The Road to Houston in Women’s Division II starts with sixteen teams from around the country, the largest field out of all four divisions, vying for four spots in the national semifinals. Thirteen of those sixteen teams finished ranked inside the Top 20 in the final Coaches Poll of the season, meaning there will be plenty of competitive matches up and down the bracket before a champion is crowned in December.

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What better place to start than with #1 Vassar, last year’s champions and the odds-on favorites to be the last team left standing once again in 2025. The Brewers have enjoyed another stellar regular season under head coach Tony Brown, cruising to their tenth Tri-State Conference title behind the predictably stellar play of scrumhalf Sophia Bailey, who broke the school’s career try-scoring record when she eclipsed the century mark with a three-score effort earlier this Fall. Though Bailey led Vassar with eighteen tries on the season, she got plenty of help on the scoring front from her teammates, including sophomore Maisy Richardson (14 tries) as well as seniors Jude Robinson (13) and Yasmeen Kassem-Scott (13).

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It won’t be easy sledding for Vassar in the opening rounds, however, as their weekend at Sandhill Fields in Georgetown, DE has the potential to be ruined by any one of the three  top-ten ranked and battle-tested teams from the mid and south Atlantic. The seventh-ranked Towson Tigers will get the first crack at the upset in round one on Saturday. After going undefeated in the regular season – which included wins over ranked teams in Mary Washington (#20) and the University of Delaware (#19) – Towson, led by All-American Kelly Greenleaf, came up just short against conference foes William and Mary in the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Conference (MARC) Finals. This team is always a tough out and Vassar would be served well by heeding the ancient wisdom that says to never turn your back on a Tiger.

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The team that beat Towson to claim the top spot in the conference, Willam and Mary, is locked in what is perhaps the most exciting opening round match of the DII tournament on the other side of that bracket in Delaware. The MARC Champs (somehow ranked lower than Towson at #10 in the coaches poll) will take on the incredibly feisty SARC (South Atlantic Rugby Conference) Champs, Coastal Carolina (#5) in an incredible “styles make fights” matchup between two highly competitive teams. 

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William and Mary, the Tribe, play an incredibly physical brand of rugby and have locked opponents down defensively all season long. The 12 points they gave up to Towson in the MARC final were the most they surrendered to a team all year. Senior second-rower Nathalie Forsythe was the star of the Towson match, but Lucy Mehre, Amelia Smith, and Wesleigh Gomes have also been strong contributors to the team’s success. The Chanticleers, on the other hand, have scored in bunches on their scorched-earth revenge tour in the SARC, topping 40 points in all but two games, one of which came against DIAA Lander. Senior forwards captain Kennedy Raboin has been a force for Coastal in the back row, scoring two tries in the team’s demolition of conference rival Kennesaw State. Raboin’s kicking leg has also got a workout this year, with the junior often having to convert on a flurry of scores from teammates like dynamic fullback Curriyah Scott, who had multiple 5+ try games on the year. Scrumhalf Brooke Brantley has also impressed, captaining the backline as a freshman and keeping the offense running smoothly. Last year William and Mary dusted then SARC Champions Kennesaw State 36-5 before falling to Vassar 40-0 in the Regional Final.

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On the other side of the East bracket sits #3 Coast Guard, who will also have to contend with three ranked opponents looking to break into the top-tier in Division II. Despite not having superstar Kate Boggs healthy for the entire season, the Bears still breezed to their eleventh North Atlantic Collegiate Rugby (NACR) Conference Championship in twelve years after beating #13 UNH 36-7 and are once again poised to play in Houston. Head coach Sarah Price would undoubtedly love to pair a 2025 CRC 7s National Championship with some XVs hardware this Fall. 

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To start, though, they’ll have to get through a motivated Marist side with some dangerous athletes like All-American Syd Weiss and a player identified in social media graphics only as “Big Al”. Despite finishing the season ranked #13, the Red Foxes were at one point ranked as high as #4 in the country and were dominating teams before losing a close one to Fairfield in the Tri-State semifinals. Speaking of current #4 Fairfield, they will take on the Rugby Northeast Champs, #6 Roger Williams, in an incredibly tight matchup on the other side of the bracket at the Irish Cultural Center in Canton, MA. This is a rematch of last year’s opening round game that saw Fairfield beat Roger Williams 26-17. The Stags then nearly pulled off an incredible upset over Coast Guard in the Regional final, with the Bears narrowly escaping by a score of 17-15.

