VWIT

I have returned from Charlottesville, where I have been all weekend playing rugby for VWIT (the Virginia Women's Invitational Tournament).

I have returned with the knowledge of how it feels to have the U.S. Military beat up on you for two hours: we were seeded with Women's Army Rugby (WAR) and Women's Navy Rugby (WNR). We played two thirty-minute halves against each, and lost by... considerable amounts.

I have returned without skin on my knees and portions of my face: we played on not particularly kind turf, and the turf burn was horrendous. I also am very stiff and sore and will probably have trouble walking for the next few days.

I have returned with purple hair.

But I have also returned... with VICTORY.

Our consolation match was on Sunday, with the University of Maryland (UMD). AU and UMD have some beef - they recently moved up to D1, and beat us in the fall (in a game that no one at AU wants to talk about or generally remember), so they are going to playoffs and we are not.

But today, we played them for two thirty-minute halves and ten minutes of overtime. No tries scored in the first half. We then scored our first try fairly early on the in the second; later, they caught up with us by scoring their first try [illegally, but let's not dwell on that]. Then in overtime, we put our try in and held them far away from our try zone the whole time.

It felt AMAZING - not just winning, not just being matched up against a team that we could REALLY compete with, but playing such a good, tight game. UMD made some mistakes, definitely, but they played really well; we just played better.

We played really and truly fifteen-as-one, everyone on the field paying attention to where their teammates were and where the other team was. We supported each other, reset fast and came up aggressively on defense, made smart decisions on offense, and (a big deal for my team, which usually loses their heads in these circumstances) kept out of our heads and on the pitch in the face of some questionable tactics used by the other team and some interesting calls by the ref.

It was what we'd been working for all weekend - we'd started off slow in the first half with Army, but picked it up, and played pretty decently against Navy, but we still weren't at our best; it's hard to keep your head and your aggression up when the other team is running tries into the tryzone every few minutes. But today, it just all came together and looked beautiful.

As for me personally, I had a pretty fantastic weekend (as a first, I played the same position all weekend: strong-side flanker). I didn't do as well as I could've in the first half against Army, but after the game was over, Deanna came up to me with a very serious expression on her face and said, "Pink. Do you know what you did? Pink," and just as I was getting worried that I'd done something very wrong, she finishes with, "You did exactly what a strong-side flanker is supposed to do. You made their flyhalf look for you every play because she was so nervous you'd hit her! You came up hard and aggressive on defense and wanted the ball every time."

And I don't think I've gotten a better compliment in my life.

And that's how I played all weekend.

And it was SO GOOD.

[PS - photos of the hair and the facial turf burn and the skinless knees whenever I get off my ass and upload them!]