Women’s Division 2 – March 2026 Recap

This isn’t basketball, but it sure seems like March Madness out there. With the return of spring and the rising temperatures, we welcome back the return of club rugby to many regions across the country. Not only have the teams started playing again, but we have landed smack dab in the middle of playoff season, and it’s spicy.

If you’re new here – all of the information for this article comes from team-entered data on Rugby Xplorer. You know the rules – the more accurate your team admin is about entering data, the more accurate I can be in these articles. Any other commentary is added for fun from someone who has zero stake in the outcome of these games. 

Also worth a note – with Super Regionals at the end of April/start of May, this is our last “monthly” recap for the 2025-26 XV season. We’ll preview all four Super Regionals as well as the National Championship tournament, and in there we will cover the last bits of how local competitions wrapped up. But don’t worry about that just yet, we’ve got all of March to cover! Let’s dive in and see how the Women’s D2 Competition fared this past month.

The Milwaukee Scylla and South Buffalo have both punched their tickets to the Northern Super Regional thanks to their top two finishes in the Midwest Championship back in November. Milwaukee defeated South Buffalo 58-39, which gives them the higher seed in the semifinals. The Scylla are kicking off their spring season this upcoming weekend with a match at Chicago North Shore before hosting Des Moines the following weekend. South Buffalo have yet to post a spring schedule, but we’re sure they are preparing for their second trip to the Super Regionals, having won the whole thing and advanced to the National Championship on their first run back in 2024. 

Mid-America rugby kicked off this month with one match back on March 14th between the fourth-place KC Jazz (1-4-1) and the second-place Omaha Goats (2-3-1). The two played back in October, the final match of the fall season, with Omaha dominating the Jazz, final score 49-17. This time, it was a lot closer. I mean a LOT closer. Practically as close as it could be. That’s right, the Jazz and the Goats tied 24-24. Both teams scored four tries, but Lydia Klimt kicked two conversions compared to Alexis Dart’s one. Where did the other two points come from? Well, one of the tries to Omaha was a penalty try, which is an automatic seven points. As far as standings go, Omaha was definitely hoping for a win here to secure second place overall, but a tie with a bonus point works just as well. Now the KC Patriots (2-3) have to beat the St. Louis Sabres (5-0) next weekend in order to finish in the top two and jump over the Goats. That would be a massive win for Kansas City whose last match against St. Louis ended as a forfeit win for the Sabres. No playoff information has yet been posted for Mid-America, but barring any major upsets, it looks St. Louis will be making the trip back to the Super Regionals.

The Rocky Mountain Women’s D2 regular season wrapped up in the fall, and we were treated to two epic semifinal match ups back on March 21st. 

First up, the #4 Littleton Lemons (1-3) hosted the #1 Colorado Springs Pikes Peaks (4-0). I’m not sure why there was a switch-up in hosts, but it just adds to the excitement. The last time these two faced off was on September 27th when the Pikes Peaks hosted and it was a strong 39-5 win for Colorado Springs. This time, Littleton put up a solid fight, scoring 19 points with tries from Shelby Voss, Melpomene Vasiliou, and Andrea Zaragoza. It wasn’t enough though, as Colorado Springs sent six players to the try zone for the 36-19 win. 

The other semifinal ended up being much closer as the #2 SLUGs (3-1) hosted #3 Denver Black Ice (2-2). The two played way back at the start of the season with the SLUGs dropping 56 points on Denver in the 56-5 win. This time, Denver came prepared. Black Ice scored first through Calinda Baker, but the SLUGs tied it up with a try a few minutes later through Mele Nofoa. Utah took the lead a few moments later, but Denver tied it back up. Both teams exchanged another try, and at halftime it was all even, 17-17. The SLUGs started to pull ahead as the second half ticked by, and even a late try from Black Ice wasn’t enough to get the lead back. The SLUGs advanced to the Rocky Mountain Championship, final score 34-29. 

