USA Rugby Announces the Women’s Collegiate All-American Selections and Rugby Map USA

from USA Rugby:

BOULDER, Colo. – Following last weekend’s National Collegiate Championships, USA Rugby has officially selected the 2010 Women’s Collegiate All-American Teams today.

This honor is bestowed upon the best women collegiate rugby players in the country and recognizes a high standard of performance throughout the year.

The 2010 selection panel included Women’s National Team Coach Kathy Flores, Women’s National Sevens Team Coach Ric Suggitt, Women’s National ‘A’ Team Coach Martha Daines, Women’s National Under-20 Coach Bryn Chivers, Women’s Collegiate All-American Touring Squad Coach Lisa Rosen and the Women’s High Performance Manager Alex Williams.

The goals of the nomination process were to ensure that all athletes in all divisions had an opportunity to be viewed, whether their teams made the playoffs or not, and to ensure that consistent information was submitted for each nominated athlete. The process was robust and inclusive and a large pool of athletes was nominated. The selection panel was very pleased with the participation in the process and hopes to expand participation even further next year.

The All-Americans were selected on the basis of match video submissions and/or performance at Collegiate Playoffs and Championships, all of which were viewed by members of the selection panel. Athletes from all collegiate divisions were considered for selection as First Team or Second Team Collegiate All-Americans.

“I would like to congratulate all of the Women’s Collegiate All-Americans named below,” said Williams. “It was a challenging task for the selection panel to narrow down this list. We are very happy to honor the selected athletes, their coaches and schools for their selection as a Women’s Collegiate All-American.”

Each athlete will receive a certificate commemorating the honor. The Athletic Director for each athlete’s school will also receive a certificate to recognize the significant honor achieved by a rugby student-athlete at that school.

Following this announcement, the Head Coach of the Women’s Collegiate All-American Touring Squad will announce selections for the squad that will compete at the Senior Women’s National All-Star Championship, to be held at the end of the month in Blaine, Minn.. The All-American Touring Squad will represent the eighth team at the event and will play against the senior women’s territorial sides, promoting the development of these young and talented athletes.

2010 Women’s Collegiate All-American – First Team
Sadie Anderson (Penn State University)
Kyle Armstrong (Penn State University)
Candace Barley (Lee University)
Star Bollinger (United States Naval Academy)
Danielle Cicuto (United States Naval Academy)
Lauren Daly (University of Colorado)
Chastity Dunnaville (United States Naval Academy)
Jozephine Gessner (Colorado State University)
Janae Grijalva (Stanford University)
Keelia Harker (Brigham Young University)
Lisa Henneman (Penn State University)
Nicole James (Texas A & M University)
Joanna Kitlinski (Grand Valley State University)
Adetayo Mafe (Michigan State University)
Kathryn McCormick (University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee)
Tyra McGrady (Indiana University)
Deven Owsiany (Penn State University)
Kaitlyn Rooney (American University)
Kasonni Scales (Stanford University)
Elizabeth Trujillo (United States Naval Academy)
Amelia Villines (Stanford University)
Jessica Watkins (Stanford University)
Frances Wehrwin (Stanford University)
Annie Zeigler (Penn State University)

2010 Women’s Collegiate All-American – Second Team
Sarah Blanchard (Texas A&M University)
Megan Bonny (Washington State University)
Anneke Brand (Texas Tech University)
Erica Cavenaugh (University of Virginia)
Delaney Chapman (UC Davis)
Jennifer Cooper Rider (Stanford University)
Kayla Elingson (Brigham Young University)
Sharron Gianessi (United States Military Academy)
Tanya Gouws (University of Maryland)
Alexandria Hartley (Brown University)
Alicia Hartley (Brown University)
Carrissa Hsieh (UCLA)
Kristi Jackson (Brigham Young University)
Shawne James (Rutgers University)
Katie Lorenz (University of North Carolina)
Kaelene Lundstrom (Gustavus Adolphus)
Izraelle McKinnon (Brown University)
Ashley Miller (United States Military Academy)
Laura Miller (St. Mary’s College of Maryland)
Maria Muscara (La Salle University)
Jackie Osborne (University of Northern Iowa)
Andria Payne (Brown University)
Christiane Pheil (Penn State University)
Jess Sexauer (United States Military Academy)
Wendy Sherman (Colorado State University)
Kirsten Siebach (Brigham Young University)
Moira Somerdyk (Temple University)
Ashley Sorensen (United States Military Academy)
Gina Steffano (Texas A & M University)

In coordination with the release of the Women’s Collegiate All-American selections, a fantastic new resource and fundraising effort – RugbyMapUSA.com – is also being launched today with proceeds for the month of May directly supporting the 2010 USA Rugby Women’s Collegiate All-American Touring squad.

RugbyMapUSA.com is a custom GoogleMap, designed specifically to connect the rugby community with businesses, teams, and professionals who are supportive of rugby or who are members of the community itself. By listing a business or rugby organization on this site, it will build its visibility in rugby’s tight knit and ever-expanding community.

In addition to RugbyMapUSA, an active outreach effort is underway to locate and leverage the power of the 15 years of prior Collegiate All-American Women. Prior All-Americans are encouraged to visit the Collegiate All-American program on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/USA-Rugby-Collegiate-All-American-Women/104505422926588 and donate to the program itself.

For more information on RugbyMapUSA, please visit www.rugbymapusa.com. To learn more about the Women’s Collegiate All-Americans please visit www.usarugby.org/goto/women_allamericans or contact Alex Williams at awilliams@usarugby.org.