Women’s Division 1 – October 2026 Recap

This past month we had FIVE bumper weekends of rugby action; from teams finally kicking off their season to the Midwest and New England dealing up some intense playoff games, there’s a lot to cover from October. We’ve also gotten some of the answers to the questions we asked at the end of September, and a few more competitions have posted schedules, so hang on for the ride, because this is going to be a long one.

Disclaimer – before anyone gets mad at me – all of this information is taken from team-entered data in Rugby Xplorer. The quicker you are about updating information and the more info you include, the better picture I can paint. The rest of the commentary is added for fun from someone who has no stake in the outcome of these matches. If you don’t like it, don’t read it. If you do like it, then welcome!

Without further ado – let’s dive into what happened in the Women’s D1 Competition over October!

We left off at the end of September in the middle of the season, and now the regular season has wrapped up with semifinals scheduled on November 7th, to be followed by the Midwest final on November 14th. 

In the Eastern Conference, the standings finished up the same way we left off – no big surprises this past month. The Pittsburgh Forge (6-0) capped off another perfect regular season with three more wins in October. Their closest result was a 28-14 win over the Columbus Squirrels (3-3) on October 3rd. The two were neck and neck for the opening 20 minutes, with the Forge scoring first but Columbus quickly came back to even it 7-7. The teams went into the halftime break with a score of 21-7, but a quick try from the Squirrels in the second half brought it within a converted try. Pittsburgh closed out the match with one more try from Lora Matway in the final ten minutes to snag the bonus point and stay undefeated. A 48-21 defeat of the Grand Rapids Growlers (3-3) and a 58-10 away win over Detroit (0-6) sealed the deal for the Forge wrapping up the top spot. 

The Columbus Squirrels finished second in the standings, with the same final record as the Grand Rapids Growlers, 3-3. The two split their matches against each other, both winning the home fixture. Columbus won the head to head point differential by a total PD of 74-31, mostly thanks to their late September blanking of the Growlers. Regardless of that, Columbus had two extra bonus points that prevented the tie breaker from coming down to head to head PD. Dramatically enough, both of those bonus points were gained in their 31-26 loss to Grand Rapids on October 10th. That game looked wild, with Columbus scoring all of their points in the first half, just to have Grand Rapids methodically chip away at the difference, eventually scoring the tiebreaker at full time, snatching the victory from the Squirrels through replacement Aeryn Kangas-Dick. With one final chance of making the playoffs, the Growlers had to travel to the Forge, and win, in order to jump over the Squirrels and make the cut. It wasn’t to be, despite Carmen Cincotta scoring first for Grand Rapids in the match. The Forge held strong at home, eventually taking the 48-21 win, and knocking Grand Rapids out of playoff contention for good. 

Over in the Western Conference, things were a bit spicy when we last checked in. The Chicago Lions (6-0) were running the show after finishing 0-6 last year, with North Shore nipping at their heels in second place. Turns out that wasn’t just an early season fluke, as the Lions have finished their regular season undefeated, with a final 6-0 record, completely turning the tables from last year. Their second match against North Shore started close, with teams opting for shots at goal instead of relying on tries, but it eventually opened up for the Lions, who ran in five tries to North Shore’s two in the 30-12 victory. They followed this up with two big wins over the Amazons and the Valkyries, holding the pair to only 10 points between them in both matches. Instead of an early season fluke, it sure seems like Chicago is picking up the pace, and getting sharper as they head into the off-season, bad news for anyone that stands in their way. 

Despite two losses to the Lions, Chicago North Shore (4-2) are joining their Chicago neighbors in the playoffs after finishing second overall in the Western standings. On the 17th North Shore defeated the Metropolis Valkyries (2-4) 43-5; a bigger deficit than a few weeks prior. Funnily enough, North Shore closed out their season with a 62-7 win over the Twin Cities Amazons (0-6), the same score they defeated them by in September. 

Metropolis managed to get one more win during the regular season, on October 10th over the Amazons. Six different players scored for the Valkyries, with Megan Ahnen dotting down twice. This meant the Amazons finished the season without a win, both teams knocked out of the postseason. 

With both conferences finalized, our Midwest semifinals are confirmed for November 7th. Pittsburgh will host Chicago North Shore while the Chicago Lions host the Columbus Squirrels. It’s a 5.5 hour trek for the Squirrels and a 7 hour voyage for North Shore. Will the undefeated teams benefit from the home field advantage enough to keep their streak alive? Or will we see an upset from one of our second place finishers? The winners of these two matches will meet on November 14th at the Chicago Blaze facility, in Lemont, IL to take home both the Midwest title and the bid for Super Regionals next year.

The Rocky Mountain Women’s D1 schedule has been finalized on Rugby Xplorer, so we’ve got a few matches to recap from both September and October. So far, it’s all about the Colorado Gray Wolves (3-0), a massive shift from finishing winless last season. The Gray Wolves snagged back to back wins over the Denver Black Ice (0-2) on September 26th and October 10th, winning by a combined PD of 102-19. No arguing with those numbers. Their real test was going to be when they hosted the Utah Vipers (0-1) on October 24th. The Gray Wolves didn’t just hold off the 2025 National Champions, they smashed them by a final score of 44-17. Jessica Wooden scored twice for Colorado in the win, along with six of her teammates. Curiously, the Gray Wolves only managed two conversions for their eight tries, a fair number of points left out there that would have boosted that differential even more. 

