SEVENS RUGBY CLINIC FOR ASPIRING SEVENS COACHES & PLAYERS
Who: All Levels Welcome: High School, Collegiate, Club
What: Sevens Rugby Clinic, USA Rugby Coaching Credits Available
When: Sunday, May 12th, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Where: San Francisco Golden Gate Rugby Club, Treasure Island
Register here for an early bird discount. See flyer for more information.
All Blues Summer Sevens Informational Meeting
Who: All players interested in playing Sevens rugby
What: All Blues Sevens informational meeting for the summer
When: Thursday, April 25th, 2013 @ 7:30
Where: Blue Barn @ Gabe's Field
Gabe Field, Harrison Street & Fourth St, Berkeley, CA
Directions: take the Gilman Street exit off the 80. At the bottom of the exit ramp, turn away from the bay (do not go under the freeway). Take a left on Fourth Street and it will run into the fields.
Berkeley All Blues vs. San Jose Seahawks
Coming fresh off of their season opener at Stanford the previous weekend, the All Blues kept their winning streak going by defeating the San Jose Seahawks 49-14 at the Fog Field on Saturday, March 16th.
All Blues Volunteer Day: Berkeley Food Pantry
Name: Volunteer Day at the Berkeley Food Pantry
When: Saturday, April 13th
9:30 am to 12:30 pm
Where: Berkeley Friends Church-Quaker
1600 Sacramento St, Berkeley
Come support our local community by volunteering with the All Blues at the Berkeley Food Pantry!
On Saturday, April 13th, the Berkeley All Blues are needed to help sort, weigh, and shelf food donations collected for the Berkeley Neighborhood Food Project. Neighborhood donors will be dropping off food between 9:30am and 12:30pm! Between 15 and 20 volunteers are needed to help with the collection.
Spring Season Practices
Spring season started on Tuesday February 26th. Practices are Tuesday and Thursday nights from 7:00-9:00PM. On Tuesdays, practices will be at Gabe's Field, and on Thursdays, practice will be at Gilman Turf Fields in Berkeley. Our full spring practice and match schedule will be posted shortly. New athletes with all levels of experience are always welcome!
Spring Season Opener
Spring season kicked off with the All Blues' opening game against Stanford at Steuber Rugby Stadium in Palo Alto. The All Blues came out strong with a try by fullback Lisa Roselin in the first 10 minutes of the game. Strong play continued from Berkeley, who entered the half leading by 27-0. After the break, Stanford responded with a quick line out and a try to show that they wouldn't be leaving the second half without a fight. With 8 minutes to go, the score stood at 32-27. The All Blues dug deep to punch the ball down the field, resulting in a try by Jen Sever, bringing the final score of the day to 39-27.
Spring Yard Sale
Thanks to everyone who supported the All Blues' by being a part of our yard and bake sales.
If you couldn't attend the event, but would like to make a tax-deductible donation to the All Blues, please see our Donate Page.
2012 WPL Champions
| Last November, the All Blues defeated Glendale 39 to 5 to earn their 15th title as the WPL National Champions. Congrats on a great season, All Blues! |
WPL Week 5: Double Victory in San Diego
The All Blues hit the road for the second-to-last league match of the season and returned from San Diego with two victories!
Grey skies and drizzle greeted the teams Saturday morning, but both teams brought the intensity in a tightly-contested WPL match. The All Blues struck first when the forwards stole a Surfers lineout and Katy "KitKat" Augustyn dragged several Surfers over the try line as she touched the ball down. The Surfers got on the board soon after when a Surfer flanker picked up a loose ball off a 5 meter scrum. The kick was good and San Diego pulled out to a 7-5 lead that they maintained until halftime. The second half featured more physical play as both teams fought for possession and territory. The All Blues pulled ahead early in the second half when the scrum set a nice platform, allowing the backs to swing the ball wide to wing Ardia Kelker who beat her opposing wing for the score. The score remained at 10-5 for most of the second half with neither team able to gain an advantage. Finally, late in the game, Phoebe Boone dove over the line after a strong run from flyhalf Ruth Bryson to give the All Blues some breathing room. Bryson's conversion kick was good, pushing the score to 17-7. Despite threatening for the last few minutes, the All Blues couldn't touch it down, and the final whistle blew, with a 17-7 victory!