The Colorado Springs Pikes Peaks will host the SLUGs on April 11th, with the winning team advancing to the Northern Super Regional in May. The last time these two played was back in October with the Pikes Peaks taking the win 38-19. This time though, there is much more at stake. 

Providence won the NERFU title back in November, and are already back on the pitch preparing for the Atlantic Super Regional. They took on Boston this weekend in an absolute barnburner of a game. The final score was 43-42 to Boston, but it seems like rugby really won that one. A banger start to the season for Providence, who has their sights set on May 2nd and 3rd. They will host Hartford on April 11th before traveling to Danbury on April 25th. Win or lose those, no matter, it’s all about how Providence prepares to face the champions from the four other regions in the Atlantic. 

New Haven Old Black defeated Danbury in the Empire Championship in November, and have already started their run-up to the Atlantic Super Regional. New Haven are not taking it easy; they played against D1 Atlantic leaders Philadelphia on March 14th before facing D1 New York Rugby Club last weekend. Philadelphia won the first one 60-14, and although no scores have been reported from the NYRC match, it looked like a great warm-up match for New Haven to test some new combinations. New Haven has a busy schedule planned for April as well including two home games hosting Worcester and Hartford and an away match at Union. 

Four matches took place in March to finally confirm the two teams advancing to the conference final on April 18th. We had a pretty good idea that it would come down to James River (4-2) and Severn River (6-0), but now we’re sure. Both teams stacked 50+ points on NOVA (0-6) this past month to confirm their bids. Severn River also had a big win over Norfolk Storm (2-4) on the 21st to better support their chance of going into playoffs as the top seed. However, there was one match that would really confirm who was the best in the Capital conference, and that was on March 28th when James River hosted Severn River. The two sides last played against each other on October 18th, with the home team, Severn, taking the win 24-5. This time, James River had the home field advantage and we weren’t sure how much that would affect the scoreline. It was a much closer game, coming down to one score, but it was still Severn River who took the win, 17-12. This means that Severn will take the top seed into the Championships, but they still have to face James River once more in order to qualify for the Super Regional. As James River has been getting closer and closer to defeating Severn River, we’ve got to ask – is this match going to be the one where they finally get the upset? Or will Severn double down and prove they are the best in the Capital conference?

Over in Eastern Pennsylvania, teams were competing for the second spot in the EPRU Championship, as Phoenixville White Horse (8-0) had clinched the top seed after six games in the fall.

March 14th was the most important weekend for this playoff spot, as Monmouth (6-2) and Northeast Philadelphia (3-3) went head to head for the second time this season. It was a back and forth match with both teams getting a 4+ try bonus point, but in the end it was the visiting team, Monmouth, who secured the win, final score 40-35. Despite being mathematically out of the race, Northeast Philadelphia went on to win their final match of the season, 47-21 over Doylestown (1-7). 

Harrisburg (2-6) also had a chance of making the postseason at the start of the month, but that plan went downhill after going winless all of March. Their first match was a 93-5 loss to Phoenixville, which as Phoenixville goes, was kind of expected. Their second match however, was a surprise, as they lost on the road against Doylestown. Shout out to Doylestown though, who got their first win of the season! Harrisburg closed out the season with a 70-5 loss to Monmouth, who had just secured their place in the conference final. 

On April 11th, Phoenixville and Monmouth will face off for the third time this season; this time for the slot in the Atlantic Super Regional. Phoenixville are the clear favorites, entering this match with an undefeated season record and overall PD of +517. They have a 2-0 record over Monmouth this season, a combined score of 121-15. They’ve also been the National runners-up the last two years, losing 28-24 last year in the final against Las Vegas. Though should it come down to it, Monmouth are old pros at finishing on top of close matches. They had two matches decided by less than a try this year; over Harrisburg in October and Northeast Philadelphia earlier this month. Nothing is impossible, especially when it comes to playoff rugby.

We had a full slate of matches up in the Pacific Northwest this past month and the postseason is getting closer. 

