Having gone the entire season without suffering a defeat, the Buffalo State women’s club rugby team wasn’t about to slow down entering the playoffs. The Banshees put their 8-0 record on the line and looked to continue their winning ways en route to a championship.

Having played Ithaca the last week of the regular season and defeating them handedly, confidence was high going into their playoff matchup.

A 37-7 victory improved their record to 9-0 and advanced Buffalo State to the Championship game where they played Geneseo, a familiar foe.

In the Championship game, Geneseo fought hard, but Buffalo State came out on top in a close matchup that ended 25-22 to cap off a 10-0 championship season.

“This is such a great accomplishment. I have the type of feeling I can’t even explain because it feels so good,” captain Kirsten Dole said.

Playing games on back-to-back days was not the norm and posed a challenge to the women’s rugby team.

“Playing an 80-minute game on back-to-back days is intense,” Dole said. “We usually have a week to recover, but this time we had less than 24 hours.”

The challenge pushed the athletes to work harder.

“It was very difficult to play being sore from the previous game, but we pushed through and had an amazing outcome. We really fought hard for it,” Emily Sneck said.

The team has already won the Championship, but their road doesn’t end here.

“We might have won a championship, but our season isn’t over,” Dole said. “The ultimate goal is to be the Division-II champions of the nation. We still have a long way to get there, so we are taking it one game at a time.”

Confidence was never lacking, and coming off a championship win, it’s at an all-season high. With every win, they continue to get stronger.

“We had a couple very close games this season, but we always came out stronger,” Dole said. “Those games prepared us for what was to come and what is still to come.”

The next opponent for the women’s rugby team as they look to continue their undefeated season and look to become D-II champions is Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute.

“The fact that we play as a team is the most essential thing to our team’s success,” Dole said. “Not one person matters more than anyone else. We all work so well together.”

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