The All Blues B-side came out ready to play, with fierce tackling, good continuity, and hard running. They found success early out wide as fullback Lisa Roselin inserted into the line at pace and turned the corner for two early tries, giving the All Blues a 10-0 lead. The Surfers then took advantage of numerous All Blues' penalties and their forwards dove over for two tries to pull out to a 12-10 lead. Unfazed, the All Blues turned up the defensive intensity and began to dominate. Centers Jessica Turner and Pam Ames had some beautiful interplay, settling up an Ames' try. Shortly after, Turner charged 70 meters downfield, before just getting caught by the Surfer defense. She managed to find Lisa Roselin who dotted down the score. Minutes later, after a strong run from flanker Tannia Lau, scrumhalf Tisha Waki smartly took a quick tap penalty and darted through the defense for the try. The last 20 minutes saw the All Blues break it open, as lock Emily Van Gulik scored off the back of a ruck, Lisa Roselin blazed down the sideline for her fourth(!!) try, scrumhalf Leah Kanerisman touched one down, and finally wing Alyssa Baccarella snuck through the defense, bringing the final score to an awesome 47-12 victory!
Video of the WPL match is posted on Vimeo.
This weekend, the All Blues wrap up the regular season with A and B side matches against the Glendale Raptors. A-side kickoff is at 10AM Saturday at Morton Field in Vallejo, CA. The B-side match will follow.
WPL Week 4: Victory over New York
There was nothing like an 8AM kickoff time to challenge both the All Blues and New York to bring their A-game to Sunday's match in Vallejo. Both teams began warming up before the sun came up, beginning the match in a cliche layer of San Francisco Fog. The damp conditions caused both teams a high number of knock-ons and penalties. While New York made a strong effort to use both their pack and back line throughout the game, Berkeley came out on top with dominating scrums, well-utilized kicking, and solid defensive pressure.
The All Blues took a quick 7-0 lead with a try by eight-man Liz Terry and conversion by flyhalf Ruth Bryson. A second try followed shortly after when lock Sarah Walsh dove over the line. Bryson's conversion put Berkeley ahead 14-0. An excellent effort by scrumhalf Jossy Tseng continued to spin play wide, allowing Berkeley's back line to challenge New York, eventually resulting in a try by Berkeley's back Ardia Kelker, with a successful conversion by Bryson to take the game into halftime with a score of 21-0 Berkeley.
New York kicked off in the second half as both teams kept the score stagnant for the first 20 minutes. Eventually the All Blues broke things open as flanker Phoebe Boone and center Lucy Croy dotted down two tries apiece. Bryson converted three of the tries, to bring the final score to 48-0, in favor of the All Blues!
Video of the match is posted on Vimeo.
WPL Week 3: Another Tight Win
Following a weekend off, the All Blues hit the road again, to Glendale, CO. It was another close game as the teams battled back and forth, trading tries. Glendale struck first, scoring only two minutes into the game. This woke up the All Blues and they came back firing, scoring three quick tries, two from center Jill Whitfield and one from eight-man Liz Terry. Glendale scored again and All Blues flyhalf Ruth Bryson slotted a penalty kick late in the first half for a All Blue 24-17 lead at halftime. The second half was thrilling, as Glendale scored midway through the second half to tie the game. Both teams battled up and down the field, until with less than two minutes on the clock, All Blues wing Alyssa Baccarella crept around the Glendale defense to score! Glendale did not give up though, and marched down the field. The All Blues defense stayed strong and held up a potential try with no time left on the clock, to secure the 32-27 win!
