Women’s Division 2 – 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 dense 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 D2 Competition over October!

Over the past month we’ve finished up the regular season and dove straight into playoffs, with all four quarterfinals wrapping up this past weekend. Before we check out what happened in the quarters, we have to wrap up the five subdivisions and figure out where our top eight teams came from. 

We left with South Buffalo (7-1) undefeated followed by Buffalo (5-3), who had two losses and a 1-1 record against the third place team, Rochester (4-4). South Buffalo’s lone loss comes from a forfeit against Buffalo at the end of the season. According to social media South Buffalo defeated Buffalo 64-12, but it was retroactively determined a forfeit. As far as I know this happened after South Buffalo was determined to have advanced to the playoffs. Buffalo had already secured their slot above the Rochester Renegades in the head to head point differential back in September, despite Rochester doing their best with two back to back wins at the end of the month over North Buffalo (1-7) and Uticuse (3-5). It was another close match between Utiuse and Rochester, again with only two points between the two teams. Again the away team managed to pull out the win, with the Renegades finishing on top 43-41. Another impressive win in October was Uticuse’s 33-22 victory over Buffalo back on October 3rd. Camille Wilt ran in two tries for Uticuse in the win, with Caitlin Schirmer slotting four out of five conversions. Buffalo got a bonus point in the loss, perhaps the one that allowed them to sneak ahead of Rochester at the end of the season. The North Buffalo Ninjas also put up a fair fight against Buffalo on October 10th; they didn’t manage the win, but they did score four tries to get a bonus point in the 36-20 loss. Unfortunately with the addition of a fifth subdivision to the Midwest, only the top team advanced from the North region to the elite eight.

Over in the Western subdivision, this one finished up identical to how it was progressing at the end of September. The Milwaukee Scylla (8-0) finished their season undefeated, thanks to three more wins in October. With a final regular season PD of +404, the Scylla averaged about 50 points differential per match, putting them squarely in playoff contention. Cleaning up second place is Wisconsin (6-3) who went on a three game streak this past month to double their wins and snag a playoff berth themselves. Their closest match of the month was back on the 3rd against Oconomowoc (2-6) who finished in fourth overall. Taking third was the Metropolis Valkyries (3-5) who lost to Wisconsin before forfeiting to the Scylla at the start of the month. They managed to finish their regular season on a high note when they toppled the Minneapolis Menagerie (1-7) 64-15 back on October 24th. The Menagerie managed to snag their first win of the season in October, taking down Oconomowoc 29-10 on October 10th. I’m sure it’s not the record they had in mind finishing with at the end of the season, but one win is certainly better than no wins. As mentioned above, both Wisconsin and the Scylla advanced to the Midwest quarterfinals, which took place this past weekend and will be covered below!

Moving over to the Eastern subdivision, the Cleveland Iron Maidens (7-1) wrapped up the top spot despite one loss to the Pittsburgh Forge (6-2) back in September. Cleveland turned it around with three wins in October, scoring a combined 245 points, while only allowing five. They will be joined in the quarterfinals by the second-place Eastern team, the Pittsburgh Forge. The Forge managed to take down the Columbus Squirrels (5-3) back on October 3rd, a must-win game for Pittsburgh in order to finish in the top two. It was a big second half effort from Pittsburgh, who were trailing the Squirrels entering halftime. Four tries in the final twenty minutes sealed the deal, and the Forge lived to fight another day, final score 30-17. They closed out October with two more wins over Akron (2-6) and Toledo (0-8), securing bonus points in each win, enough to advance to the quarterfinals with Cleveland. The Columbus Squirrels finished with a winning season overall, but the back to back losses against the top two teams at the start of the month effectively ended their playoff hopes. They closed out the month with a 62-0 win over Akron, ending the season on a positive note. Akron did get one more win to add to their record in October, way back at the start of the month against Toledo. It was a cracker of a match, with maximum bonus points awarded to both sides and a final score of 29-24 to Akron. It would have been an epic win for Toledo, who finished the season winless, but it was still a great win for Akron, making it two for two for them over Toledo. Cleveland and Pittsburgh both advanced to the quarterfinals this past weekend thanks to their records and total PD.

