Women’s Division 2 – September 2026 Recap

Days grow shorter, temperatures and leaves start dropping, kids head back to school, and all around the country rugby players gather at their local clubs to start laying the groundwork for another USA Club Rugby XV season. Unlike the 7s season that’s short, sharp, and played around the country at the same time; the XV season is a different beast. Different regions of the country play their regular season (and sometimes their playoffs!) at different times, usually weather-dependent. They also often don’t play across Geographic Unions, and if they do, it’s typically not when both teams are at their peak. So what does this mean? It means that one – it’s hard to compare teams across regions, and two – these monthly recap articles tend to be very heavily focused on certain regions depending on what time of year it is. Everyone eventually gets their moment in the spotlight, so if it’s not now, it’ll be later, just hang tight. 

If you’re new here – welcome to the monthly USA Club Rugby Recaps! How this works is simple. Every month I will cover what happened in the active GU’s and competitive regions, broken down by division. We have five divisions vying for USA National Championships – Women’s 1+2, and Men’s 1+2+3. There are Women’s Division 3 and Men’s Division 4 in some regions in the country. Depending on the density of these teams, they might play for a regional championship, or play in a hybrid league with some of the NCS-seeking teams. For now, hybrid leagues are the only time we’ll cover them, but there’s always room for growth in the future. 

So – where do I get my information? Ah, I’m so glad you asked. I get my schedules and league formats from union-entered data on Rugby Xplorer. So if there’s no schedule uploaded, I have to guess. I get my scores and stats from team-entered data on Rugby Xplorer. This means the more detailed your team is at entering match data (rosters, scoring, subs, cards), the more detailed I can be in my recaps. If you don’t upload the info – I’ve got to adlib, and no one wants that. That being said, if you do see a mistake feel free to reach out via email – I’m always going to try to get the most accurate information out there.

Whew, now that we covered all that (and for you regular readers out there) it’s time to get into it. Check out below to see what happened in September (and the end of August!) in the Women’s Division 2 Competition.

We’ve added a fifth subdivision to the Midwest Women’s D2 conference this year, bringing the total number of teams up from 19 to 24 (if I did my math right). The Midwest has also changed their regular season league format from either a home or away fixture to all teams playing both home AND away fixtures, so there’s double the matches to cover. With that much to cover, we’d better dive in.

Let’s start with the only region unchanged by the addition of a new subdivision, the North. This league plays host to Buffalo, South Buffalo, North Buffalo, Uticuse, and the Rochester Renegades (I’m dreaming of the day it’s five teams all with Buffalo in their name). Last year Buffalo, South Buffalo, and the Renegades finished 3-1 with only bonus points to separate them. This year South Buffalo (4-0) are currently top of the table, still undefeated after playing each opponent once. Their first two wins were absolute blowouts, but their match against Buffalo (3-2) on the 19th was a nailbiter. It came down to the final minutes when Alyssa Anderson scored for Buffalo to tie it up, but Shannon Wypij closed the game out for South Buffalo at the final whistle, scoring her own to tie it up and converting to win the game for the home team. There’s still four more matches for South Buffalo to play in October, culminating in that Buffalo vs South Buffalo rematch on October 24th.

Interestingly enough, Buffalo are currently in second place with a record of 3-2, despite going 1-1 against the third-place Rochester Renegades (2-3) AND coming out worse in the head to head. Not that much worse mind you, the first match fell to Rochester 24-20 and the second went to Buffalo 24-22, but that’s still two points in Rochester’s favor. However, Rochester lost an incredibly close match to Uticuse (2-3) back on September 19th, and without those table points, the Renegades stay in third. Now you would think with the win over Rochester and the same record, Uticuse would be in third and the Renegades in fourth, but it’s all about those bonus points. The Renegades have six bonus points, getting two losing bonus points in both those matches mentioned above, while Uticuse only have four. Uticuse got two of those just last weekend in their loss to the North Buffalo Ninjas (1-4). Now that was a match. Uticuse scored one less try than the Ninjas, but the surefire kicking of Caitlin Schirmer kept them in the hunt until the last minute, final score 27-26 to North Buffalo. It was the Ninja’s first win of the season, a welcome accomplishment after some of the beatdowns they had taken earlier in the month. 