Rugby Magazine has a detailed write-up of the match. Video of the match is posted on Vimeo.
WPL Week 2: All Blues Fall to New York
It was a rough trip to New York City as the All Blues lost to New York, 25-5. The team started strong, with a try from outside center Sarah Davis nine minutes into the game. The All Blues couldn't maintain the pressure and were called for numerous penalties, allowing New York to kick two for points and pull out to a 6-5 halftime lead. New York kept the pressure up in the second half, scoring three unanswered tries. New York and the All Blues face off again on October 7th in CA.
A recap of the match is available at Rugby Magazine and Your Scrumhalf Connection. Video of the match is online.
This weekend the All Blues head to Colorado to face the Glendale Raptors on Saturday, 9/29 at 4PM at Infinity Park Stadium. Tickets are available online.
WPL Week 1: Last-minute victory over San Diego!
In a thrilling back-and-forth match, the All Blues defeated the San Diego Surfers 20-17 to win our first Women's Premier League match of the season! The All Blues jumped out to a quick 8-0 lead seven minutes into the game after a try from forwards captain Katie Chou and a penalty kick from flyhalf Ruth Bryson. The Surfers fought back and pulled ahead 10-8 going into halftime after a try from scrumhalf Liz Strohecker and the conversion and a penalty kick from center Kirstin Hartos.
The Surfers came out of halftime on fire and scrumhalf Liz Strohecker scored just a minute into the second half and Kirstin Hartos converted to give the Surfers a 17-8 lead. Seven minutes later, the All Blues closed the gap to 17-15 with a try from wing Alyssa Baccarella and conversion by Ruth Bryson. The score remained the same for most of the second half as the action moved up and down the field with neither team able to finish. Finally, with just two minutes left, lock Sarah Walsh blocked a 22-dropout from the Surfers. She caught the ball and popped it to fellow lock Emily Van Gulik who broke through for the try! The conversion missed and San Diego marched down the field on the ensuing kickoff, but a knock-on in the try zone ended the match with a 20-17 All Blues victory. Congratulations to both teams on a great match!
A recap of the match is available at Rugby Magazine. Video of the match is on the WPL's Vimeo site.
This weekend the All Blues head to the Big Apple to take on New York on Sunday, 9/16 at noon on Randall's Island Field #74.
15's season has started!
Fall rugby is in full gear! Practices are Tuesday and Thursday nights from 7:30-9:30PM at Gabe Field in Berkeley.Our full fall practice and match schedule is here. New athletes with all levels of experience are always welcome!
All Blues Top SF Fog to start the 15s season
The All Blues faced off against the San Francisco Fog, a local division 1 team, in a preseason friendly. Featuring a diverse lineup of A and B side players and newbies and veterans, the All Blues topped the Fog 50-0! The scoring was well spread out, with tries by seven different players! It was a great kickoff to the fall season. Our next match is 9/8 vs the San Diego Surfers -- our first league match of the season.
ALL BLUES FINISH 5th and 11th at 7's club Nationals
The All Blues had two sides competing in the USA Rugby Women's Club 7s National Championships on August 4-5, 2012. All Blues 1 finished the weekend 4-1 in 5th place, losing only to the eventual champions, the San Diego Surfers, in an overtime nail-biter. The All Blues 2, filling in at the last minute, finished 3-2 on the weekend, for 11th place overall.
Four All Blues On the USA Women's Sevens Squad
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Congratulations to Vix Folayan, Irene Gardner, Kelly Griffin, and Nathalie Marchino for representing the US on the Women's National Team throughout the 2011-12
international sevens series.
The USA squad had strong showings at tournaments in Hong Kong, Las Vegas, London, and Amsterdam. |
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ALL BLUES PHOTOS
Check out the great photos taken by Bill English: http://billenglish.smugmug.com/Berkeley-All-Blues-Rugby
