The West bracket of the USA Rugby Women’s DII College Fall Championship has already named two teams to its Round of 16, making this weekend’s Round of 32 a quieter one comparatively. Winona and Utah Valley have already booked their tickets to Northern Iowa on Nov. 15-16 for the next round of national playoffs.

The game of the weekend is between UW Steven’s Point and Mankato State, the only true Round of 32 match occurring in this bracket. UW Steven’s Point ended its undefeated regular season atop the Great Waters North Division, averaging 58 points per match. The team lined up against South Division champ UW Whitewater, also undefeated, in the conference championship last weekend and took home an impressive 92-5 victory.

Those players who have driven the team’s success all season were also prevalent in the box score. No. 8 Jade Bricco, scrumhalf Ashley Nemoir, flyhalf Bree Valenza and outside center Maggie Armstrong not only led the point-scoring but also continue to inject higher-level experience into the squad thanks to stints with the Wisconsin U23s. Catholic Memorial graduate Armstrong has been particularly influential, bringing her winning ways from the Midwest U23 tours to Wales, Canada and the Las Vegas 7s.

UW Steven’s Point will need every ounce of wisdom in Saturday’s game against Mankato.

“Mankato State is going to be a real challenge,” UW Steven’s Point coach Gray Zischke said. “Big, tough, experienced pack that plays a strong forward game, and our strength is in the backs and open play.”

Zischke has first-hand knowledge of Mankato’s threats, as the teams met in last year’s Round of 32. After leading 19-5 at halftime, UWSP watched the Mankato forwards retake possession and the game with a 24-point unanswered run.

“We have a strong, experienced team this year, as we only lost two starters to graduation from last year,” Mankato State coach Vicky Hildago said. “A handful of our girls had the opportunity to play higher level rugby at the state, midwest and national level this past summer and returned this fall with a lot of motivation to do well. This has helped encourage the entire team, and they all have been working hard! I feel confident in saying we have the strongest team this year that Mankato has had over the past five years.”

Top scorers include outside center Kanke Tongrit-Green, lock Kate Campbell, scrumhalf Mada Cox and Collegiate All American No. 8 Bailey Johnson. But Hildago insisted that it is the number of players who are able to recognize support that is the team’s biggest strength. In that vein, players like prop Kenzie Lindberg, hooker Brittany Tricarico, flyhalf Shelby Wiederhoeft and inside center and Junior All American Melissa Hargadine are integral to setting up scores.

Mankato does have one advantage over UW Steven’s Point: It suffered a regular-season loss. Mankato finished second in Northern Lights to perennial conference champion Winona, but in that game learned about its vulnerabilities and had ample time to work on them.

“We were proud of the way we played Winona,” Hildago said. “Although the score did not reflect it as much as we would have liked it to, Mankato played strong defense and never gave up. We have worked out some of the kinks that caused turnovers during that game and have made systematic roster changes that have helped improve our ball movement and open field defense.”

For that reason, we’re leaning toward Mankato in tomorrow’s Round of 32 match, but ever so slightly.

The rest of the bracket involves byes and forfeits. Until late last night, Winona was poised to play UW Whitewater in the first round. But players and fans alike were informed this morning that the Great Waters finalist had forfeited due to lack of numbers, and the Black Katts are none too happy with the late decision. By the time Winona gets back onto the playing field, it will have been three weeks since the team’s last game. The team has scrambled to schedule a friendly for tomorrow, but no such luck. The conference is calling for sanctions to be imposed on UW Whitewater.

But if any team can deal with adverse conditions, it’s the reigning ACRA champs. When preparing for last year’s championship in Florida, the team practiced in heavy layers in an attempt to mimic the heat exhaustion they’d experience down South. The Black Katts also have good, talented depth that will provide valuable inner-squad competition.

It also helps that Winona is the clear favorite to win the West bracket. The Minnesota team has a bunch of experience – not only from last year’s championship run but also from the years finishing second at spring nationals. In the forwards, the towering Kourtney Kavajecz is tough to miss, whether plucking lineouts out of the sky, to locking in an always-tough Black Katts scrum, to slicing through the open field. Flanker Tori Langhans has torn it up this season, setting the example for work rate and support. Halfbacks Georgia Porter and Katie Dries do an excellent job of running the show, while exciting ballcarriers like Lindsey Bucki and Nadia Nassif highlight a very potent backline. Keep an eye on Lanoira Duhart, who has been causing lots of problems for defenses both at center and prop.

During the Round of 16, Winona will play the Mid-America champion, which will be decided this weekend. The conference was a little anemic this fall, as both Central Missouri and Truman State were eliminated from the playoffs due to regular-season forfeits. So Arkansas, the conference leader, received a bye into Sunday’s final, while Nebraska and Missouri must compete Saturday for a championship berth. Regardless of who advances to the title bout, expect Arkansas to hoist the trophy, as the Razorbacks defeated UNL 48-15 and Mizzou 69-0 during league play.

On the other side of the bracket, Utah Valley has already advanced to the Round of 16 after its Rocky Mountain title-winning weekend. Initially, Utah State looked like the team to beat, especially after it eked out a one-point win over UVU. But then Utah Valley got a couple of big wins against Wyoming and Idaho State, before dominating Utah State in the rematch. And when the final four arrived, Utah Valley was really hitting its stride. The game of the conference championship weekend occurred against Colorado College, which led UVU with three minutes remaining in the semifinal. A dangerous tackle resulted in a penalty try and allowed UVU to take the lead, 26-24, and advance to the final. There, the Orem-based team took out an injury-ridden Mesa State 19-0 for the title.

Utah Valley will play the winner of Mankato vs. UW Steven’s Point on Nov. 15 at Northern Iowa.

To view the entire DII brackets, click here.