Wrapping up the Central subdivision with an undefeated record and a total PD of +522 are the Circle City Tempest (8-0) who have absolutely dominated the competition this year. In October alone they scored 220 points in three matches, while only allowing 12. Their closest match of the season was on October 10th, when they defeated Fort Wayne (4-4) by a score of 39-5. They will be joined in the quarterfinals by fellow Central team, the second-place Cincinnati Wolfhounds (6-2) who had an impressive season themselves, especially if you ignore the games against the Tempest. The Wolfhounds also racked up three wins in October, over Dayton (0-8), the Kelts (2-6), and Fort Wayne, scoring enough points to make the cut for the postseason. Fort Wayne missed the cut this year, but managed to wrap up third place thanks to their October win over the Cincinnati Kelts back on the 3rd. The final score of that one was 46-20 in favor of Fort Wayne. The Kelts managed to close out their season on a high thanks to their final win over Dayton, 46-10 back on the 17th. The Central division was the final one to send two teams to the quarters, with the final team coming from the newly formed CARFU subdivision. 

The CARFU league holds the top dog of this year’s Midwest Women’s D2 competition, Palmer College (6-0). With only six matches played, Palmer College has managed to wrap up a +602 point differential, the largest in the Midwest Women’s D2 conference. That’s about 100 points in differential per match for anyone doing the math at home. Palmer College has had 20 points scored against them all season, and that’s not a statement about the quality of their conference, that’s a statement about the quality of this team. With such large differentials, Palmer College will advance alone from the CARFU league to the quarterfinals. Despite not making it to the postseason, the three other teams in the CARFU league had a thrilling end to the season amongst each other. The Chicago Sirens (4-2) barely eked by the County Will Morrigans (2-4) on the 24th. It came down to conversions, with the Sirens slotting two to the Will Morrigans’ zero, final score 19-15. The Fox Valley Vixens didn’t manage to find a win this season despite coming within two points of the Will Morrigans back in September, but hopefully have something to build on for next season. 

With all five leagues done and dusted, the top eight teams across the divisions were ranked 1-8 (by record then average PD per match) and the quarterfinals were finalized. These all happened this past weekend, with four winners emerging, who will advance to the conference semifinals in November. The winners of each semifinal will advance to the Northern Super Regional, regardless of who wins the Midwest Championship. However, better seeding is on the line in that one, not to mention a pretty sweet trophy and endless bragging rights. Let’s see how those quarterfinals shook out.

Unfortunately there’s no big drama as far as the quarterfinals go – well, no big drama in terms of outcomes of matches. There were two forfeits recorded: the Cincinnati Wolfhounds forfeited to the Milwaukee Scylla and South Buffalo forfeited to the Cleveland Iron Maidens. Again, I’m not sure what happened, I’m not going to get into it, but Cleveland and the Scylla both advance to the semifinals this weekend. The other two matches actually took place, but both were mostly one-way traffic, with the higher seed exerting their dominance and showing why they are the top seeds. The Circle City Tempests blanked the Pittsburgh Forge 90-0, running in 14 tries over 80 minutes. Palmer College ran up a similar scoreline, but allowed Wisconsin to score three tries, bringing the final score to 85-19 in favor of Palmer College.

We’re hoping it really heats up with some competitive scorelines this weekend as Palmer College hosts the Milwaukee Scylla and Circle City hosts the Cleveland Iron Maidens. Remember, whoever wins those matches will advance to the Northern Super Regionals in the spring, regardless of the outcome in the Midwest Championships. It’s all on the line this weekend.

Not quite sure what is going on the Mid-America region, but we’ve only had one match played this October as well as what appears to be a forfeit win for the St. Louis Sabres (4-0) over the KC Patriots (0-2). The one match that took place saw the Sabres traveling to the KC Jazz (1-1) on October 3rd. St. Louis kicked off the scoring in that one with tries from Julia Rabe and Jessi Wilcox. The Jazz got on the scoreboard a few minutes later thanks to Brooklyn Grafath and conversion by Lydia Klimt. The Sabres scored another flurry of tries before heading into the halftime break with a lead of 29-14. The second half of the match was a bit tamer and a bit more defense-heavy, as KC held off St. Louis to two tries, then added the final say through Holly Eminger at minute 76. The final score was 41-19 in favor of St. Louis, the Sabres remaining undefeated. 

It looks like the season is done for the fall, with matches resuming in the spring. St. Louis is again the team to beat, looking to book another trip to the Northern Super Regionals.

Talk about a season going quickly, most teams had only one match played when we checked in at the end of September, but thanks to five weekends of rugby in October, these teams have all played each other once, closing out their fall season with a completed table. 

