Women's Teams Ready for Fall 2013 Season

It's the beginning of the Fall 2013 season, and the Ivy Rugby Conference's Women's teams are locked and loaded for another exciting year.

There are many storylines that have begun to unfold, and we caught up with some representatives of the league to get their thoughts on this upcoming season.

As reflected by their men's program's success, Dartmouth has long been a powerhouse rugby school. The Dartmouth Women's team is looking to build on that success this year after facing some difficulties last season. Pallavi Kuppa-Apte, co-captain of the squad, said that the team is "ready to continue training hard, [and] keeping a focus on the skills and strategies that are going to help us win victories over every team in our schedule." Kuppa-Apte's confidence was echoed by other members of the team - several players made sure to stress that strength training and conditioning have played a key role in the team's preparation for this season. "We are a lot smarter, more organized, and more skilled than in past seasons," said team secretary Diana Wise. "Our team has been working extremely hard this summer and preseason to prepare mentally and physically for the competitive opponents that we will be facing this fall season." Head Coach Debra Archambault sounded very pleased with her team's off-season preparations, and was looking forward to a successful year. "We've had a very productive camp are the first eighteen are ready for a great league season," Archambault said. "If we get some good athletes in our rookie class... and if we can keep our returning players healthy, we will be strong enough to be in the running for the conference championship."

New Princeton Head Coach Chris Ryan is similarly confident about his team's chances for this upcoming season. As the leader of a team coming off a league championship, he pointed to recruiting and fitness as the team's top priorities this off-season. Ryan pointed to Brown and Harvard as two teams he was looking forward to playing this year, since his team "always wants to beat the best." With 27 players returning (including 11 starters), it looks as though Ryan will be fielding a highly competitive squad for his first year as Head Coach.