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 The Harlequins hosted a sort of nationals revisited Nov 5-6 with last year's top 4 club teams reuniting in Atlanta for a two day tournament. In attendance was the Berkeley Old Blues, the Minnesota Valkyries, New York, and the Atlanta Harlequins. Check out pictures from the weekend. An unseasonably warm Saturday morning made a perfect setting for a weekend full of rugby. The first game was Berkeley v NY (seated one and three in last year's nationals respectively). The game was hard fought with a strong showing from many familiar players - a number of whom play with our Harlequin Eagles on the USA National Team. It was a competitive game but Berkeley kept the pressure on to win 24-12. Next, the Atlanta Harlequins, ranked number four in the nation, took on 2nd-ranked Minnesota Valkyries. With all the enthusiasm from fans and a home field advantage, the Harlequins came out strong. A bitter moment changed the course of the game when captain and scrumhalf Beth Fordyce had to come out of the game in the first 20 min. due to a shoulder injury. Kate Casselman and Nicole Belkin, both Harlequins rookies, took over scrumhalf at different periods during the remainder of the game. Without Beth's leadership and confidence, the team struggled for organization and cohesiveness for the rest of the first half. However, the team came together in the second half and played to a 22-10 victory over the Valks. In the final game of the day, the Harlequin 2nd XV, the Devils, took the pitch to play the Knoxville Minx. It was a somewhat messy game for the Devils but after a halftime talk with coach Afie, the Devils reorganized and played a much more successful half ending with a crucial and hard earned try by Rhonda in the final seconds to win the game. The day's hard played games were celebrated in style with a pajama themed social at The Stage Door, complete with Beer Bridge (dominated by Harlequins player Steph Mager) and Karaoke (dominated by Harlequins player Erin Diehl's rendition of Stroke It). Sunday brought the threat of rain and more serious rugby for the top four women's club teams. New York and the Valkyries took the pitch first. New York kept the Valks on defense for much of the game, and proved that their loss on Saturday would not be replayed against the Minnesota team. New York's 29-12 win left them in third place for the weekend. Just as the clouds cleared away, Berkeley took on the Harlequins in a fight for the first annual Clam Cup. Berkeley's pace was much faster than the Harlequins and left Atlanta playing on their heels on defense for most of the game. The few opportunities the Harlequins got to send the ball out to their back line was when the team worked together the best to give them three hard earned tries. Atlanta's 15 points was still not enough to defeat Berkeley's 39, leaving the Berkeley Old Blues to take first place in the weekend tournament. After the matches were finished, the "Clam Cup" (named in honor of Harlequins acting president and ex prop Danita Knox) was awarded to the Berkeley Old Blues from Knox herself. This nickname was given to Knox for the shortening effect that years of propping had on the distance from her head to her shoulders over the years. The weather was beautiful but not nearly as beautiful as the rugby that was played by the top four women's teams in the US. With such a successful and enjoyable weekend, each team promised to make this 4 team tournament a tradition for years to come.  Over the Oct 29 weekend the team flew/drove to Philadelphia for a match against 7th-ranked Keystone. 16 of us gathered together in the early afternoon and, noting the freezing cold temperature, tried to play the game from our cars. Keystone wouldn’t have it so we added extra layers and began our warm-up. The game started off well with Atlanta pressuring Keystone in their 50. Eventually a break down the left and good retention of possession by our forwards led to a maul that drove into the try zone. Abs at flanker broke free and touched down for 5 points. Later that half Pat sliced through the defense to set up Heather, who passed in contact to Patty who got it to Annie to score another 5 just right of the posts. The half ended with Keystone finally capitalizing on their minutes in our 22m – Muh broke through our backline and was tackled into the try zone to make the score at half 12-7. Patty got the scoring started in the second half, cutting through several defenders to score left of the posts. Heather converted to make it 19-7. Soon after, Keystone again worked their way into our 22m and sent the ball across the field to have their wing score on the far left. A difficult conversion kick was successful and the score was then 19-14. However, in no time, a series of plays saw our center-turned-second-row rookie Ronda barreling through defenders down the right side. She passed in contact to Annie, who finished off the run and touched down between the posts. Heather converted. The rest of the half remained scoreless so the score stood at 26-14 when the final whistle blew. After the game, we drove out to Stacy Foley’s place for the Halloween-themed social, where we had another chance to beat Keystone - this time in the boat race. Check out the pics from the weekend.  