Last recap, the Colorado Springs Pikes Peaks (3-1) and the Littleton Lemons (2-2) had won their opening matches, but as you can see, October has shifted some things around. Both the Salt Lake SLUGS (3-1) and the Pikes Peaks have finished with identical records. The SLUGs are on top of the table, thanks to a few extra bonus points, namely the two they received in their first loss of the season back in September to Denver Black Ice (1-3). By the time the SLUGs hit the road in October, they had clearly regrouped and refocused, taking down the Lemons 34-19 before topping the Peaks at home in Utah. Their final match of the fall was a 50-29 win over the Boulder Babes (1-3) in Colorado. 

The Pikes Peaks capped off their October with a 42-19 win over the Lemons just this past weekend, getting as close to the SLUGs as possible on total PD and securing a bonus point in the win. With the SLUGs winning the head to head, there was nothing Colorado Springs could do to leapfrog them, but the spring season sure will be interesting. 

The Lemons settled into third overall in the standings, one step up from their finish last year. They split their losses in October with an away win over Black Ice on October 10th, final score 31-22. Adding that to their season opener over the Boulder Babes, the Lemons can finish the fall proud of their growth, and look forward to the spring playoffs (should the top four teams advance). 

Denver Black Ice was unlucky to finish with a final record of 1-3 after putting up solid scores all season against top opponents. Naturally, they are the only team to beat the number one side in the standings, but they also came within 18 points of Colorado Springs and within 9 points of the Lemons. Their final match of the season was a tough 33-19 loss to the Boulder Babes, who until then were winless. Good enough results for Boulder though, who can end their season tied on table points and record with Denver. 

No matches scheduled yet for the spring, but there will likely be a few warm-up games once the snow melts before the playoff run starts. Last year’s semifinals took place in the middle of March followed by the Rocky Mountain Championship match in April.

There’s plenty to wrap-up in New England as the regular season finished on October 24th and semifinals took place this past weekend. It’s a quick turnaround for the teams who won, because the NERFU final is taking place this weekend, and hopefully a champion will be crowned before the snow starts to fall. 

Let’s check out what happened at the start of the month and how we ended up with our top four teams. The last update still had a number of teams in contention for the top spots – the Albany Knicks, Burlington, Providence, New Haven, Worcester – to name a few. With so many matches left though, it was still up for grabs for any team. 

The Worcester Shamrocks (6-0) were the only team that managed to escape the regular season with an undefeated record. They racked up three regular season wins in October, taking down Providence (2-4), Danbury (1-4), and Burlington (2-3) by a combined total of 176-45. Interestingly enough, since there are nine total teams and only six league matches, Worcester never faced two of the other top four teams – Albany and Beantown. They did defeat third place New Haven back at the start of the season, 34-10, but the rest of their wins were over teams who finished in the bottom half of the standings. 

The Albany Knicks (5-1) on the other hand played both New Haven and Beantown back in September. Their lone loss of the season comes at the hands of Beantown, 38-29. October brought three wins to Albany as well, over Danbury, Hartford (0-6), and Portland (2-4). The final match was a close one, with Portland coming within a converted try of taking the win, but the Knicks held on, final score 36-31. 

Finishing in third and fourth on the table respectively were New Haven (4-2) and Beantown (4-2). Not only did they have identical records, but they also tied on table points. They did go head to head back on October 17th, and New Haven won that one confidently, final score 56-5. Beantown however pulled out a massive win over last year’s top of the table Providence, 46-43, on October 24th in order to clinch their spot in the playoffs. Lauren Ferridge scored three on the day for Beantown in the win while Nazareth Cardoso led the scoring for Providence. 

The semifinals took place this past weekend, with #1 Worcester taking on #4 Beantown and #2 Albany facing #3 New Haven. Last time Albany and New Haven went head to head it was back in September, with the match falling to Albany’s favor, final score 37-24. Despite Albany as the top seed, New Haven came with renewed purpose and controlled the match from minute one. The Knicks managed to score one, through Madeline Balga in the 60th minute, but it didn’t come close to New Haven’s five tries and four conversions. The Old Black pulled off the upset, advancing to the NERFU final by a final score of 38-7. Meanwhile in the other semifinal, an absolute barnburner took place with almost 100 points scored between the two teams. It came down to the final minutes as Worcester held off a determined Beantown side to snatch victory at the death by a final score of 49-47. Now a thrilling NERFU final awaits this upcoming weekend, with Worcester taking on New Haven. Remember, the two of them have already met once this season, way back on September 12th, with the Shamrocks taking the win 34-10. However something tells me that this final isn’t going to be as easy of a match as that early season one was. You’re not going to want to miss this. 

We only had one match take place in September, but we’ve added four more this past month to really give us something to chew on.

