Did you know that the LSU women’s rugby football club was the first women’s team to play in the NOLA Gold rugby stadium? This is just part of what makes the club so special.
Chaise Arpkey is a senior psychology major and the club’s secretary. She appreciates the connections the sport has given her and the diversity it brings. Almost every semester she’s been a member, the team has had an exchange student come play with them.
“I think about how amazing and blossoming the sport is. You literally make connections that go across continents,” Arpkey said. “Some of my closest friends are oceans away.”
Barbara Sipp, a junior human resources major, is currently the match secretary of the team. She and Arpkey joined at the same time last year and fell in love with the sport.
Sipp also expressed how great the connections the team makes are, whether they be with people from other teams, the LSU Men’s Rugby Club or the greater LSU area.
On top of that, Sipp recognizes the way rugby has impacted women over the years and the confidence they are able to gain from the sport.
“Seeing girls who are not so confident — maybe they’re coming in as a freshman and they’re a little scared to play a fully tackle sport,” Sipp said. “It’s really cool to see those girls really blossom and take on more leadership roles.”
Both Sipp and Arpkey consider last spring’s game against Tulane in the NOLA Gold stadium to be one of the highlights of their rugby careers. It was the 15th game of the season, and they had just gained many new players.
“At that game, it just absolutely felt like we were all in union,” Sipp said. “It was the first time that I actually felt like, ‘Wow, we all are understanding each other here.’ It just felt so powerful.”
Alicia Stanga, a senior architecture major and club president, highlighted how special away games are for the team.
“One of my memories that always stands out is when my sophomore year, it was our first year in the Texas Union, and we made it all the way to regionals where we were in the top 10 teams in the country, and we traveled all the way to St. Louis,” Stanga said.
The team got second place in the St. Louis tournament, and Stanga lit up when talking about all the memories she and her teammates made together on that trip.
“Playing for the past four years, I’ve definitely had the privilege to see our club grow from just playing against Tulane or just doing one tournament a semester to where now we have four to six tournaments a semester,” said Stanga. “We’re traveling to Texas. We are traveling all over, we’ve even been invited to tournaments in Georgia.”
Stanga, Sipp and Arpkey all value the community women’s rugby creates and how special the women truly are.
“I think the friendships and camaraderie and connections are definitely what make this club,” Stanga said. “I consider everybody such a close, great friend, and I definitely think the friendships and the connections that we make definitely make the club what it is.”