With all that being said, this month is going to be a big one in the Midwest WD2 – North. South Buffalo is in the safest position to advance to playoffs but nothing is guaranteed. Buffalo, Rochester, and Uticuse are all in must-win scenarios, which will make the October 24th weekend (Buffalo hosting S Buffalo and Uticuse hosting Rochester) just that much more interesting.

Heading over to check in on the Western subdivision; this one is almost identical to last year with the exception of Palmer College leaving and the Metropolis Valkyries filling their slot. Also identical to last year is the Milwaukee Scylla (5-0) on top of the table with an undefeated record. They’ve just surpassed their total PD from last year, but with already one more match played, it’s to be expected. Their average PD per match is up from +53.5 last season to +56.2 this season, and their closest match to date was the September 5th win over Wisconsin, 55-14. Even if they bomb their next three fixtures, I think the Scylla are already guaranteed a playoff spot. Currently at second in the standings are Wisconsin (3-2). Their forfeit win over the Valkyries back on August 22nd made the difference between them and third place, and might come back to bite Metropolis at the end of the season. They also dominated Oconomowoc (2-3) 52-5 back on September 19th and smashed the Menagerie (0-4) on the 5th. Their big match coming up will be on October 10th against the Valkyries. 

Metropolis are having a solid debut season, currently sitting in third place, tied on record and table points with Oconomowoc. Oconomowoc actually took down Metropolis last weekend by a score of 32-12, but the Valkyries still have the upper hand thanks to the first time they met, when Metropolis won 78-5. Our final team in the mix are the Minneapolis Menagerie, who are still on the hunt for their first win of the year. Mathematically Minneapolis are already out of the playoff hunt, but they still have four matches left to get a check in the W column to take into next year. 

Over to the Eastern subdivision, also mostly the same as last year but with the Toledo Celtics taking the place of Dayton. There’s some excitement in this league as the top two teams have identical records, but are separated by a single bonus point. The Cleveland Iron Maidens (4-1) hold onto the top spot for now, despite a 17-14 defeat last weekend against the Pittsburgh Forge (3-2). It was a try by Carrie Dvorsak in the 79th minute that sealed the deal for the Forge, taking down last year’s undefeated league champs. The Columbus Squirrels (4-1) are currently in second place in the standings, despite their 47-0 loss to the Iron Maidens back on September 12th. There’s certainly something to be said about home field advantage in this league, as Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Columbus have all won every home match. Akron (1-4) are holding onto fourth thanks to their 38-0 win over Toledo on September 12th. Toledo’s best chance of getting their first win will be when they host Akron for the rematch this weekend. Also this weekend we see the Forge hosting the Squirrels. If Pittsburgh can keep this home field win streak going, they could pull into second place with this win.

Two subdivisions left; let’s head over to the Central region. Despite not being the newly added region, this one has changed the most from last year to this one. The only returning team to the Central is Fort Wayne (3-2), who went undefeated last season. This year it’s not as easy for Fort Wayne as the Cincinnati Wolfhounds (3-1) and the Circle City Tempests (5-0) have joined the fray. The Wolfhounds took down Fort Wayne 22-10 back on September 19th, while the Tempests smashed Fort Wayne 78-12 on the 5th. When the two newbies faced each other, it wasn’t pretty either, Circle City blew the Wolfhounds away 72-0. Honestly this division has had a lot of blowouts; some of the closest matches are the forfeits, which end at 28-0. The October 24th rematch between the Wolfhounds and Fort Wayne holds a lot of potential, as well as Dayton (0-5) hosting the Cincinnati Kelts (1-4) on October 17th. 