The Harlequins hosted the DC Furies for the first home game of the fall season on Saturday, October 15, at Creel Park. The Harlequin 1st XV came out on top, beating the Furies 20-8, while our 2nd XV lost a close one 21-22 to the Furies' 2nd side. Check out the pictures from the weekend. 1st XV: 20-8. The day was clear and cloudless and even hot for mid-October. DC has a great forward pack, so the Harlequin forwards especially were looking forward to the chance to gel against quality competition. Atlanta did well to pressure DC early in the first half, but it was a while before the Harlequins could put any points on the board. After a great driving maul, Dana broke free and touched down close to the posts. Heather converted to make it 7-0. After that, DC again held off any Atlanta points until later into the first half, when Heather added 3 more points off a penalty kick to make it 10-0 heading into halftime. DC were able to score one try and a penalty in the second half, but it wouldn't be enough to beat the Harlequins. Early in the 2nd half, Patty singlehandedly cut and juked her way through half of the DC forwards and the whole DC backline to score between the posts. Later that half, Abs hit a drop-goal, and the game ended 20-8. 2nd XV: 21-22. The story of the day was the existence, for the first time in recent memory, of 2 full squads of Atlanta Harlequins. We have a great group of rookies this season, and for most, this was their first game in a Harlequin jersey. The 2nd XV was affectionately nicknamed the devils, short for developmental squad. And they put on a great match for the Furies' 2nd XV, who seemed to be rostering a number of Fury A-siders. The game started off well with a break by Bean finished off by Rebecca. Belki converted. Atlanta's 2nd try of the day came late in the first half when Annie took a quick tap penalty and scored beneath the posts. Belki converted again. The 3rd try of the day came in the 2nd half when a break by Annie down the left side was finished by Belki in support. Belki converted once more. The Furies were determined to win, however, and scored a try in the last play of the game to make it 22-21 to DC. Three cheers for the Atlanta rookies for a game well-played! 3rd Half: At Patty's suggestion, the theme of the evening was 'legally blonde.' Thanks to $11 wigs a la Target, most everyone got to be blonde for at least an hour or so Saturday night. The drink of the night matched the blonde theme - check out the pictures on the web for more. All in all, a great time was had at Birdie's finished off by dancing and drinks at Sisters Room. Thanks to all the hosts for taking care of their Furies, and special thanks to Kirsten and her mad Excel skills for arranging hosts and transportation for two full sides of DC girls.  The Harlequins kicked off the fall '05 season at the 21st Annual Pumpkinfest in Philadelphia, PA. Nine Harlequins made the ultimate sacrifice - spending 26+ hours in vans driving up to Philly and back. Despite the general lack of sleep, the constant drizzle, and an early first game, we came out on top in our first game against Boston. Many scored tries - estimates varied from 4-6+ Harlequin tries to zero. After about how long it took to walk from the first pitch to the second, we started warming up for our second game against Philadelphia. They gave us a great game. It was scoreless at the half, but a break by Heather with the support of Liz got us on the board in the 2nd half. Heather made the conversion and a subsequent penalty kick to make it 10-0. Philadelphia capitalized on a penalty close to the posts later in the game to make it 10-3 at the final whistle. It took us a while to get into our game, but we improved from half to half and from game to game. We had solid performances from our rookies and from vets who are trying out new positions. We assembled for dinner Saturday night in our social theme-wear at a brewery next door to the social. Our theme was "Save a horse; Ride a Harlequin" so there were cowboy hats and boots aplenty. If there was a contest, Roxie probably would have won the award for most-decked-out. Well, the rain was still coming down hard, and right about when the water reached the floor next to our table from the outside deck and the restaurant's water supply was cut off, we left