Women’s Division 1 – January 2025 Recap

Welcome to the USA Club Rugby Monthly Recaps! Organized by division, this is your one stop shop to find out everything that’s been going on in club rugby around the country.

I want to set a few expectations before we kick off; all of this data is gathered from club-entered scores in RugbyXplorer. So if anything is missing or wrong or doesn’t make sense, you should first check RugbyXplorer and then check with your local Geographical Union to ensure that they have finalized all matches in the system. Any other commentary is added purely for entertainment value from someone who has zero stake in the outcomes of these matches. It’s just for fun!

These recaps are for competitions that lead directly into the Super Regional Qualifiers and then into the Club National Championships. Hopefully with time we will add additional regional divisions, but first things first.

This recap is intended to be for the month of January, but since many competitions started or even finished in the fall, I had to go back in time and sum up everything that happened then; so some of these are a bit detailed.

All of that said and done – let’s dive into what happened in January in the Women’s Division 1 competitions!

Northern California is listed as sending a D1 champion to the Pacific Super Regional in the spring, but has no competition data in RugbyXplorer.

The Pacific Northwest plays a D1/D2 hybrid that kicked off in September and resumes in February. Two of the seven teams compete in the Division 1 pathway, Seattle and ORSU. A lot of big scorelines in this competition; Seattle is 3-1, their only loss a 26-21 road game at Portland (3-0). ORSU (1-2) put 81 points on the Stellar Sea Lions, but then suffered big losses at the hands of Seattle and Portland. Seattle is also participating in the BC Premiership, and will have a packed spring schedule as they play opponents both stateside and across the border. The PNW championships will take place in April, with the champion heading to the Pacific Super Regional to take on the champions from SoCal and NorCal.

Only two games so far this season in Southern California. Santa Monica (1-0) scored five tries to Belmont Shore’s (0-1) three on January 19th. Then over in Tempe, San Diego’s Kaylee Westmoreland converted all four of their tries to edge Tempe (0-1) in a 28-24 battle and start the season with a win. Barring any ties, either Tempe or Belmont will get a win next weekend as they face off in Arizona. Santa Monica and San Diego will also go head to head and someone will continue undefeated into the rest of the season.

Three teams in the Rocky Mountain region played a round robin for supremacy. Denver Black Ice (2-0) came out on top after a 56-17 defeat of the Utah Vipers (1-1) and a 19-0 blank of the Colorado Gray Wolves (0-2). Utah snagged second place thanks to a 81-10 trounce of the Wolves at home in Salt Lake. We’re unsure of what the spring or playoffs will look like, but we’d love to see these teams do another rotation of games before the Northern Super Regional. 

The Midwest Women’s D1 season wrapped up in the fall, with the champions being decided on November 10th. Columbus (6-0) sliced through the competition in the Eastern subdivision, with a total point differential of 284. Their closest regular season match was their 47-36 win over second place Pittsburgh Forge (4-2). The Metropolis Valkyries (6-0) performed similarly in the Western subdivision, with a total point differential of 396. The playoffs held no surprises as both the Valkyries and Columbus unloaded 45-point differentials on their opponents. 

Finally the clash of the titans took place in Chicago the final weekend of the season. With the scores both teams had been posting, we expected a full on battle for 80 minutes. However, Metropolis had other plans. Their play and pace was just too much for Columbus to match; and when the floodgates opened, it was game over. Metropolis capped off their phenomenal season with a 71-12 final score, and a golden ticket to the Final Four in the spring.

Texas is playing a D1/D2 hybrid this year, with teams seeking qualification by playing additional opponents outside of their division, but committed to either the D1 or D2 National Championship Pathway. The Division 1 teams are the Austin Valkyries, the Dallas Harlequins, and the sHARCs (Houston Athletic Rugby Club). So far, the sHARCs (2-0) have gotten off to a splendid start, taking down D2 San Antonio and narrowly edging the Dallas Harlequins (1-1) 24-19. Dallas secured a win over D2 Little Rock, while Austin (1-1) beat San Antonio and lost to Little Rock. We get to see Dallas and Houston go head to head again in February, which will likely be the match of the season. Austin have some ground to cover after their bonus point loss to Little Rock, but there’s still plenty of time.

The Atlantic Women’s D1 competition has a split fall/spring season with all five teams playing home and away against their opponents. We’ve got a good idea of what the spring season will hold based on fall results, but anything can still happen. NOVA (6-0) have locked up the top seed with two games to play in the spring. Boston (3-3) managed to get a losing bonus point in their second game against NOVA, as did Philadelphia (2-4). Boston are currently second in the standings, followed by Raleigh Venom (2-3) who have played one less game. Raleigh will need to win their next three games, or hope that Boston drops the next two in order to vault into second. The DC Furies (1-5) had a tough fall but still managed to notch a win over Philadelphia as well as a non-conference win over the Atlanta Harlequins in November. If they turn the tide come spring and find a win over NOVA, Raleigh, or Boston; playoff dreams could still be alive for them. These games will start back up in March.