The Portland Pigs (6-1) added three wins to their record, as well as one loss, but that loss was against D1 Seattle so it doesn’t REALLY count. Last year’s D2 Champions are looking in fine form as they defeated the Steller Sea Lions (1-5), the Emerald City Mudhuns (4-4), and the Bend Lady Roughriders (4-3), only allowing one try scored against them in three matches. In their match against Seattle, they went blow for blow, even securing a bonus point in the 39-24 loss. It looks like Portland are booking another trip to the PNW final and very possibly another trip to the Pacific Super Regionals.

The Eugene Reign (2-4) started their March with a big win over the Sea Lions, 52-7, and ended the month with a big win over the Chuckanut Bay Mussels (2-4), 53-5. In between those, they had a very tight contest against the Emerald City Mudhens. The Mudhens eked out the win in that one thanks to a try from front-rower Kaylee Bingham; final score 43-41. Another close match back in March was the 27-24 contest between Bend and Chuckanut Bay. Chuckanut Bay scored three tries in the first half, but were unable to seal the deal as the Roughriders took the win. 

As far as the postseason goes, nothing is posted in RX. Obviously Portland will advance no matter how many teams go, but outside of that, both Bend and the Mudhens are in a favorable position as well as Chuckanut Bay, who is closing in.

Only three matches to cover from Northern California, which makes sense since there are only really three teams in this D1/D2 bracket. Unfortunately, the Sacramento Amazons (0-4) continue to be thrown around by the Berkeley All Blues (4-0) and Life West (2-2), with two more massive scorelines coming from the matches on the 7th and the 14th. I think (hope) that Sacramento will be pursuing the D2 postseason pathway while the better of the All Blues versus Life West takes the bid for the D1. Without Sacramento taking on other D2 opponents, we really don’t know how they will fare heading into the postseason. They did win the National Championship back in 2019, so the Zons are pretty much a dark horse entering this year’s Super Regional (again- if my predictions about the league structure are correct).

Down in Southern California we had three weeks of regular play to finish off the season before the top four teams went head to head in the conference semifinals. 

Los Angeles (8-0) finished off a perfect season with wins over the Empire Monarchs (3-5) and San Fernando (4-4) on the 7th and the 14th respectively. This secured them the home advantage in the semis with a total season PD of +265. Surprisingly, this isn’t the highest PD of the league; the West Coast Marines (6-2) finished with an overall PD of +279, helped out by their 73-7 win over San Fernando on the 21st. 

The Pasadena Royals (7-1) finished second overall after blanking the Monarchs on the 14th, 28-0. This marks three wins on the hop for Pasadena, who finished second-place last year against the WC Marines. 

The Marines finished in third place, but didn’t participate in the playoff matches on March 28th. Last year the Marines won the SoCal final 27-22, but had to pull out of the Super Regionals due to availability of players (Marine duty). Either the Marines were deemed ineligible for playoffs because of their regular season forfeit to Pasadena, or they pulled themselves out of contention. Either way it’s unfortunate to see their season end early, they put on quite a show on the pitch. 

San Fernando (4-4) finished fourth but took the third seed into the playoffs. Honestly it was a rough month for San Fernando, who faced both LARC and the Marines on back to back weekends. They did get a win back on March 7th, when they hosted the Santa Barbara Mermaids (1-7). The final score of that one was 64-7 to San Fernando, highlighted by Taylor Piergrossi’s hat-trick in the second half. 

The Fullerton Wolfpack (4-4) got a second chance in the postseason thanks to the Marines’ pulling out. The 38-27 win over Ventura County (2-6) back on March 14th did the trick to pull the Wolfpack within one table of San Fernando; and when the Marines dropped, Fullerton jumped in. 

The Empire Monarchs may not have made the postseason cut, but they did finish their season with a 53-45 win over Ventura County on March 21st. It was a high-scoring match, with Ventura County scoring the majority of their tries in the first half. The Monarchs came back and snatched the win at the death, ending their season on a high. Ventura County may have lost their last one, but they also got a win in March; 56-12 over San Luis Obispo (1-7) on March 7th. Yevgeniya Aufdembrink scored four tries for Ventura County over SLO, bringing their season total to five. 