Our final subdivision is the newly formed CARFU league. This is where we find Palmer College (coming over from the West), the Chicago Sirens and the County Will Morrigans (joining from Central), and the Fox Valley Vixens. So far there’s a clear front-runner and three teams duking it out for second place. Palmer College (4-0) are running rampant in CARFU, racking up a total PD of +373 from just four matches.They’ve hit triple digits twice already, against different opponents, and look unstoppable. Meanwhile, the County Will Morrigans (2-2) and the Chicago Sirens (2-2) are putting up some much more competitive results in the middle of the table. The Sirens topped the Morrigans 17-12 on September 19th thanks to a pair of tries by Clair Baker. The Morrigans meanwhile clocked two wins over the Fox Valley Vixens (0-4), whom the Sirens have only faced once so far. Last weekend’s win over the Vixens was a close one for the Morrigans; it came down to the final minutes when Christina Kukla finally broke through and pulled her team back in the lead. It was a valiant effort by the Vixens, who got two bonus points in the loss, their second and third of the season. The Vixens will host the Sirens on October 10th while Palmer hosts the County Will Morrigans. If the Sirens win that one and the Morrigans lose, Chicago will move back up to second in the standings. After that it’ll all come down to the October 24th rematch between the Morrigans and the Sirens. 

Over in the Mid-America region, we’ve got the same four teams back in action in the Women’s D2, with the addition of a couple cross-conference (and international!) friendlies to pad the season. The big highlight of September was that the KC Jazz and KC Patriots (alongside a few of the Women’s D3 clubs) played host to the Southern Suburbs from Adelaide, Australia in a series of friendly matches from the 12th-19th. In addition to that, we have a handful of league matches that took place, which we’ll cover below.

Last year’s Mid-America champions, the St Louis Sabres (1-0), are back to their winning ways after taking down old foes Omaha (0-1) on September 19th. In addition to that win, the Sabres also defeated the Columbia Black Sheep in a friendly on the 12th; between the two games, the Sabres saw 12 different players make it into the try zone, scoring for St Louis. That’s an impressive amount of depth for the squad who just missed out on a spot in the Northern Super Regional final last year. 

The Kansas City Jazz (1-0) also kicked off their season with a bang last weekend with a resounding 52-0 win over the KC Patriots (0-1). Now this match is listed on the MARFU Facebook page as a friendly fixture – so it may or may not count toward league standings, please don’t have my head, but I’m going to pretend it does for the sake of this recap. Either way, this is a massive win for the Jazz who finished at the bottom of the table last year with a 1-4-1 record.

Coming up in October we have the Goats hosting the Patriots while the Jazz hosts the Sabres. Winter will shut down the action by the time November rolls around, but this league will spring back once the snow melts to finish out their season and prepare for playoffs. 

Up in the Rocky Mountains, the same five teams are returning for action again this year. Only three matches have taken place, but already the standings look hauntingly familiar. 

The Colorado Springs Pikes Peaks (1-0) and the Littleton Lemons (1-0) have resumed their places on top of the table with two big opening weekend wins. The Pikes Peaks took down Denver Black Ice (1-1) 40-12 thanks to a hat-trick by Cait Johnston-Quinn and five conversions (out of six) by Erin Langeheine. Scooby Reid scored the two for Black Ice, while Grace Blanchard added the extras. The Lemons hosted the Boulder Babes (0-1) on September 12th, kicking off their season with a 31-10 win. Littleton were fourth in the standings last year, with Boulder below them, so this could be an omen for this year, but honestly it’s too soon to tell. Last year the Lemons vs Babes match was much closer, so I think Littleton might be a surprise this year. 

The SLUGs (0-1) opened their season with a disappointing loss to Denver Black Ice on September 12th. Nothing at all against Black Ice, but the SLUGs made a wild comeback at the end of the first half and start of the second half to pull into a 27-22 lead after trailing 15-0 30 minutes in. Denver scored twice more through Catherine Emery and Cassis Tingley in the final ten minutes to seal the deal and head home with the win. 

Coming up in October we get to see the Lemons host the SLUGs, that’ll be a real test of where Littleton sits this year; Denver Black Ice will host the Babes on the 17th, and the Pikes Peaks will host the Lemons on Halloween, possibly the table decider.

Heading over to the Atlantic, we’ll start up in New England. This year NERFU Women’s D2 conference has grown from seven teams to nine teams with the addition of Empire’s New Haven Old Black and the Danbury Lady Hatters. As New Haven defeated NERFU’s champions, Providence, last year in the Atlantic Super Regional semifinal, it’s quite the addition to the competition. 

