) gave them a go last year in the final, holding St. Louis to a measly 14 first-half points, but couldn’t close the deal; final score 31-19 to the Sabres. It looks like the Patriots will have to play St. Louis again in the D2 final this year, but nothing is posted, so we can’t confirm that yet. 

Whoever ends up taking the Mid-America title will head to the Northern Super Regional to play the Milwaukee Scylla, South Buffalo, and the Rocky Mountain champion in the spring. 

It looks like the regular season is all wrapped up in the Rocky Mountains as all the teams have played each other once. There’s still no playoff information posted, nor is there record of a playoff match taking place, so we aren’t positive if the top team is advancing directly to the regionals. 

The Colorado Springs Pikes Peaks (4-0) finished with a perfect record, taking down all that dared to face them. Only one team managed to get a bonus point in the loss to the Peaks, and that was Denver Black Ice (2-2) back at the start of October. Denver, however, dropped their season opener big to the Salt City SLUGs (3-1) who wrap up in second overall. If Rocky Mountain opts to have semifinals based on the current standings, the fourth team that would qualify would be the Littleton Lemons (1-3) who got their lone win of the season over the Boulder Babes (0-4). 

Last year Rocky Mountain sent the Babes to the Northern Super Regional after Boulder defeated Black Ice in the championship 14-10. It’s important to note that Rocky Mountain only had three teams competing in the league last year, up to five this year. More competition, better games, better teams. They’ll need the boost too, because we have no record of a Rocky Mountain Women’s D2 team in a National Championship match. As we mentioned above, Midwest has wrapped up the Super Regional the last three years, and before that, Mid-America had their turn. So, I think it’s time for Rocky Mountain to get their foot in the door, and send a team to Nationals. It all starts with the spring playoffs.

Over in the Atlantic we have a few divisions that already named champions, and a few waiting for spring playoffs. New England crowned their champion back in November, and now have a long winter off waiting for the snow to melt. Providence took the title from Worcester in a thrilling rematch of last year’s league final. Providence finished top of the table both years in a row, but the Shamrocks managed to pull off the upset in the championship match. They ended up falling in the Super Regional semifinal to Phoenixville White Horse, but ended the weekend with a win in the D2 consolation match over the Severn River Honey Badgers. In 2024 NERFU’s seed to regionals, Albany, also ended their trip early when they ran into White Horse in the semis. Both years Phoenixville would end up in the National Championship match, so at least there’s that. 

The last time Providence qualified for the Super Regional was back in 2023, when they made a run in the D1 competition, after winning the 2022 D2 National Championship. They lost to NOVA in the semifinal, then fell to Boston in the consolation match. There’s been a fair amount of movement in the D1/D2 women’s teams in the Atlantic region, causing the formation of the Atlantic D1 Women’s Conference, which spans the entire coast. Either way, Providence is back, they look fierce, and they’ve already completed step one, which is to qualify for the Super Regional.

The Empire region also crowned their champion in November. Empire has a small women’s D2 conference, only three teams. However, that didn’t stop it from having a thrilling ending. Danbury and New Haven battled it out all season. Danbury won the first match when they hosted, 27-15. Home field advantage worked again the next game, as New Haven hosted and took the win 19-12. The bonus points that Danbury got in those two games gave them the leg up and the bye for the conference final. After a smashing of the Brooklyn Hyenas in the semifinal, New Haven pulled off the upset, defeating Danbury for a second time this year, clinching the Empire title and the qualification for the playoffs. Now, I’m not going to say they automatically qualify for Super Regionals, because last year the Empire champion (also New Haven) played one match in the spring against the NERFU second-place team in order to get the bid to Super Regionals. They ended up winning this game over Providence and qualifying anyway, but I’m not sure if it’s guaranteed. 

New Haven won their semi last year at Super Regionals over Severn River 17-15, but fell to Phoenixville White Horse in the final 30-14. The year before, New Haven played Severn yet again, but that time it was the Honey Badgers who advanced, with a 43-8 win in the semi. If we go all the way back to 2023, we have New Haven yet again, this time taking a third-place finish with a 20-5 win over Worcester at regionals. 

If we go far enough back in the history books, we do have a string of Empire success at the National Championship level. The Village Lions represented back in 2002-2008 with a couple of top eight finishes, including a National D2 Title in 2002. That would make it 24 years since an Empire women’s D2 side last lifted the National trophy. Sounds like it’s about time for another one.

