Wheeling, W. Va. - With the 15's regular season coming to an end, and the playoff run in full swing, The College Rugby Show announced their Top Five players in College Rugby right now from across all levels of the sport. After winning a national championship a season ago, the Wheeling University Women's Rugby team was one of the programs represented on the list, as they look to become just the third team in National Collegiate Rugby (NCR) history to defend a National Title. Junior Alexis Dallas was named the #4 player in all of collegiate rugby, as she leads the Cardinals defensive effort, while bringing her own spark to the offensive side of the ball.
Her main claim to fame over her first two seasons with the Cardinals is the impact that she has brought on the defensive side of the ball. In each of her first two seasons, she has led the Cardinals in both tackles and tackles/game, leading a defense that has allowed just 3.0 points per game. Under her leadership, the Cardinal defense has pitched four shutouts in nine games this season, and has allowed their opponents to score more than seven points only once. The only exception came in an October 17th match-up against Navy, where the Cardinals kept things close early before breaking open in the second half. During her two seasons with the Cardinals, their 15's season points allowed average sits at 6.1 points per game, and includes eight shutouts.
While her defense has been her strong suit, she has also shown an ability to impact the offensive side of the ball. She is the Cardinal's try leader this season, racking up 11 tries, and sits second on the team with 55 points this season. Of those 11 tries, she has scored five over her last three games as she steps up her game when the team reaches the annual playoff stretch. She is currently just six tries shy of her season total from a year ago, when she scored 17 tries and accounted for 87 points in the effort. She is the Cardinal's single-season tries leader after their inaugural season and is looking to further cement herself in the record books as the season goes on. Of her 28 career tries, over half of those have come in the second half.
The College Rugby Show's Top Five Players list consisted of players from both men's and women's college rugby teams across the nation. Dallas was one of three women to make the list and was the second highest ranked women's rugby player on the list. Southern Nazarene's Telesi Uhatafe took the #1 spot and Army's Yesenia Morales took the #5 spot to round out the list.
The Wheeling University Women's Rugby team returns to action on Saturday, November 8th, when they travel to the University of Virginia.