As of this past weekend, we have a new top of the table team, the Albany Knickerbockers (2-1). Finishing in fourth overall last year, Albany kicked off their season with a solid 26-15 win over Burlington (2-1). Chanel Kung scored three for the Knicks in that one while Veronika Fleischut added the extras. Burlington actually made a late play for the win in the second half, scoring two late tries while holding the Knicks off, but it was too little too late. The next time the Knicks took the pitch was September 19th at Beantown (1-1). It was a thrilling back and forth match with a number of lead changes, but it was the home side who took the win 38-29. Finally, just last weekend, Albany made a massive statement when they took down New Haven Old Black (2-2) at home, final score 37-24. It was a resounding win from the Knicks, who took the reins and never turned back. They even prevented New Haven from taking home any bonus points in the loss, Old Black relying on penalty goals to bump up their point total to 24. There’s no time to slow down as the Knicks travel to Danbury (1-2) for their next match, followed by a trip to Hartford (0-3) on the 17th.

New Haven, Providence (2-1), Worcester (2-0), and Burlington are all just below Albany, tied on table points. Notably Worcester are still undefeated, also having played half the matches that the Knicks have. They topped Portland (1-2) back in August by a score of 24-21, before taking down New Haven on September 12th, 34-10. They will take on Providence this weekend, and any result but a tie will send one up the standings and one down. Providence didn’t look great when they kicked off the season, losing a big one to New Haven by a final score of 61-15, but they fought their way back with two wins over the Danbury Lady Hatters and Hartford. Both of those teams are currently bottom of the table, so it’ll be interesting to see if Providence just needed to warm up a bit or if their schedule is weighted on the latter half of the season. Burlington made up for their opening loss to the Knicks with wins over Hartford and Portland in September. They also defeated Portland 24-21, managing to nab the winning bonus point for four tries thanks to number eight, Emma Parizo. They’ll be off this upcoming weekend before a trip to Beantown on October 10th. 

Portland and Beantown may be occupying our sixth and seventh spots on the table, but don’t count either of them out. Portland have lost two matches by three points each, and topped Beantown by 20 when they hosted back on September 12th. This means a showering of bonus points, and when they get a few more wins under their belt, that could very well make a difference for who advances into the postseason. Beantown have only played two matches, one loss against Portland and a 38-29 win over the Albany Knickerbockers. So seventh in the standings but have topped the number one team. See? Too early to start reading into anything. Beantown will host the Wild Roses this weekend while Portland hosts New Haven. 

Newbies to NERFU, Danbury, won their first match in the new division over the Hartford Wild Roses, but it hasn’t been great since. They lost to Providence and New Haven on back to back weekends, then their match against Burlington was cancelled last weekend due to rain. They host Albany this weekend before traveling to Worcester on the 17th. 

The regular season will wrap up the weekend of October 24th and league semifinals will be on Halloween, so we won’t have time to play around with who might qualify before our next recap. Pressure will certainly rise this month as everyone is playing for those final four spots, you won’t want to miss it. 

With Danbury and New Haven now officially in the New England Women’s D2 competition, the Empire comp needed a little filling out. NYRC (1-0) and the Union County Mudturtles officially joined the Brooklyn Hyenas (0-1) this year, and the three teams will play both against each other and against a few Empire Women’s D3 teams this season before deciding their champion. Only one match has taken place thus far, back on September 12th when Brooklyn hosted the NYRC. It was a strong win for NYRC, who scored a flurry of second half tries to bring the score to 55-12. It’s impressive to see New York do this well after adding a second side to the mix. Not many women’s clubs out there have active and competitive D1 and D2 sides.

New York will play their next match on October 3rd when they host Brooklyn, followed by a trip to Union County as the Mudturtles open up their season. The Hyenas and the Mudturtles won’t face off until October 24th, playing back to back fixtures at the end of the fall season.

