WWU enters with two perfect rugby clubs; can the hosts leave as regional champions?

Western Washington University will host the Men’s and Women’s West Regional Playoffs as part of the USA Rugby Collegiate National Championships Saturday and Sunday at Robert Harrington Field on the WWU campus.

The top eight men’s and women’s teams from the West Region will battle to advance to the Spring Championships, which will be held April 22-23 at Stanford, where they will play for a trip to the National Championships May 5-6 in Marietta, Georgia.

Participating men’s teams include UC Davis, Grand Canyon University, Long Beach State and WWU, while the women’s bracket includes Eastern Washington, Fresno State, Grand Canyon and WWU.

The WWU men are 8-0 and have outscored opponents 596-58 in winning their fourth Northwest Collegiate Rugby Conference title. Western will face Grand Canyon and former Lynden Christian football player and Chuckanut Bay Rugby member Joe Kooiman at 1 p.m. Saturday.

The WWU women also enter with an unblemished 11-0 record and a league title and will face Grand Canyon at 11 a.m. Saturday.

The women’s Division II regional championship will be held at 11 a.m. Sunday, while the men’s Division I-AA regional title match will be at 3 p.m. Sunday. Tickets cost $10 per day or $15 for a tournament pass, and students with ID or children 12 and under get in free.

This story was originally published April 6, 2017 at 2:51 PM with the headline "WWU enters with two perfect rugby clubs; can the hosts leave as regional champions?."