The women’s rugby club announced winners of this year’s rugby awards earlier this month.
The awards, five in total, were voted on by the entire team.
Macy Williams, who graduated in the fall with an elementary education degree, was voted Most Valuable Rugger.
“Well, it’s definitely an honor to be chosen by your whole team for such a high award,” Williams said. “… I think the other awards are definitely well deserving as well. But I definitely feel like it’s always just an honor to be voted Most Valuable Rugger and definitely by your own teammates… (Knowing) that they respect you, that’s a nice feeling.”
Alesha Lawson, junior in chemistry and Spanish, was voted Most Improved.
“I was beyond excited to receive the award, but I couldn’t help feeling as though there were others who had proven to deserve it more,” Lawson said. “As a rookie I often felt as though I wasn’t improving quickly enough or felt confident as a contributor to the team. Receiving the award made me… (feel) like the team saw potential in me and I am very grateful for the recognition.”
Lindsey Simpson, sophomore in social work, was voted Rookie of the Year.
“I feel very honored that my teammates have chosen me for this, and it makes my heart do a little jump,” Simpson said.
The women’s rugby team, like many other sports this year, was not able to play as much as they hoped to because of the ongoing pandemic. However, there were still memorable moments for the team such as being able to host their first ever alumni game.
“Well, due to COVID and all that stuff not letting us play a lot of games, I definitely think my favorite moment was the only game we got to have, probably our K-State game, or our alumni game,” Williams said. “I really enjoyed our alumni game because we got to have… most of our alumni back and we got to visit and reconnect. It was a good thing for our newer girls to get that experience playing against girls who have already been on the team before, and it was just fun for everybody. We all really enjoyed it.”
In other awards, Mauresa Caire was voted BOP-Pack and Sara Dressler was voted BOP-Back.
“We are always looking for new girls who are interested in playing,” Williams said. “We definitely welcome anyone, no experience needed ever because a lot of us start out not knowing how to play at all or some don’t even know what rugby is. Anyone is… (welcome) to join from Pitt State. We always encourage people to come out.”
The team hopes to compete in a couple of tournaments this summer, but nothing is scheduled yet.
“(I) just want to thank my teammates for being an amazing family,” Simpson said.