Now that the final four were decided, Southern California went straight into the semifinals with #1 LARC hosting the #4 Fullerton Wolfpack and the #2 Pasadena Royals hosting #3 San Fernando. LARC and Fullerton played back on January 24th, with Fullerton hosting. That one ended 57-21 in favor of Los Angeles. The semifinal was a bit more one-sided than that fixture, with Los Angeles taking a commanding lead and never relenting. Final score 76-5 with LARC advancing to the conference finals. The other semifinal saw Pasadena hosting San Fernando, a rematch of the February 7th game. San Fernando hosted that one, which finished 27-10 in favor of the visitors. Again, the home side was victorious in the semi, with Pasadena advancing after a 50-12 win. Priscilla Gardner scored four tries for the Royals, while Robyn Collins added two tries and three conversions. 

Next up Los Angeles will take on Pasadena for the SoCal championship. This match has real potential to be a banger, the last time these two faced off was back in January, with LARC squeezing by the Royals 26-22.

Our final region sending a team to the Pacific Super Regionals is the Southwest, home to the defending D2 National Champions, Las Vegas. Las Vegas (7-1) added three wins to their record this past month; 85-0 and 62-17 over the Landsharks (2-6) and 47-5 over Phoenix (7-1). Phoenix still top Las Vegas in the standings due to an early season forfeit from Las Vegas back in December. However, as the scoreline would suggest, Las Vegas is certainly back in action. Phoenix aren’t to be counted out though, they also recorded a big win this past month over the Albuquerque Atomic Sisters (1-7). Alexandria DeMeo and Yasmin Chaparro both scored thrice in the 59-7 win for Phoenix. 

Old Pueblo (3-5) and Albuquerque played a home and away against each other this past month, Old Pueblo hosting on the 8th and the Atomic Sisters on the 28th. The home side proved victorious in both of those matches, with the Lightning getting a resounding win in the first, but Albuquerque getting their first win of the season in the second. Old Pueblo actually took the lead in the second match with an early try from Mikayla Quesenberry, but the Atomic Sisters matched try for try through the second half, finally pulling into the lead and holding off a late effort from the Lightning to finish on top for the first time this year. As Albuquerque finished fifth of five teams, it’s probably not in the cards for playoffs, but at least they end with a win. 

If the top four advance in a 1v4, 2v3 structure we will see Phoenix hosting the Landsharks and Las Vegas hosting Old Pueblo. If we go straight to the final, Phoenix and Las Vegas will go head to head for the second time this season.

Heading down to the Gulf Coast where there were only two matches this past month, but two big regional tournaments. Most teams either sent full sides or individual players to the Savannah St. Patrick’s Day Tournament at the start of the month and/or Nash Bash on March 21st and 22nd. 

The Knoxville Minx (2-1) managed to hold onto second place after defeating the Chattanooga Queens (1-2) on March 14th. The Queens had just made their move the weekend before with a narrow 14-12 defeat of the Nashville Stone Lions (0-3). Had they defeated the Minx on the 14th, they would have jumped into second. The Birmingham Steel (3-0) already locked up first after defeating all three True South opponents in January and February. 

Not sure what the playoffs are going to look like here, but Birmingham is definitely the team to beat. I’m sure Knoxville will tap into their library of playoff rugby knowledge (having won the National title in 2023), but we very well could have a new champion this year.

Down in the Red River, there was only one match left to close out the season, though the final was already set last month. The San Antonio Riveters (2-3) traveled to the Houston sHARCs (0-5) on March 14th, clocking their biggest win of the season. Thalia Revilla and Riley Swanson both scored three tries for San Antonio in the 82-0 win while Hannah Stacey kicked an impressive 11 for 12 conversions. San Antonio must now face table leader Little Rock (4-1) at the Red River Championships in Durant, OK. Little Rock has been in top form all season, including a two-point loss to the D1 Dallas Harlequins. The two have already played twice this season, both wins to Little Rock, a combined score of 70-7. 