Currently the Union County Mudturtles (3-0) are the only team left undefeated after one big win over Brooklyn (0-3) and two close wins over NYRC (2-2). The Mudturtles racked up a 40 point differential over the Hyenas, but NYRC definitely made them sweat a bit. The Mudturtles season opener was back on October 10th, hosting then-undefeated New York. It was a low scoring, intense affair, with neither team getting a bonus point for over four tries. In fact, there weren’t even four tries scored between the sides. The final score was 15-7 in favor of Union, thanks to tries from Zhakeya Jackson and Ciara Sharkey, with a penalty goal and conversion from Allison Bronander. New York managed to score one try and convert, but couldn’t sneak within seven points in order to snag a losing bonus point. The next weekend, the two met again, this time in New York. This was a little more open and free-flowing match, with bonus points aplenty, but again the Mudturtles were victorious at full time, final score 27-22. With only one match left to play between Union and Brooklyn in November, it’s going to come down to NYRC and Union for the Empire Championship. With only single-digit point differentials between them in the head to head games, that’s going to be one close match.

As mentioned in our last recap, the Capital Women’ D2 got a major shakeup this season by only having two dedicated D2 sides who play a hybrid season against Atlantic D1 teams, as well as three matches against each other, in order to determine who advances to the Atlantic Super Regional. Both teams dropped their opening match to Atlantic D1 teams, Severn River faring better against Philadelphia than James River did against Raleigh. On October 24th, we got to see Severn River (1-0) and James River (0-1) go head to head for the first time this season. Last year Severn River topped James River thrice, twice in the regular season and once in the conference championship, and this year they’ve raised the stakes. Last year the average differential between the two over the three matches was just 17 points. On the 24th, the Honey Badgers smashed James River by a final score of 71-3. It was terror from the first minute from Severn, who found the try zone eleven times, with seven different players scoring. Katie Marshall led the charge with three, Hope Wasserman and Anne Lee both adding two of their own. Ruthanne Yates scored the lone penalty goal for James River around minute 50, keeping the donut hole off the scoreboard for this one. 

There’s plenty of time to go back to the drawing board for James River before they have to face the Honey Badgers again. They’ve got one final match this calendar year against NOVA on November 14th, while Severn kicks off their winter break early. The two will face each other again on March 20th before they meet one final time in the conference championship on April 17th. It’s a winner-take-all game, so even if James River drops both regular season matches, they’ve got a chance to advance if they can win in April. 

For the first time this season since the teams were all 0-0 and listed alphabetically, Phoenixville White Horse (3-0) are not in the top spot. Obviously this is because Monmouth (3-1) have one more match played than White Horse and thus one more table point, but still, it’s a pretty iconic moment. 

That being said, Monmouth did go toe to toe with Phoenixville back on October 10th and put up a solid fight. Last year over eight total league matches, Phoenixville had 60 points scored against them; in the game on the 10th, Monmouth managed to score five tries and three conversions, over half of the total points scored against White Horse last year. Now Phoenixville still managed to come away with the win by scoring 56 of their own points, but credit is due to Monmouth for a massive performance. The Renegades followed up this match with a big win over Northeast Philadelphia (1-2) on the 24th, 42-24. Monmouth only has two matches left, and those are both in April, so the Renegades should head into the winter break on a high, knowing they’ve got one big match left against White Horse on April 10th. 

Despite not currently being number one on the table, Phoenixville White Horse are still naturally the front runners, having gone undefeated again so far this season. Sure Monmouth gave them a run, but they followed that up with a 107-0 win over Doylestown (0-4) on October 24th, bringing their total differential so far this season to +230 … in three games. Their next match is scheduled to be in April, but they still have a postponed match against Northeast Philadelphia from the end of September to reschedule; so that might change. 

Northeast Philadelphia split the results of their two matches in October, defeating Doylestown 34-5 on the 10th before falling to Monmouth on the 24th. This brings them to a 1-2 record with three matches left to play, which is far away from a playoff berth, but not impossible. However, Northeast Philadelphia has yet to take on Phoenixville this season thanks to the storm that postponed their September 26th match, so they’ll likely face White Horse twice in the spring. They’ll need to win at least one of those, plus beat Doylestown, plus get a whole slew of bonus points while hoping Monmouth doesn’t. So not impossible, but very difficult. 

Doylestown is still looking for their first win of the season after dropping two matches in October and forfeiting to Monmouth on the 17th. They’ll open their spring season in March hosting Northeast Philadelphia before traveling to Monmouth on April 3rd for their final league match of the year. Their best chance will be to catch one or both of those teams sleeping after a long winter break, but that means that Doylestown will have to hit the (frozen) ground running in the early months. 