Down in the Capital conference, the battle of the Rivers continues. By this, I mean the age-old battle between James River (3-1) and the Severn River Honey Badgers (3-0). These two have been duking it out for as long as we can track, playing each other in (at least) the last three Capital finals. We’re only a little over halfway through Capital’s regular season this year, but it looks like it’s going to come down to the same final two. James River actually has the lead on the table right now, but they’ve played one more match. Severn is our last undefeated team left in the conference. Hear me out, both Norfolk Storm (1-3) and NOVA (0-3) could make things really interesting at the end of the season, but they’d have to win the rest of their matches and have Severn River lose to James River on March 28th. 

As we mentioned, Severn River and James River have battled it out the last three championships, all of which have fallen in favor of the Honey Badgers. It has been getting progressively closer though; what started as an 81-0 romp in 2023, went to a 66-21 defeat in 2024, went to a very close 19-7 final last year. James River and Severn have already faced off once this year, Severn taking the win 24-5, but that was at the Honey Badgers’ home pitch, which always helps. The next one is up at James River, we’ve got to wait for the end of March for that. 

So, Severn has progressed to the Atlantic Super Regional the last three years, but how have they done? Mixed results. Their best year was in 2023, when they topped Phoenixville White Horse 36-31 in the Atlantic final, making it all the way to the National Championship game, eventually losing to the Knoxville Minx. In 2024, Phoenixville turned the tables and defeated Severn 12-8 in order to advance. In 2025, they qualified from Capital, but lost in the semifinal and in the consolation match at the regionals.

In order to right the ship from last year, Severn will have to finish out the season in the top two from Capital, and win the Capital championship on April 18th. James River are close on their heels, they’ve been improving every year, and have their eyes on the prize this year. Games start back up on March 14th with Severn River hosting NOVA.

We’ve got a handful of matches left in Eastern Pennsylvania, but one team has already booked their ticket to the EPRU final. Who else but Phoenixville White Horse (6-0). Now, if you read all the above sections from the Atlantic region, you’ve seen White Horse’s name thrown around a fair bit. This would be because they were the National runners-up the last two years; so they’re responsible for a fair number of the Atlantic teams being knocked out of playoffs. 

It’s back to business for Phoenixville, who have an outstanding +394 PD over six games. That’s about an average of 66 points per match, no biggie. Their closest match of the season was back on opening weekend against Northeast Philadelphia (2-4) 32-20. Considering the rest of their scores so far, that’s pretty good. The team with the best chance of finishing second right now is Monmouth (4-1). They still have three games left to play, against Northeast Philly, Phoenixville, and Harrisburg (2-3). Harrisburg and Northeast Philadelphia are third and fourth on the table, tied on bonus points, but Harrisburg with one less match played. They both still have a shot if it all goes downhill for Monmouth in the spring. 

So how does the EPRU stack up overall? Pretty good. Obviously Phoenixville has been hot the last two years, but Harrisburg came second back in 2019 against the Sacramento Amazons. Eastern Pennsylvania is certainly on the up and up and a force to be reckoned with. 

Games will kick back off on March 14th with Northeast Philadelphia hosting Monmouth and Harrisburg hosting White Horse. Doylestown (0-6) will be back on the hunt for the first win of their season on March 21st when they host Harrisburg.

Heading over to the Pacific coast, we’ll start in the Pacific Northwest. We don’t have a formal schedule in Rugby Xplorer for this one, but we know a few games have taken place. (I know PNW uses MatchFacts, but that one is also not working – I tried!) The Portland Pigs won out the last two years, defeating everyone in the conference except D1 Seattle. And last year, they actually drew against Seattle in the regular season, giving them a final record of 5-0-1. They had a similar overall PD as Seattle (Seattle’s 339 to Portland’s 326) and one less bonus point, but they also had one less game played overall.

Portland has represented the Pacific Northwest the last two years at the Pacific Super Regional, losing out in the semifinals in 2024 to the Sacramento Amazons, and narrowly losing the final last year to Las Vegas Rugby, who went on to take the National D2 title. The Pacific Northwest has yet to have a team in the Women’s D2 National Championship match, but it’s clear that the Pigs are building towards it. Getting the opportunity to compete against D1 Seattle is massive for a team like the Pigs. We’ve seen time and time again, the ability to play up can pay off. I’m eager to post more as soon as that schedule gets uploaded in RX, so we can have an idea of what is to come for the spring season. 

