A new national champion will be crowned in Women’s Division III, with 2023 winner St. Bonaventure moving up to Division I. As a result, runner-up Wisconsin Platteville enters the new season ranked No. 1, followed by 2023 champion Endicott at No. 2. The Pioneers fell to the Bonnies by just five in the national final last December, while Bonaventure eliminated the Gulls in the semifinals by a 10-point margin.
Prop Emma Callaghan and back-rowers McKenna Dutton and Selena Bodedein make a trio of senior All-Americans returning for Platteville. The Pioneers will be pushed in the Great Waters conference race by perennial power and sixth-ranked Northern Michigan. The Northstars made back-to-back final four appearances in 2021 and 2022, but were upended by Cortland in the quarterfinals last fall. They’ve lost their longtime head coach, Eagle Tina Nesburg, but not high expectations.
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Endicott opens the season with a top-10 conference clash against defending 7s national champion Yale. The Gulls are led by three-time All-American fullback Tess Merrill, who’s helped Endicott to three-straight Colonial Coast conference titles. Standing between the Gulls and the first-ever championship of the newly-minted North Atlantic Rugby Conference is an October 19 meeting with Plymouth State and All-American center Laryssa Lanmesser.
No. 9 Yale is led by senior second-row Lael Joseph, who scored the final try in the Bulldogs’ title run at the CRC in April, earning MVP honors. She joined a bevy of Yale teammates on a tour of New Zealand this summer, training and playing with local club Marist, so don’t expect the Bulldogs to have lost any momentum between semesters.
Entering the fall ranked third is Colby College, three time defending champions of the Rugby Northeast conference. The Mules fell to Endicott in the quarterfinals last fall, but look primed for a breakout season on the national scale.
Returning to Division III this season is High Peaks favorite and No. 4 Colorado School of Mines. The Orediggers enjoyed a winning record last fall, before losing to LSU in the DII quarterfinals. In DIII, Mines look like legitimate title contenders.
No program has won more DIII national championships than fifth-ranked Wayne State College. The Wildcats strung together five-consecutive national 15s titles through 2021. Last year, under first year head coach Bryn Chivers, they returned to the quarterfinals, falling to Platteville. The Wildcats open the 2024 season September 21 against rival South Dakota, Chivers’ former squad, before a pair of marquee non-conference clashes with DI opponents Iowa State and Southern Nazarene.
With St. Bonaventure out of the picture, SUNY Cortland is the team to beat in the Upstate New York conference. The Peace Frogs lost to Platteville in last year’s final four, but return a big squad and have proven capable of reloading by recruiting athletes on campus and developing them quickly into contributors on the rugby pitch.
No. 8 York looks like the frontrunner again in the Eastern Pennsylvania Rugby Conference, as does 10th-ranked Lee in the South Atlantic. After an impressive run in 7s in the spring, the Spartans are hoping to break into the XVs postseason this fall, while the Flames are aiming to return to the final four after running into the Bonnies buzzsaw in the quarterfinals last year. Lee’s quest begins September 21 at Appalachian State, and York’s September 7 against Harrisburg.
