American University's women's rugby team had a losing season (3-5), but senior captain Colleen McHugh said this year wasn't a disappointment.
"I think this was an important building season," McHugh said. "A lot of young players gained experience, we got a group of great new players and we learned what skills we need to focus on for the playoffs in the spring."
McHugh said the women have built on their previous talent.
"The improvement from last season is incredible. Every girl on the team has improved her ball handling, tackling, field awareness," she said. "I've been really impressed with how much every player has stepped up their game individually and also as a team."
This club team is more than just a team. According to McHugh, the women on the team like to say that AU women's rugby is family.
"It's great to be part of a team with teammates who support you on and off the pitch. We are a close team and know we can all count on each other for anything," she said. "The team gets along really well and that's because we all have a lot of respect and care for each other."
McHugh said a lot of strong players graduated last year, leaving a very young team behind.
"It's been a tough season with people shifting positions and learning new positions; the dynamic of the team is very changed from last year," she said. "We did a great job recruiting a huge group of rookies who look really promising and are learning the game quickly."
Senior Kellie Cavalier, the other team captain, said she agreed.
"We have a great bunch of rookies who really added to the team and we have continued developing as a team," said Cavalier.
However, despite how easily the young team clicked, there were still problems with how well the women communicated on the field at the beginning of the season.
"With so many young players the team hasn't been playing together long enough to know how to play with one another," McHugh said. "But we've sorted it out, and the team improved a lot by the end of the season."
Despite some of the re-adjusting of the team, the women played some really great games this season, but they also had some tough losses, McHugh said. One of these losses was No. 2 Penn State. Nonetheless, McHugh said the women played to their potential.
"This year we played the best I've ever seen AU play against Penn State. While we lost the game, we made Penn State work for their win," McHugh said. "I think this game showed the team what we can do when we play our best."
"The [team] has begun to realize that we are unstoppable if we play together and play hard," Cavalier said.