Honestly, not a very busy month in the Pacific Northwest according to the results in RX. A few D1/D2 hybrid matches were rescheduled or counted as forfeits, but we do have one D2 battle to highlight. On October 10th the Bend Lady Roughriders (0-1) hosted the Emerald City Mudhens (1-2) in Bend’s first match of the regular season. The Mudhens lost their two first games to D1 Seattle and Portland, putting solid fights up in the both games. In this one both teams got their hits in, scoring at least four tries to clinch the bonus point, but Bend was unable to match the fury of the Mudhens who ran in eight tries over 80 minutes to get their first league win of the year, 48-24. Six different players scored for Emerald City in the win, with both Aviva Browning and Maria King scoring twice. It looks like a couple of teams have had to combine for the fall fixtures, so we’re hoping that by the time the spring schedule rolls out, we’ll have some concrete fixtures to look forward to.

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. 

SoCal has yet to post their schedule to Rugby Xplorer, but teams are starting practices and getting some preseason games on the schedule for the end of 2026. Last year’s champions LARC have already booked a round robin against the D1 San Diego Surfers and Denver Black Ice for November 7th. Does this mean that LARC are moving up to D1 this season? Only time will tell. 

Still no updates on a formal schedule for the Southwest Women’s D2 league, but still time to spare. A number of teams attended the Flagstaff 10s on October 10th, getting in some valuable preseason minutes in preparation for the regular season, but we can’t readily find a schedule to show us results. Hopefully by the end of the next update we’ll have a formal schedule to look at and see what we’re working with for 2027.

The True South kicked off this past month with four of the five teams taking the pitch for their season opener.

Both home teams took home the first win, with the Atlanta 2.0 Selects (1-0) just ekeing by the Knoxville Minx (1-0) in total PD to top the table. The Selects blanked the Birmingham Steel (0-1) in their first True South league game, running in eight tries, plus a penalty try, on their way to a 51-0 victory. Marlyse Sifre and Caitlane Fricia both scored twice for Atlanta, while Rhia Cox slotted two conversions. A solid start for the newbies, whose next match isn’t until February.

The Knoxville Minx also won their season opener over the Nashville Stone Lions (0-1), a resounding 70-22. The Stone Lions managed to score four tries in the melee, securing their first bonus point of the season, but had no answer to the twelve tries dotted down by the Minx. Impressively, eleven different players found the try zone for Knoxville, showcasing their depth across the team. The Minx travel to the Chattanooga Queens this weekend before packing in for the winter; their following league match not scheduled until March.

The Stone Lions will host the Birmingham steel on November 14th, the final match of the 2026 calendar year for the True South Women’s D2, one of those teams hopefully getting their first win heading into the winter break.

Our six women’s D2 teams down in Texas won’t kickoff until January, but the annual Bat City XV took place this past weekend in Austin, Texas, with five of the six teams representing. The Dallas Harlequins finished second overall (to the visiting Berkeley All Blues) after defeating the Houston sHARCs in both pool play and in the semifinals. The sHARCs finished third overall over the San Antonio Riveters, while the home team, the Austin Valkyries took sixth behind the visiting Denver Black Ice, and the Dallas RFC finished seventh. It was a solid hit out for the Texas sides, who were able to challenge themselves against the visitors as well as preview the season ahead.

Not a ton of action to catch up on from the Carolinas thanks to two matches postponed on the weekend of October 10th, but we still had two spicy league matches on the 17th and 24th of October. Fear the Maniacs (2-0) won their second match of the season over the Charlotte Olde Originals (1-1) on October 17th. It was a massive win for Fear as Charlotte went undefeated last year and were on the same path again this year. Charlotte managed to snag a bonus point in the loss for scoring over four tries, but Fear the Maniacs’ Katie Baute impressed with four for five conversions and two penalty goals en route to the 39-22 victory. 

The Fayetteville Valkyries (1-1) got their first win of the season over Eno River (0-2) in a barn burner of a match on October 24th. Both teams got their shots in, but Fayetteville had the final say with the 36-31 final score. Eno River nabbed two bonus points in that loss and are moving with momentum towards their last 2026 match against Charlotte on November 14th. The Valkyries will host Fear the Maniacs on November 7th, while over in the Southern conference Charleston (1-0) will host the Carolina Villains in their season opener the same day. That’ll be it until the Spring, when we head into the second half of league play and eventually the playoffs.

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.