for the social where several teams came theme in hand. Sunday morning we faced Beantown in the semis. It wasn't raining anymore, but it was colder and the pitches were basically mudpits separated by thin stretches of fragile grass. Early in the first half, a quick penalty taken by Beth went left and passed through a series of hands with Pat breaking through in the end and touching down between the posts. Heather converted the extra points to make it 7-0. That proved to be the only points scored in the game. Beantown's forwards did a great job of winning possession, and the Harlequins found ourselves defending on our try line a few times, but Beantown never scored. After a trip back to the hotel to stay warm and try to get dry, we drove back to the pitch for the 3pm final vs New York. We started the game off well - our forwards put the pressure on, and we found ourselves in New York's end for stretches of time in the first half. However, on the last play of the first half, a break down on the left for New York saw Jenna Flateman score in the corner to make it 0-5 at the half. We regrouped and came back out strong, but this half, New York had possession more than the Harlequins. New York scored again between the posts late in the 2nd half and Kristin Baja coverted to make it 0-12. The game ended soon after, and we came away with a 2nd place finish at Pumpkinfest. Not a bad first weekend for the Harlequins. The new slate of officers for the Fall: Coach - Angelo Pagliotti (1st side) Coach - Afey Shirinzadeh (2nd side) Assistants - Beth Fordyce and Patty Jervey Co-Presidents - Danita and Kayln Treasurer - Angela with Revecca and Heidi Match Secretary - Tasha with help from HHH and K Aerts Secretary - Tree Recruiting Coordinator - Iacobucci with Megan and Kate Equipment Manager - HHH, Kate, Rebecca with some storage space at Beth's Social Coordinator - Heidy with Valencia and Liz Fundraising Coordinator - Erica and Heidy Communications Officer - Erin Golf Tourney - Dana J. Ruggerfest Tourney Chair - Monica and Affie Web Master - Annie with Valencia Alumni Coordinators - Beth and Tree Field Coordinators - Abs and Pat Travel Coordinator - Carly Community Outreach Coordinator - Erica with HHH Rookie Coordinator - Kate Cox The point person is the first one listed. At the end of the night we had three players try out for the Boat Race Team. Megan, Heidy, and Cathy which all did very well but want a rematch. If you are interested in trying contact Monica. She is the Captain of that team. She will put out a new time and place for tryouts.
We ended the season and graduated our rookies at our banquet and awards night in early July. Later in July, we went whitewater rafting on the Ocoee River outside Chattanooga, TN, spending some time waterskiing and grilling out the day before at old girl Peggy's house. Throughout the summer Heather ran Summer Club to keep up fitness and rugby skills. A 7s team went to Cape Fear and the South All-Star 7s team that travelled to Boulder for NASCs and took 4th place was made up primarily of Atlanta girls. Finally, just before the season started, a few Atlanta girls came up to Nashville, TN, to participate in and help coach the USARS Skills to Win Camp that featured Kathy Flores and Candi Orsini. The weekend after, Atlanta hosted the South All-Star tryouts which brought in Kathy and Candi again to help our South coaches Richard Dyer and John Duggan.
The weekend of May 14-15, the team flew to Boulder, Colorado, to participate in the Women's DI Round of Sixteen. After boosts of green something? on Friday night provided by our team herbalist HHH to fend off altitude sickness, the team started with a win on Saturday against Chicago North Shore. It was a tough game, though, that saw North Shore draw first blood. It was a tight game well into the second half, but Atlanta pulled away in the final 20-25 minutes of the game to end up with the 37-10 win. After a jaunt down Pearl Street and some R&R, the team came together to face the Twin Cities Amazons on Sunday. This was another close game, with Atlanta triumphing over the 'Zons 19-15 to advance to the Final Four. June 4-5 saw the Harlequins in Blaine, Minnesota, ready to threaten for a higher seed than last year's #4. In a game that was actually played much closer than the scoreline would have you believe, Berkeley defeated us in the rain on Saturday 7-35. On Sunday, we faced New York, who had travelled to us earlier in the season and beat us in a very closely-contested match 17-10. In Blaine, New York prevailed again by winning the match 19-9. Although we remained the #4 seed, we know we are knocking on the door for a top 3 seed, and that, as our 2005 Nationals TShirt says, "We have what it takes to be splendid." history | contact | links | alumni | sponsors | about atlanta |