We’ve got another big change in the Capital region as our Women’s D2 competition has dwindled from four teams to two. Instead of just playing each other again and again and again (which honestly would be pretty entertaining based on the performances these two teams put out), James River and Severn River will play each other twice (home and away) before one final championship match at the higher seed. To help bolster their season, both teams will play a number of D1/D2 crossover matches against teams from the Atlantic Women’s D1 competition. Already two of those matches have gotten underway, and results are mixed. On one hand, the Severn River Honey Badgers put up one hell of a fight against last year’s top of the D1 table Philadelphia. They tied the game with only 20 minutes to go, but Philly’s Nicole Snyder scored one more try to take the lead and hold on until the end. Final score was 19-14 in favor of the hosts, but hey – not bad for a D2 team. James River on the other hand traveled down to North Carolina to take on the Raleigh Venom, falling short in a brutal 55-7 game. Elizabeth Gleaves managed to score once for James River and Ruthanne Yates converted, but it wasn’t close to enough. Now, since these matches are “technically” friendlies (in terms of not counting towards the standings) for the D1 sides, it could be that D1 sides are playing different caliber strings. While that makes it challenging to predict what is going to happen next, it certainly makes it exciting.

The first time we get to see James River and Severn River face off this year will be next month on the 24th, with the Honey Badgers hosting.

Over in Eastern Pennsylvania we are down to four teams from five last year with Harrisburg moving to the D3 competition. There’s only been one weekend of games thanks to that big Nor’easterner that halted most of our East Coast rugby last weekend.

Phoenixville White Horse (1-0) have absolutely dominated this competition in year’s past, and they look like they’ve come back for another season of excellence. They smashed Doylestown (0-1) 98-0 on opening weekend, giving themselves a pretty good head start to the top of the table. Now it appears they are playing friendly matches against their D1 neighbors, Philadelphia, which could be a sign they are considering the jump to D1 in the future. Monmouth (1-0) have also started their season off with a big win, taking down the Northeast Philadelphia Irish (0-1) 39-0. It may seem like a bad sign that the last time these two played it was only a five point match and now it’s a bit of a blowout, but based on last year’s scores, it looks like the Irish took a few weeks to warm up into their season. The next league matches will be on October 10th when Monmouth hosts Phoenixville and Northeast Philly hosts Doylestown.

We’ve lost a couple teams in the Women’s D2 competition in the Pacific Northwest this year; the Chuckanut Bay Mussels, the Tacoma Sirens, and the Steller Sea Lions have all moved into the Women’s D3 league (which looks STACKED by the way). This leaves us with four dedicated Women’s D2 sides playing in a hybrid competition with two Women’s D1 sides. The big news is that the Portland Pigs have officially made the jump to D1, leaving the D2 title wide open for whoever wants it. The Bend Lady Roughriders were in the best position last year, but haven’t yet taken the pitch yet for 2026-27. In fact, the only matches we have scores uploaded for are the two cross-divisional matches that the Emerald City Mudhens have played. Though they lost a big one to the Portland Pigs, the Mudhens managed to put 24 points up against the Seattle Orcas on September 12th. Four tries got them the bonus point in the loss, which is an incredible turnaround from their last match against the Orcas in March, where they lost 108-5. 

Coming up in October we will see the Jesters host the Roughriders and the Mudhens host the Eugene Reign, getting everyone in action. There will be a couple more D1/D2 crossovers and one final match in November before the season closes for the winter.

Up in Northern California, the D1/D2 hybrid league has added San Jose as a D2 side. They will join the Sacramento Amazons, who have confirmed their interest into the D2 pathway, as well as last year’s D2 National Champions, Life West (who have moved back to D1), and the D1 Berkeley All Blues. In short, not a ton of restructuring, but a lot of clarification, at least for me. The two D2 and two D1 sides will play a full home/away season against each other starting in February, but come April it will be between Berkeley and Life West for the D1 postseason slot, and between Sacramento and San Jose for the D2 postseason spot. Lots of time before this one kicks off!

Similarly to NorCal, Southern California likely won’t kickoff or post their final schedule until closer to 2027, reaping the benefits from that year-round sunshine. Nine teams participated in the D2 Women’s conference last year, with all teams recording at least one win. Los Angeles went 8-0, taking home the title over the Pasadena Royals, but falling short in the Pacific Super Regionals to the Las Vegas Irish. No word yet on whether LA will move up to D1 or seek to defend their title in D2. We’ve got plenty of time to figure this one out.

