PULLMAN, Wash. -- When Anne Peterson was a freshman, she watched from the bleachers in Palo Alto as Stanford’s women’s rugby team played in the D-I USA Rugby national tournament. The fly-half’s Washington State University squad was playing in the D-II national tournament on the same weekend and she was blown away by the quality of the Cardinal side.
Three years later, Peterson’s No. 16 Cougars (6-4) are in their second season as a D-I team, and they are on their way to California to play in the Spring Championship’s Round of 16. Their opponent: No. 3 Stanford (8-0).
Stanford beat WSU 41-22 on March 29 in the semifinal of the Pacific Mountain Rugby Conference playoffs. Peterson said she looks forward to any chance she has to play Stanford and is excited about the rematch.
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“I remember being a freshman and watching them (Stanford) and just being in awe,” Peterson said. “This was the first year we actually competed against them and so it was pretty exciting for a lot of the girls who have been watching Stanford play for all these years, and now to actually be at that level, playing against such a competitive team.”
“I think they’re adventurous and they can do a lot of things well,” said Sherman, a former U.S. National Team player and coach. “They can play physical around the rucks, they can move the ball wide, and their fly-half (Peterson) is a very strong attacking threat.”
Even though Stanford won the last matchup between the two sides, it took the Cardinal 11 minutes to convert its first try and WSU scored the last two tries of the game.
“I wasn’t surprised at all at the closeness, because watching them the day before, we knew they were a very good team,” Sherman said. “I think the Cougars were one of the strongest teams at the event, and are certainly a contender to win any game they’re in.”
One Cougar who was particularly pleased to hear the Cougars would be playing the Cardinal in the Round of 16 was sophomore wing and fullback Emma Knapp. Knapp said she had to miss the Cougars’ semifinal match of the PMRC playoffs because she had an enlarged spleen.
“I wanted to play them again, just seeing the energy on the field and how our team did not back down,” Knapp said. “When you can’t play, you realize how much it means even more than before. I kind of get chills thinking about it.”
Whereas WSU will be playing in its first D-I national tournament in program history this weekend, Stanford is a fixture at national championships.
Even though Sherman was quick to correct that Penn State’s women’s rugby team has been the most dominant in recent history, his squad has only finished worse than third in the national tournament once in the last decade and has won three championships during that stretch.
Despite the difference in prestige of the programs, the Cougars may have an advantage on Saturday.
“We know that Stanford has a lot more skill base on us,” Knapp said. “But I think we have a lot more heart than they do, and I think we have to go out there and have the idea that we’re going to leave everything out there on the field.”
WSU and Stanford will go toe-to-toe at 4:15 p.m. on Saturday in Palo Alto. On Sunday, the victor will go on to play the winner of the Central Washington/UC Davis game with a trip to the Spring Championship semifinals on the line. The losers of those two Round of 16 matches will play a consolation game, which will also be on Sunday.