USA Women’s Eagles and Barbarians Squads

The USA Women’s Eagles will face the Barbarians for the first time on April 26 at Infinity Park in Glendale, Colorado. Rob Cain will bring the full training squad of 51 players to Glendale in advance of the match. Players were selected based on performances in the Eagles’ Regional Training Program.

“Everyone has been incredibly busy since the November Internationals. It’s been a lot of fun with a lot of hard work and effort from the players, staff, and community,” said Head Coach Rob Cain. “The regional rugby training gave our players a continuous opportunity to show us what they can do, explore and interpret new ideas together. This inner competition has been great from everyone, not allowing anyone to be comfortable with their previous exploits and place a real focus on the here and now. All of this has culminated in their invites for this exciting week ahead.

“Seeing players express themselves while having the opportunity to develop and self discover new ideas in the Women’s Eagles 15s environment, away from pressures of test match weeks, will continue to be hugely beneficial on our road into and beyond 2019. 2018 was a great opportunity to see where we were and 2019 will continue to show more signs of our intent as a team with our first opportunity against a very experienced and talented Barbarians squad.”

The squad consists of 27 athletes from the Women’s Eagles 2019 Performance Squad and 21 from the 2018 November Internationals. Women’s Sevens players Ashlee Byrge, Neariah Persinger, 2016 Olympian Bui Baravilala have been named, along with some returning 15s players, such as Tess Feury, Christine Pheil, and Hope Rogers.

Several age-grade players also are part of the training squad. This includes High School All-American Winter Camp attendee Destiny Arena and Collegiate All-American Summer Camp attendees Kayla Hunkin-Clark, Maya Learned, Jenni Kronish, and Corinne Heavner. Falcons players Shamira Robles and Paige Stathopoulos were also included.

The Women’s Eagles first high-performance camp of 2019 will begin on April 20. The players will take part in an intrasquad scrimmage during camp and the matchday squad will be named soon after.

Kickoff between the Eagles and Barbarians is set for 5 PM local time with the Glendale Raptors and Rugby United New York of Major League Rugby kicking off after at 7:30 PM.

Tickets are available at glendaleraptors.com/tickets with the Eagles-Barbarians game broadcast LIVE on FloRugby.com.

U.S. Women’s National Team Full Squad + Caps

• Bailey Araujo – Lock, Twin City Amazons, 0
• Destiny Arena – Hooker, Lindenwood, 0
• Katy Augustyn – Hooker, Berkeley All Blues, 33
• Bui Baravilala – Center, Berkeley All Blues, 6
• Catie Benson – Prop, Life West Gladiators, 17
• Stacey Bridges – Lock, Beantown Rugby, 36
• Kaitlyn Broughton – Back Three, Atlanta Harlequins, 3
• Ashlee Byrge – Scrumhalf, Women’s Sevens Residency Program, 0
• Bitsy Cairns – Back Row, Life West Gladiators, 8
• Gabby Cantorna – Flyhalf, Glendale Merlins, 3
• Chidinma Chukwueke – Back Row, Atlanta Harlequins, 0
• Jennine Duncan – Back Three, Seattle Saracens, 2
• Rachel Ehrecke – Back Row, Glendale Merlins, 0
• Tess Feury – Wing, Unattached, 6
• Megan Foster- Fullback, San Diego Surfers, 5
• Eti Haungatau – Center, Women’s Sevens Residency Program, 0
• Corinne Heavner – Flyhalf / Back Three, Atlanta Harlequins, 0
• Evan Hoese – Wing, Berkeley All Blues, 1
• Katana Howard – Flyhalf, Twin City Amazons, 0
• Olivia Bernadel Huey – Fly Half, Unattached, 0
• Kayla Hunkin-Clark – Prop / Hooker, Seattle Saracens, 0
• Charli Jacoby – Prop, North Shore, 0
• Nick James – Prop, Houston Athletic, 6
• Rachel Johnson – Back Row, Oregon Sports Union, 3
• Joanna Kitlinski – Hooker, Glendale Merlins, 8
• Jenny Kronish – Lock, Harvard, 0
• Cortney Kuehl – Center, Atlanta Harlequins, 0
• Maya Learned – Prop, Glendale Merlins, 0
• Shelby Lin – Scrum Half, Berkeley All Blues, 0
• Bulou Mataitoga – Fullback, Berkeley All Blues, 0
• Amy Naber – Center, Life West Gladiators, 1
• Azniv Nalbandian – Prop, Penn State University, 3
• Neariah Persinger – Center, Unattached, 0
• Christiane Pheil – Back Row, Atlanta Harlequins, 8
• Shamira Robles – Back Three, New York Rugby, 0
• Hope Rogers – Hooker/Prop, Women’s Sevens Residency Program, 25
• Megan Rom – Prop, Life University, 2
• Kimber Rozier- Center, Beantown Rugby, 30
• Nate Serevi – Back Row/ Lock, Scion Rugby, 2
• Paige Stathopoulos – Center, Northeast Academy, 0
• Kelsi Stockert – Back Three, Unattached, 8
• Nicole Strasko – Lock/ Back Row, Life West Gladiators, 3
• Christina Swift – Back Three, Atlanta Harlequins, 0
• Finau Tamaivena – No. 8, Seattle Saracens, 1
• Joyce Taufa – Hooker, Lindenwood University, 3
• Juliann Tordonato – Center, Glendale Merlins, 0
• Elizabeth Trujillo – Scrum Half, San Diego Surfers, 0
• Alycia Washington – Lock, New York Rugby, 17
• Carly Waters – Halfback, New York Rugby, 2
• Kate Zackary – Back Row, San Diego Surfers, 9
• Olivia Ortiz – Scrumhalf, Davenport, 0

Women’s National Team Staff

General Manager Emilie Bydwell
Head Coach Rob Cain
Assistant Coach Jamie Burke
Assistant Coach Kate Daley
Assistant Coach Shawn Pittman
Coach/Team Manager Jenny Lui
Head Strength & Conditioning Coach Ian Jones
Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach Michaela Staniford
Head Performance Analyst Dave Gardner
Team Doctor Terence Cronin
Head Athletic Trainer Bri Arsenault
Assistant Athletic Trainer Amie Kern
Assistant Athletic Trainer Jade Callan
Support Manager  Frank Palumbo

Barbarians

The Barbarians are a global representative team that will include two former Eagles players in 2016 Olympian Carmen Farmer and 2014 Women’s Rugby World Cup player Hannah Stolba.

The team has added Wasps prop Rochelle Clark, England’s most-capped player with 137 international appearances. Other recent additions includes Ireland center Alison Miller, as well as England’s Katie Mason and Sweden sevens player Tova Derk.