Unfortunately this year it looks like a lot of the NorCal D2 teams have made the move down to D3. Last year we had seven D2 sides and Life West as the sole D1 side; this year we have three D1/D2 teams (Life West, Berkeley, and the Sacramento Amazons). It’s still unclear which of these teams are D1 and which are D2; I think Life West and Berkeley are opting to go on the D1 postseason pathway while the Zons qualify for D2. If that’s the case, then there’s not much to cover as the Amazons would automatically qualify to go to the Pacific Super Regional. As always, don’t quote me on this, I’m just using the information I get from Rugby Xplorer.

I do know that last year, the Berkeley All Blues were still in D2 and made the trip to the Pacific Super Regionals. They lost in the semifinal to the Portland Pigs, who put up a heck of a fight against Las Vegas in the final. The year before, the Sacramento Amazons made the trip, demolishing Las Vegas in the final. They went to the National Championship tournament where they lost 32-21 against Phoenixville White Horse. As far as appearances in the National Championship matches, the Sacramento Amazons won the D2 title back in 2019 over Harrisburg. Life West won the D2 title in 2016 over Wisconsin Rugby (and were promoted the next year to D1 where they won back to back titles there). Before that, the Sacramento Amazons finished runners-up two years in a row; 2015 to Wisconsin and 2014 to the Pittsburgh Angels. So every team in this NorCal D1/D2 conference has won a National Championship. If that’s not intimidating, I don’t know what is.

The only match we have left on the calendar for the spring is Life West hosting the Sacramento Amazons on January 31st. We’ll keep you updated as we find out more about the comp. 

Southern California has yet to update their schedule in RX, but as they typically start at the end of January, we still have one more month before I start getting panicky. SoCal has had a different D2 champion the last three years, but none of them have made it to the National Championship match. Last year’s champion the West Coast Marines actually had to pull out of the Super Regionals due to too many of their players being pulled away for Marine duty, which is probably the most convincing excuse I’ve ever heard. In fact, it’s probably more impressive than making it to a National Championship match, in my opinion. The Pasadena Royals stepped in at the last minute and immediately faced the Las Vegas Irish (who won the National title last year). A tough first match for a second-chance team, but an admirable ability to step in at the last moment and keep the tournament going. The year before, Los Angeles Rugby Club [LARC] won the division and again faced Las Vegas in the semi, falling 55-24.

All in all, it sounds like SoCal is overdue for an appearance at Nationals. However, they have a mountain to climb ahead of them being in the same region as the defending D2 champion and the full division of former champions up in NorCal. And that’s all after they play an entire regular season. 

The Southwest Women’s D2 division kicked off at the end of November and we’ve had two matches played so far. The Lady Landsharks (1-0) and Phoenix (1-0) won their opening matches, while Las Vegas have yet to kick things off. Speaking of Las Vegas, they kind of run things down here in the Southwest. They are the two-time reigning Southwest Champions and the defending National Champions. I’m pretty sure they haven’t lost a match since 2024. 

But let’s not let it get to their heads! They’re not the only star down in the Southwest. The Atomic Sisters were National runners-up in 2010, losing 34-22 against the Albany Knickerbockers. Sure it’s been awhile, but having Las Vegas in their league will push everyone to step up. They’ve also got a ton of games to test out all their combinations. The season kicks off on January 10th and pretty much runs nonstop until the end of March. Each team will play seven matches before the playoffs. Now this league didn’t play a final last year (at least one that’s recorded in RX), so every game counts in order to win that bid to the Super Regional. 

Finally we check in on the Gulf Coast, starting with the True South Women’s D2. This league started back in the fall, but only three matches were played before the winter break. The Birmingham Steel (2-0) looks good, starting off their season with two wins over the Chattanooga Queens (0-1) and the Nashville Stone Lions (0-1) in October. The Knoxville Minx (1-0) also kicked off their season with a win over the Lions in November. But that’s all we’ve got to work with so far. 

