They never thought of themselves as a Cinderella team. So when the women's rugby squad blew defending champion Penn State off the pitch, 53-6, to win the national championship title at Steuber Rugby Field on April 30, they weren't entirely surprised.
"With the match being so one-sided, nobody can say Stanford got lucky or had a big break," says junior center Olivia Anglade, a civil engineering major. The team co-captain scored three tries, or goals, against the Nittany Lions and was named Final Four Most Valuable Player as she helped the Cardinal pick up its first title since 1999.
Although 30 of the 49 players were rookies, the women powered through scrums like vets. "Our top scorer was [sophomore] Carey Myslewski, who had never touched a rugby ball before this season," says fullback Kelsey Lynn, '04, a co-terminal degree student in mechanical engineering.
With only a handful of varsity women's teams in the nation, the Cardinal was matched against other club sports players in the tournament. The half-page of photos in the Stanford Daily the following week suggested that the squad came of age with its big win. "We've been working for years to be taken seriously as a sport, and we are beginning to get that respect," Lynn says. Adds Anglade: "We're on the map now."
