The Fresno State women’s rugby team is a new upstart program on campus this year and is ready to take on all opponents in its first season.

In fall 2009, a Fresno State student named Cynthia Vasquez and two other girls appeared at the men’s rugby team meeting. Shortly afterwards, they started conditioning and practicing with the men. Barry Foley was the men’s head coach at the time and told Vasquez he would help create an official women’s rugby team.

The following spring semester nearly 20 girls appeared at the meetings for general information about the women’s rugby team. At this time, the women’s club started meeting as a team and holding scrimmages. The senior continued to push toward her goal of making the women’s rugby team an official Fresno State club team.

On Feb. 26, the team held its first rugby game in Fresno against San Jose State and won by a score of 35-32.

Since that point, the program has continued to progress after having its first major recruitment meeting on Sept. 13. Fifty-three girls appeared for that meeting and 50 appeared during the first conditioning session. Vasquez is now the Fresno State women’s rugby club president and talked about the journey to get the club started.

“In 2009, I ended up going to the men’s meeting with two other girls,” Vasquez, who is a kinesiology major, said. “We were going to the practices and ever since then, we’ve [gone] from there.”

Vasquez position out on the gridiron is outside center, which is similar to the backline in soccer.

Foley coached the men’s team for two years and then switched over to the upstart women’s program once he saw that Vasquez had a number of girls interested in playing rugby.

“I agreed to help them and get them going with enough players,” Foley said.

This was first time Foley had ever coached a women’s rugby team, so initially his plan was to make sure there were enough players and scheduled games for the team.

“In order to enter the league, we had to show that we’re a competitive rugby team,” Foley said.

Now, Foley’s goal for this school year is to get the club’s foundation established so they can enter the Northern California League. Foley says that they will join the league in 2013. The games for this season will run through late October, November and December.

Fresno State student Karina Holm plays the scrumhalf position on the rugby team, which is similar to quarterback in football. The junior joined the team to become active and try something new.

“I saw a rugby sign and thought ‘Hey why not try it?’,” Holm, who is an international business major, said.

Rugby is a combination of football and soccer where players use both their feet and hands. The rules are similar to both sports as well. The goal of the game is to make tries across the field during an 80-minute long game.

With this being the program’s first season, it will also be the first time Holm will be playing the sport, but she wants to provide the foundation for the future.

“I want start off the Fresno State women’s rugby program because it is the fastest growing sport in the United States,” Holm said.