The Buffalo State women’s club rugby team continues its undefeated season with a 61-5 victory over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) to advance to the NCAA Division-II Club Rugby Round of 16.

The trounce began with 61 straight Banshee points. The five that were let up came after the game was all but over. Is this the farthest the Banshees have ever gone? Head coach Jennifer Jenkinson isn’t positive, but she’s fairly certain.

“I haven’t heard from any alumni – and we are a pretty close network – that they made it farther,” she said. “So I think it’s a pretty safe statement to say this is the farthest they went, especially in recent history.”

The women’s club rugby team will now travel to Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY to face University at Albany. The travel budget for the year did not account for the trip, so how the team will manage the costs is still up in the air.

“It’s not very close,” Jenkinson said. “It wasn’t something we had planned for in the beginning of the season… We are considered a club under USG, so just like any other student org, we have our budget set through USG.  This is something we were not considering, so needless to say, we are pretty much out of funding.”

The options the team is facing are slim. They can take money from budget line items from next semester or pay out-of-pocket. Luckily, the team sports members as far as Poughkeepsie, and players may have the option of bunking together.

“We have some players that live near Vassar College that offered to host some players from the team,” the coach said. “So the approach we are taking to be the most economical since they are already driving out there and gassing out their cars, we are trying to bunk up.”

Albany had similar success in the Round of 32 versus Colby College in Waterville, ME, with a 32-12 win. The game will be on Nov. 19.

“The team is absolutely amazing,” Jenkinson said. “Their dynamic is just unstoppable. They play together every single game and get better as a team. We are a team of great players… What I’m most proud of is how much of a team we truly are. Last year, we lost nine of our starting 15, so we thought it was a rebuilding year. We have a lot of depth in our program and a lot of girls in our program who are stepping up, which is utterly amazing.”

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