As of right now there’s only one match on the schedule for spring, the Vipers hosting Black Ice on March 6th, but I imagine there’s more in the works to round out this schedule. It’s going to be an interesting spring season in the Rockies, as right now, Colorado looks to be in the best place to finally knock off the Vipers, and advance to the Super Regionals.

We had three solid weekends of matches in October, which added a few wins and losses to team stats, but outside of two clear front runners, it’s still anyone’s game in the Atlantic. 

Philadelphia (4-0) are definitely in a good position to finish on top of the table, adding big wins over the DC Furies (3-1), New York (0-2), and Boston (1-3) this past month. Their match against DC was the closest, as can be expected from a top of the table clash. Philadelphia ran out to a big lead, holding DC scoreless the entire first half, but at the start of the second half, the Furies scored their first through Evelyn Clay. They got one more down in the closing minutes, but Philadelphia kept their streak alive, final score 39-12. Philadelphia are now done for the fall, with one final match left on the schedule, all the way in April against NOVA (1-1). 

DC may have lost to Philly, but they also beat New York and Raleigh (1-2) this past month to hold onto second place in the standings. It’s worth noting that both DC and Philadelphia have four of six matches played so far (along with Boston), but the rest of the teams only have two or three under their belt. So a lot can change with the more games that are played by those clubs. The Furies topped Raleigh this past weekend, with Evelyn Clay standing out again with three tries scored in the 28-17 victory. DC will also go into hibernation for the winter, returning in March to play two final games against NOVA and Boston. 

Below Philadelphia and DC we have four teams all with one win, putting them within one table point of each other in the standings. NOVA has the least amount of matches played, but their loss comes from Boston, who are currently one spot below them in the standings. NOVA topped the Atlanta Harlequins (1-2) this past month, in a very close 21-17 victory. Last year when these two faced off, it was 105-0 in favor of NOVA, showing definite improvement from the Quins this year. In fact, Atlanta got their first win of the season this month as well, 12-5 over Boston back on October 3rd. A very low scoring match, it took until the 70th minute for Samara Schlaunderaff to score the winning try and seal the deal for Atlanta. Raleigh also got their first win of the season this month, on the 17th when they traveled to Boston. It was a solid win for the Venom, who had eight different players scoring points during the match. Boston didn’t have a great October, but they still have that opening weekend win over NOVA holding them in fourth overall. New York is the only team still searching for their first win of the season, but they’ve only played two matches, so there’s plenty of time to change that. 

Coming up in November we’ve got Raleigh hosting NOVA and New York hosting the Harlequins on the 7th. The season will head into its winter hiatus after that, returning in March for the final games. 

There’s honestly not much new news out of the Pacific Northwest Women’s D1 from this past month, but that’s mostly because we didn’t get the Pigs and the Orcas going head to head like we did in September. Both teams played a couple of cross-divisional matches, though the Pigs looked like they were mostly forfeit wins, and Seattle had their October 10th match against the Reign rescheduled. Both teams got spooky with a little Halloween social rugby action, a tournament in Portland and a friendly 10s match against our Canadian neighbors for Seattle, but nothing of serious note as it pertains to the National Championship run. The only match listed in RX for November is on November 21st when Seattle hosts D2 ORSU. I don’t know about you, but I am dying to see the Orcas and Portland go head to head again; it’s guaranteed to be a good one. 

NorCal has posted their 2027 league schedule, with matches starting on February 20th. However, teams are already starting some preseason action, with the Berkeley All Blues traveling to Austin, TX to defend last year’s Bat City XV title. The All Blues swept through the Texas competition, taking home the top prize after four wins with a combined D1/D3 side. San Jose has some preseason matches slated for November against collegiate sides, while the Amazons and Life West have announced fall practices. The 2027 season will be here before you know it in Northern California, and we’re so ready. 

Southern California hasn’t yet posted their regular season schedule, but similarly to NorCal, teams are starting their preseason preparations. The San Diego Surfers are hosting Denver Black Ice and LARC in a round robin on November 7th before traveling to the Berkeley All Blues in December. Santa Monica sent a few players south of the border to play in the Copa Caribe in Puerto Morelos, Mexico, after starting practices just this month. Tempe took on the Flagstaff 10s on October 10th, while the Belmont Shore Land Sharks started their training back at the start of October. We still don’t have the final team announcement for this region, so right now we’re following the four from last year; but I think SoCal has space to add a few more Women’s D1 teams to the mix come January. 

OK, I know I said I would remove this section moving forward, but things change. Right now the defending National Champions, Life U, are considering their options for how to return to the National stage to defend their title. With the Texas and Arkansas teams formally out of the D1 picture, it looks like they might have to source their own opponents to play qualifying matches (like Atlanta Old White did in 2025), then advance directly to the National Final Four, representing the Gulf Coast. Nothing is set in stone, but we’ve got plenty of time before the National playoffs roll around, so we’ll keep you updated.