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This season, Fairfield were routed by Vassar in the Tri-State Championship match but have had a strong season otherwise behind standouts Tia Stanton and Ava Hiel. The Hawks are led by All-American Danielle Vogt as well as junior Kaya Haddad, both 5’ 5” phenoms who have had no trouble powering their way through defensive lines this season.

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Out West, the #2 team in the country, Wisconsin Eau-Claire, have a relatively easy path back to Houston compared to their East Coast rivals as all three of the unranked teams included in the playoff sit on this side of the bracket. The Blugolds could switch places with any team in the bracket, however, and would most likely find themselves back in Houston after another dominant season under coaches Derek Wagner and Rachel Lange. Eau Claire announced themselves this season on the National stage, upsetting DIAA Northern Iowa 35-17 on Friday Night Rugby and never looked back. Hooker Liv George had a hat trick in that game and has been a force for the Blugolds throughout the year along with Kaitlynn Moore and Kahlyn Geiger.

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Unranked Norwich are Eau Claire’s opening round opponent at Allison Sportstown in Springfield, MO on Saturday. The Cadets had a strong year thanks to solid contributions from players like Carlyan Vigbedor, Leslie Malin, and Alyssa Gioia but could never quite get over the hump. They have pushed other top contenders like Coast Guard and Roger Williams this season, however, and could do the same thing to Eau Claire if the Blugolds let their minds wander to future opponents. 

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The other matchup in Missouri features the Lonestar Champion, #8 Texas - San Antonio, taking on the Winona State Black Katts. The UTSA Roadrunners have dominated down South over the last couple of years, being crowned conference champs in both 15s and 7s in 2022-23 and 2024-25. And the Katts actually held Eau Claire to a respectable scoreline earlier this season, falling to the Blugolds 15-34 in a match in September. In the first round of last year’s regional playoffs, UTSA lost to Eau Claire 69-15 but kept it close in the third place game against Illinois, losing 24-18.

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The final regional site in the DII Championship bracket features the 9th, 11th, and 12th ranked teams in the country squaring off at Obetz Stadium in Obetz, OH. The most compelling matchup is #11 Bowling Green taking on #12 Cincinnati in a rematch of last year’s opening round game that saw the Bearcats crush BGSU 56-12. The Falcons enter round two of this matchup with some renewed hope, coming in as the higher ranked team, though they have already clashed with Cincinnati once in the regular season, falling 24-7. It was one of only two blemishes on their record this season, with Sami Tripi and Alyssa Schwan leading the Falcons in scoring. The Bearcats are unbeaten in conference play this year and are led by a formidable flock of All-Americans in Elaina Grayson, Taylor Powell, and Shannon Swinerton. Cincinnati beat Marquette in the Regional Final last year to secure their place in Houston, but fell to Eau Claire 36-0 in the National semifinal.

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On the other side of that bracket is #9 Northwestern, who forfeited the Great Waters Championship match against Eau Claire and deprived us of a chance to see how they would stack up against their potential National semifinal opponent. The Wildcats were cruising to that point however, scoring 60+ points in three of their regular season matchups, including a 68-24 blowout of a higher-ranked Marquette team, before back-to-back wins over Loyola Chicago with scorelines of 33-10 in the regular season and 22-10 in the first round of the conference playoffs. Sophia Fresquez, Naia Daley, and Katelyn Cai have been standouts for Northwestern so far this season.

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Their opponents, the unranked Binghamton She-Devils, have reached the Regional playoff round for the first time in 20 years. Flyhalf Liz Crawford helped lead the team to wins over Niagara and Cornell in their hybrid DII/DIII schedule in the Upstate New York College Rugby Conference and will be pivotal in any effort to pull off the upset over Northwestern in the opening round.

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All matches streamed live on the National Collegiate Rugby YouTube channel. For more rugby news, check out TheCollegeRugbyShow.com.

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