Over in the Carolinas, the regular season wrapped up after one final March match (and a number of forfeits) with the conference semifinals taking place last weekend.

Both the Atlanta 2.0 Selects (7-1) and Charlotte (8-0) had wrapped up their respective regions by our last recap, but there was still a little bit of uncertainty on who they would be playing. The lone match of the month that took place was Eno River (4-4) hosting Atlanta. That one was closer than expected, with Eno holding the lead with 10 minutes left, 21-17. However two late tries from Rhia Cox and Alex Kinzinger, plus the conversions from Cox, pulled Atlanta into the lead without a moment to spare. It wouldn’t have had any effect on the final standings, but would have been epic to see Eno River end their season on a win. 

Along to the semifinals! According to the Carolinas GU Facebook page, the Atlanta 2.0 Selects were slotted to face Fear the Maniacs (5-3), while Charlotte was to take on the Fayetteville Valkyries (5-3). I’m not really sure how we got there based on the East vs West brackets, but these are the top four teams and so they should be the four heading to the postseason. Unfortunately it appears that Fear the Maniacs forfeited this semifinal berth, so Atlanta gets a free ride to the final (okay not free, they earned it throughout the season). On the other side of the bracket, Charlotte absolutely whooped Fayetteville, as if any of us needed a reminder of how good Charlotte is. The final score was 118-0, which is not the first time Charlotte has hit triple digits this season, but it is the biggest differential. 

The big game happens on April 11th with Charlotte and the Atlanta 2.0 Selects facing off for a second time this season. Last year, they tied in the regular season and finished with identical records. This year, Charlotte took the win in Atlanta by a mere converted try, final score 26-19. We know it’ll be close in the final, the question is – how close?

Finishing off our Gulf Coast region, we’re heading down to Florida, home of the 2024 D2 National Champions, the Tampa Krewe. There were only a handful of matches in March, and there’s one more regular season game to go this weekend, but we’ve confirmed the top two teams heading to the conference final on April 11th.

It will come as no surprise that the Krewe finished 6-0 in the regular season with a total PD of +331. They only had one match in March, but it was a resounding 71-7 win against Jacksonville (3-4). The Krewe showcased their depth in that one, sending nine different players into the try zone with scores, as well as getting two different kickers on the board with conversions. 

Orlando (4-2) will finish in second place overall, even with one more match left to play against the Tampa Krewe. Wait, doesn’t that mean that the Krewe and Orlando will play twice in two weeks? According to the schedule, it sure does. Consider it a little Easter appetizer before the main course. Orlando really put the jets on this month with a 46-7 win over Fort Miami (2-5) on the 7th and a 72-13 win over the Southwest Florida Hammerheads (0-4) on the 14th. Orlando and the Tampa Krewe have played once already this season, but it was way back on opening weekend. Tampa won that one by a landslide, final score 74-12. 

Jacksonville might not have made the top two, but they did finish their season off with a win, beating Fort Miami 45-29 on March 14th. Jacksonville took an early lead in that one thanks to Aniya Smith, but Fort Miami took the lead back through Sofia Fernandez (2) and Geneva Alpert. Jacksonville scored twice more in the first half, but Fort Miami took the lead into halftime, 17-15. The second half was where Jacksonville really made their move. Emma Savas scored three in fifteen minutes to tip the scales heavily in Jacksonville’s favor. Fort Miami scored another, but the game was already won. Jacksonville had to win their final match of the season over the Tampa Krewe to have a hope for a top two finish, but they fell short. Still, a massive improvement from last year when Jacksonville finished winless in the league. 

There’s only one more regular season game left before the Krewe and Orlando compete in a winner-take-all game for the Florida title and the slot at the Super Regionals. Who’s it gonna be?