Women’s rugby is a Division II sports club for Sacramento State. Last season, the team had a 33 percent win percentage. However, this season the team has already shown drastic improvements.

Coach Mary Swanstrom said the team is currently in the social season. She said she has high expectations for this team including the rookies because they are highly competitive and that gives the team hope moving forward.

“My goal for the social season is to familiarize the rookies with our game, both understanding the game in general and our specific game plan,” Swanstrom said. “We got excellent rookies that are progressing very quickly, they’re very athletic, and they’re picking up the general aspects of the game.”

The women’s rugby team is associated with the West Coast Conference (WCC). Swanstrom’s goal is to be able to win the conference within two years.

“If we win our West Coast Division then that puts us in the round of six teams for USA,” Swanstrom said. “It gives us a berth to the national championship, and in the championship we compete for the national title.”

President Kayla Miles of the women’s rugby club said this season has seen a lot of changes but feels like it is going in a positive direction. She said she wants the team to work hard, stay on track, and train as much as they can to improve their record.

Since being appointed president four years ago, Miles has embraced what it means to be a leader.

“I learned more about leadership and organizational skills since I’ve been the president for four years,” Miles said. “I’ve learned how to do a lot of event planning, leading a group of people to and from places, and getting them together.”

This season, the women’s rugby team faced off against Division I Chico State; they lost that game but seemed to have really improved. Sac Stateplayed against CSU Monterey Bay, in which Sac State won 72-5. This past weekend the women played in the Scrum by the Sea Tournament in San Diego, California. In that tournament, they outscored their opponents by a margin of 51-49 in total points.

Senior child development major Jocelyn Barrios has high expectations for this team as the season progresses.

“What we expect is to go into nationals because we are a pretty good team,” Barrios said. “A lot of the girls on the team have played other sports before so all those skills that we’ve learned in the past have been very helpful playing rugby and I feel like that’s going to help us out in the long run.”

Sac State is part of Division II, where the sport is broken up into Division I, Division II, and small colleges. The Hornets have only been a part of Division II for about five years now. Typically, the women’s rugby team finishes in the middle of their Division II West Coast conference standings.

Having only been the coach of the women’s rugby team for two months, Swanstrom feels a sense of bonding and building relationships with the girls on the roster is crucial.

“Coaching women is a different feel than coaching men and boys; the women need to understand the game more before they are willing to do something, so it’s a lot harder to build the trust of a female athlete,” Swanstrom said. “My trust is starting to build [with the athletes] and that feels good.”

Swanstrom whose a former rugby player herself, currently coaches high school boy’s rugby, and used to coach adult men’s rugby.