The ISU Women’s Rugby Club is hard at work training for the upcoming spring season.

The club competes in both the fall and spring seasons. Traveling through most of the Midwest — and, this fall, as far as Colorado — the club competes in the Midwest Women’s Rugby Division I Collegiate Conference.

Several of the players feel that joining the women’s rugby club has been beneficial to their college experience and increased their awareness of the sport.

“When I came to ISU, I missed team sports and I wanted to fill that void,” said fullback Zoey Babowice, senior in kinesiology and health. “Rugby is not very popular in the United States; most high schools don’t have teams. The factor of the unknown and trying new things were interesting to me. And you get to hit people, which is always fun.”

Rugby, which originated in England, is a growing sport in the United States and has been an Olympic sport for more than 100 years.

At Iowa State, the players of the women’s team believe growth of the sport will continue and many women will become interested in playing at the high-school and collegiate level.

“I played soccer in high school and always was getting carded, so our football coach who also coached rugby recruited me to play,” said Hannah Phillips, senior in animal science. “And I really liked it, so I continued to play at [Iowa State].”

The club is holding a fundraiser at Orange Leaf on Feb. 7 from 4 to 11 p.m. in order to spread awareness and interest women to try it out.

Knowledge and the physical nature of the sport may drive some women away, but those who play rugby believe is a great example of a team sport.

“I always saw the sport, and finally I did some research and I got hooked. I like aggressive sports so I like playing a sport where it’s OK to hit,” said wing Connie Mou, junior in animal science. “It is kind of intimidating to just show up to a practice. ClubFest and our fundraiser are a great way to meet the girls on the team. We have a lot of fun and are kind of like one big family.”

The team is working hard through the winter and preparing for an exciting and eventful spring season.