The Knoxville Minx have been the Super Regional reps for the last three years, always playing the Tampa Krewe in the final. Which, when you look at the stats, is a pretty fierce match-up. The Minx were National runners-up in 2022, won the National Championship in 2023, and Tampa Krewe won the Championship in 2024. Quite a run for the Gulf Coast region. But perhaps it’s time for a new name on the scene, and Birmingham Steel are certainly making their mark.

Fortunately, we get to see the Steel and the Minx face off on February 14th, consider it a Valentine’s Day gift from True South to all of us. Once we get through that one, we will have a better idea of who really runs the show down in the True South.

Texas kicked off their season in December, but we only have one match to cover (for D2). Texas plays a D1/D2 hybrid; although all four D1 teams kicked off their season, we’re still waiting on the San Antonio Riveters to take the pitch to complete the D2 sides. Little Rock (1-0) made a statement with a 107-12 win over the sHARCs D2 (0-1). This isn’t that surprising from Little Rock, they actually took down a few of the D1 sides last year in their quest to claim the Texas title, so they can do a lot of damage. Little Rock represented Texas in both the 2025 and 2023 Super Regionals, falling to the Tampa Krewe both times. In 2024, the Dallas Harlequins made the trip before their promotion to D1; they dropped their semifinal to the Knoxville Minx. As we mentioned in the rest of these sections, the Minx and the Krewe are really good D2 sides, so it just kind of stinks that they have to face them first. But if anyone from Texas wants to win the Women’s D2 National title, they’d have to get through them eventually. 

Games in Texas will resume in January; the Riveters travel to the D1 sHARCs on the 10th and then to Little Rock on the 17th. The sHARCs will then host Little Rock on January 31st. After those games take place, we can see if Little Rock really is that good, or if it was just a slow start to the season by the sHARCs.

Over to the Carolinas where the regular season looks to be wrapped up; at least there’s no more matches in RX. The last couple of years the Carolinas have played games into the spring with semis and finals taking place around April, so we wouldn’t be surprised to see more games added to the website. 

Currently Charlotte (5-0) and the Atlanta 2.0 Selects (4-0) are undefeated in their respective regions. Now let’s not get ahead of ourselves, because this was the case last year when the Charleston Hurricanes (2-1) showed up in the postseason and blew everyone out of the water. Charlotte are the only current Carolinas Women’s D2 team that has a National title to their name, winning back in 2018 over the St. Louis Sabres. I say current because Raleigh Venom had their fair share of titles back between 2005-2011. Raleigh has moved up to D1 since then, but still counts towards the Carolinas. 

The last three years the Charleston Hurricanes have been hard to budge from winning the Carolinas championship. However, they always hit a bit of a brick wall when they go to regionals. In 2023 it was the Knoxville Minx, 2024 it was Tampa Krewe, then last year it was again the Knoxville Minx who dealt them their death blow. It’s not easy being in the Women’s D2 competitions in the Gulf Coast region, that’s for sure. 

So far it looks like we’ll see Charlotte and Atlanta in the Carolina playoffs once more; the teams with the best chances of joining them are the Augusta Furies (3-1) in the East and either Fear the Maniacs (2-3) or the Fayetteville Valkyries (2-3) in the West. So far it looks like Charleston might miss the boat, but they always have a way of turning it around come crunch time. Again, we’re waiting on an updated schedule here, once we know more, you’ll know more!

Finally checking in on the Women’s D2 teams down in Florida. The action all starts on January 17th with Jacksonville hosting Fort Miami and the Tampa Krewe hosting Orlando. The Krewe won the division last year with a 32-19 defeat of Fort Miami after finishing second on the table. From there, they advanced to the Gulf Coast Super Regional where they defeated the Knoxville Minx to advance to yet another National Championship tournament. They were unable to successfully defend their 2024 National title, after falling 22-19 to Las Vegas in the semi. As far as additional Nationals representation, the last Women’s D2 Florida team to make a National Championship match was back in 2008 when Orlando won the title. 

This year the five women’s D2 teams will play against each other, and a friendly against the D3 Lady Hammerheads, before advancing to a final 1v2 match to determine who qualifies for the Super Regional. The Gulf Coast region has been pretty strong the past few years for Women’s D2, producing two of the last three National Champions. Winning Florida is a great first step on making the path to (or in Tampa’s case, back to) the National Championship tournament.