We also don’t have a schedule from the Southwest region, but they didn’t start until the end of November last year, so no need to panic just yet. Last season the Las Vegas Irish successfully defended their Southwest Title, despite forfeiting their opening game of the season against Phoenix. Phoenix finished in first overall with a record of 7-1, but the Irish proved too much to handle in the Southwest Championships back in April, defeating Phoenix by a score of 38-28. Whether all five teams will be back in action for Southwest’s Women’s D2 this year, we aren’t sure; Las Vegas could move up to D1 after back to back D2 titles, or Phoenix could make the jump, anything is possible. Until the schedule is confirmed, I’m just guessing.

Heading down to the Gulf Coast, we’ve got a familiar face joining the True South Women’s D2 competition. The Atlanta 2.0 Selects are making the jump from the Carolinas over to the True South, cutting their longest travel time from about six hours (Fear the Maniacs and Eno River) to four hours (to Nashville). It makes a lot of sense geographically and functionally, as the 2.0 Selects had a number of forfeits against them last season that prevented them from playing the same number of matches as the rest of the teams in their conference. Atlanta will join last year’s True South Champions, the Knoxville Minx, as well as the undefeated regular season leaders, the Birmingham Steel, plus the Chattanooga Queens and the Nashville Stone Lions, as matches kick off on October 17th. 

There’s a big change in the Red River region, the elimination of the Women’s D1 competition for this season. This means the Dallas Harlequins, the Austin Valkyries, and the Houston sHARCs will be vying for the D2 title this year alongside Little Rock, the Dallas RFC, and the San Antonio Riveters. Little Rock won the title last year over the Riveters by a score of 38-22, but also notched some pretty sweet regular season results against the Dallas Quins and the sHARCs second side. So don’t think this is a bunch of D1 players coming down to sandbag the D2 competition. Without any other Gulf Coast regions having an active D1 Women’s comp (with the exception of the Atlanta Harlequins playing in the Atlantic conference), this is Texas coming to compete with the best in the Gulf Coast. Games start in January, so until then, nothing much to cover. 

The Carolinas have also had a bit of a restructuring from last season. With the Atlanta 2.0 selects heading west, the league has changed from a Georgia/Carolinas league format to North and South leagues. The South has had the most change, Atlanta and the Augusta Furies are both out, with the Charleston Hurricanes and the Carolina Villains being called up to join the Savannah Shamrocks. The North actually remains identical to last year, with Charlotte joined by Fear the Maniacs, the Fayetteville Valkyries, and Eno River. We’ve already had three matches so far this season, so we do have a bit to cover!

Fear the Maniacs (1-0), who finished second in their subdivision last year, started off with a massive 57-19 win over Eno River (0-1), who split their season last year with a 4-4 record. Sarah Rosche scored four tries for Cape Fear while fellow center Tracy Ferguson scored two. Eno River just missed out on a losing bonus point for scoring over four tries, only getting three on the board. It was an excellent test for Fear, whose next match will be taking on last year’s champions, Charlotte. Eno also plays Charlotte next, the weekend before Fear. 

The Charleston Hurricanes (1-0) welcomed themselves back to the Carolinas D2 with a bonus point win over the Savannah Shamrocks (0-1), on the road in Georgia. Lauren Daugherty went three for four on conversion kicks, adding six points to her try, accounting for 11 of the Hurricanes’ 26 points on the day. Charleston’s next match is October 10th when they host the Fayetteville Valkyries (0-1), while the Shamrocks travel to the Carolina Villains to open their season for the year. 

Our final match to cover saw Fayetteville put up a valiant fight against Charlotte (1-0), just falling short by a final score of 41-29. Last year these two played on opening weekend, and Charlotte took the win 75-0. I’m sure Fayetteville would have loved to start with a win, but dropping 29 points against the defending champions is a pretty sweet start to the season. Fayetteville travels to the Hurricanes on October 10th, while Charlotte has back to back matches against fellow Carolina sides, Eno River and Fear the Maniacs on October 10th and 17th. 

Florida is back down to four teams this year after trialing the Southwest Florida Hammerheads as a D2/D3 hybrid last year. National runners-up, the Tampa Krewe, are headlining this region after winning the National Title back in 2024. They’ll be joined by Fort Miami, Jacksonville, and Orlando with a season that starts in November this year. The first match will be the weekend before Thanksgiving with Fort Miami hosting Jacksonville, while Orlando and Tampa both hold off until January to start their regular season. This is going to get started sooner than you think, and we’ll be here to cover it all.