The Ferris women’s rugby team won the 16^th Annual Snowball Tournament in Kalamazoo on Feb. 13 in com­mand­ing fashion.

Unlike tra­di­tional rugby matches, the con­tests were played on fields 30 yards long instead of 100 yards and played with 10 peo­ple instead of 15. The tour­na­ment was set up in a bracket style and each team was guar­an­teed to play at least three games.

Sophomore Andrea Dooley, a tele­vi­sion pro­duc­tion major from Grandville, said the Bulldogs were the only team to go 4–0 through­out the tour­na­ment. The Bulldogs defeated Wayne State, Saginaw Valley State, Central Michigan and Western Michigan.

Ferris shut out Western Michigan University in the cham­pi­onship game of the women’s col­le­giate divi­sion. Wayne State and Saginaw Valley each scored once on Ferris, while Central Michigan and Western Michigan failed to score.

The Bulldogs began train­ing the week after classes resumed and prac­ticed three days per week. Dooley said when they got to the tour­na­ment, they could tell none of the other teams had really started training.

Lindsey Orkisz, a junior in the con­struc­tion man­age­ment and civil engi­neer­ing pro­grams, said the team was not very good last sea­son and won only two games. Brittany O’Dell, a sopho­more in the adver­tis­ing pro­gram, is in her sec­ond sea­son with the team.

“We had a lot of new girls last year who didn’t know how to play so there was a lot of teach­ing,” said O’Dell.

This sea­son, the team has 25 mem­bers and the play­ers are thank­ful they have sub­sti­tutes because last year they had none. Orkisz said the team strug­gled last year in part because each team mem­ber had to play the whole game.

The team’s pri­mary sea­son is in the fall and the spring por­tion of the sea­son serves as train­ing time. Each col­le­giate team is in a league called a union and Ferris plays against schools such as Michigan, Michigan State, Grand Valley State, Wayne State, Saginaw Valley State and Bowling Green State.

The Bulldogs play their home games on the intra­mural fields. Dooley said the team is respon­si­ble for lin­ing the field and putting up the posts. The weather also impacts the rugby sea­son and lim­its the num­ber of games the team can play.

“We’ll prob­a­bly only have one or two home games this year because they won’t let us use the field unless it’s thawed six feet down,” said Dooley.

Orkisz said the team is much closer this year and that makes it fun. O’Dell said rugby is a very respect­ful game and the play­ers treat one another with respect. The play­ers enjoy the cama­raderie and friend­ship of the sport.
“It’s not like other sports because we hang out and eat pizza with the other team after the game,” said O’Dell.

The Bulldogs will com­pete in the annual “Nash Bash” tour­na­ment in Nashville, Tenn. on March 27–28.