Scott Schlaufman/Criterion

Mack Lewis is a little loopy, and she’s not afraid to admit it.
“There’s got to be some sort of craziness going on in your brain to want to fight each other and beat up your body every game for the rest of your team,” said Lewis, co-founder of the Mesa State women’s rugby team that was put together in September with her roommate Bobby Bouchard.
“We’re definitely not all there up top but we’re one big family, it’s really cool,” Lewis said.
On paper, combining the hard hits of one of Europe’s most popular sports with only a few experienced players and the relative obscurity that comes with being a club sport probably isn’t the ideal formula for success. Yet barely seven months since the club’s inception, the Mavs are poised to be one of the school’s top teams.
On Sunday at Dixon Field, the team posted its fifth win of the year, a 29-24 victory over a 19-U team from the Eastern Rockies Rugby Football Union. The Union is host to numerous rugby teams in Colorado, Wyoming and western Nebraska. The team even boasts several USA Eagles players, and according to Lewis, an alumni of the ERRFU team, it was only the team’s second loss in two years.
In the game, Mesa fell behind 7-0 after an early try. After a kick by Sam Miller gave the Mavs three points, the girls got their game on. Three minutes after Miller’s kick, Mesa got the ball into the goal area, scoring five more. A post-try kick by Miller gave the Mavs a 10-7 lead and from there the team never let up.
Eventually Miller’s consistent kicking made the difference when ERRFU failed to convert their post-try kicks. Also helping the Mavs was the inside knowledge of the team that Lewis and Bouchard had.
“Since me and Bobby played for them we knew where to attack and where their strongholds were,” Lewis said. “We used that to our advantage.”
The Mavs remain undefeated this spring, even though the team originally wasn’t planning on starting competition until next fall.
“You have to clear it through USA Rugby and we didn’t think we were going to get money,” Lewis said. “I didn’t want to have to make the girls pay out of their own pockets to, pretty much, practice people.”
The team ended up getting funding from the college, along with sponsors who have helped pick up the expense of equipment.
“It was an option then for us to get cleared through USA Rugby and play some games,” Lewis said.
While the success of the team has surprised Lewis to an extent, she was confident early due to the interest of many athletes who were previously involved with varsity sports on campus.
“I knew once I started seeing who was coming out that we’d be legit pretty fast because we had a lot of talent to begin with,” Lewis said. “We weren’t going from base zero, learning how to be an athlete and then learning how to play rugby. (The athletic ability) was already there.”
The team also works with coaches from men’s club team and does a weekly game of touch with the men.
The Mavericks play three more games this spring, including one on April 3 at home.
The drive to Dixon Field, on Unaweep Avenue in Orchard Mesa, may be further than most students are willing to go, but the team still draws a crowd of onlookers, who may not know exactly what they’re watching, but that doesn’t make the experience any less fun.
“It’s a one of a kind sport, you’ve just got to play it to understand it,” Lewis said.

sschlauf@mesastate.edu