Wheeling, W. Va. – After four long months of planning, building, and practicing, the Wheeling Women's Rugby team is ready for the Wheeling Rugby Purge to commence. The team hits the road on Friday to open up a new era in the rich tradition of Rugby at Wheeling University. The Wheeling Women's Rugby team will play their first ever intercollegiate varsity match when they take on Ohio State with kick-off at 6 PM.
Wheeling University initially announced Women's Rugby as the school's 21st Intercollegiate varsity sport back on April 16th, 2024 and opened a search for the program's first Head Coach. Less than a month late, Ken Pape was hired as the program's first Head Coach on May 4th, 2024, bringing with him over 15 years of Head Coaching experience. From May to July, Pape went to work building everything from the team's locker room, to their jersey, to the roster of girls who would take the pitch. When all was said and done, Pape brought in 31 girls for the 2024-2025 season and set up a nine game independent schedule that will challenge his team as they compete for a spot in the National Collegiate Rugby (NCR) National Tournament in their first season as a varsity program.
"Pape Quote"
In their first season as a program, the Cardinals will be looking to their four captains to lead the way. Ema Tai, Bella Gullatta, Dakota Burgess, and Alexis Dallas will serve as team captains during the year as they look to lead the way. All four came from Lander University during the 2023-2024 season and were a part of a historic season for the Bearcats. They helped lead the team to the National Intercollegiate Rugby Association (NIRA) Championship game during 15's season, where the team would finish as national runners-up. All four have played under Pape's system before and look to continue growing on what they built at Lander University. Along with the four captains, Pape was also able to bring 14 other players from Lander's National Championship runner-up team and they look to bring that same success to Wheeling.
Along with the transfer crew that came over with Pape, the Cardinals also brought in a strong recruiting class of 13 freshman who are looking to make an immediate impact. Joelle Taylor comes from Ardrey Kelly High Schoop, and played club Rugby with the Charlotte Cardinal Rugby club. She was named the Most Valuable Cardinal for the Charlotte Rugby club and looks to have similar success with the Wheeling Cardinals this season. Tamzin Boyce comes to the team from Northern Ireland, where she got the chance to play in the All- Ireland Universities. Championship. She brings her international experience to Wheeling and looks to help the Cardinals on offense throughout the 2024 season.
Friday night begins a nine-game independent schedule for the Wheeling Women's Rugby team that will see them play a variety of talent levels. They kick things off with a National Collegiate Rugby (NCR) program in Ohio State, which will be the first of five NCR matchups during the year. Throughout the schedule, they will also see opponents from NIRA and the Collegiate Rugby Association of America (CRAA). They will have the luxury of being at home early on, with four of their first five games coming at Bishop Schmitt Field. After hitting the road for week one, the team will come back for four straight home games spanning the next four weeks. For a first year program, the Cardinals will be looking to take advantage of their home field as they look to make a splash in year one.
The Matchup
The Cardinals and Buckeyes will be meeting up for the first time in program history with Wheeling playing in their first-ever match on Friday. Ohio State qualified for the CRC National 7's Tournament last season and finished third overall in the DI Club Championship. They would go 3-1 across the tournament, with Amanda Jason leading the way with four tries while Aubrey Timmons added three tries to round out the effort.
The Details
Kick-off for Friday night's game is scheduled for 6 PM in Columbus, Ohio. For live updates throughout the night, be sure to follow our social media accounts and come back for a full recap at wucardinals.com.
