The Shoreline Spartans high school girls rugby team has been making a dent in their 2025 spring season, starting off with a strong set of wins. So far, the girls remain undefeated, with their record at 9-0.

The Spartans’ most recent game was Thursday, May 15th, at North Haven Athletics Complex. The girls played against two teams: North Haven, and Staples, winning both games with the scores of: 32-5 & 0-29. This means the girls are ready to host the state tournament, May 20th, where they will face the same teams: Staples, Fairfield, and North Haven.

Senior Maria Ceniglio, who plays the position of loose head prop commented on the team’s successful season, “I think our communication has been a lot better than last year, and our playing has also been better. We have also been coming in a lot more aggressive in games this season.”

The team’s last game will take place on May 20th, which is also a goodbye to the current eight seniors on the team. The seniors are: Carlee Harwood (Mercy High School), Saylor Thomas (Mercy High School), Maria Ceniglio (Mercy High School), Makena Sullivan (Guilford High School), Olivia Kelly (Lyme-Old Lyme High School), Bethany Harwood (Mercy High School), Skyla Ortiz (The Morgan School), Aleia Aleman (The Morgan School).

The Start of the Season:

The first game the girls had was April 10th, away, at North Haven. For the girls games, they are scheduled as a “round-robin”. (This is an event that makes the team have two games instead of just one). The girls were able to bring home two wins against the teams, Fairfield and Staples. The score for Shoreline against Fairfield was 41-0, then against Staples the score was 19-0.

During the Staples game, the girls came in hot, fighting aggressively for the ball and hitting their tackles. Then suddenly a Staples girl was taken to the ground by a tackle made by Carlee Harwood. This tackle made the other player “get the wind knocked out of her.” This made the player sit out, and (due to their small numbers at the time) Staples forfeited the end of the game to the Spartans.

Origins of the Program:

This team was originally started by two high school Morgan students, Aleia Aleman and Ariana Farr. Later on, the team was able to grow in numbers, originally starting with only 6 girls, and growing to 16 girls today. The team is made up of girls from across the shoreline region. The struggles the team had faced was finding girls to start out and help grow the team. Once they had found more girls, many of them reached out to their friends to join the sport, and some others had other connections as well.

The captains for this spring season are Carlee Harwood, a senior who plays the center position on the field, and Annalee McDevitt, a sophomore who goes to Daniel Hand high school in Madison, and plays the tight head position on the field.

How the Program Grew:

When the team originally started during spring of 2022, the team was able to place second at states, but didn’t have a fully undefeated record. Now, the girls Spartans are ready to bring back a new streak. Their season started back in March, having an entire month worth of practices, working on conditioning and technique. During this time, the team began to fluctuate, in numbers.

“Freshman year, I had this friend who said that she was joining up with a rugby team, and told me that I should come play, I said ok,” Makena Sullivan mentioned. Being one of the original players on the team, Makena was able to learn and grow her mindset with playing the sport of rugby.

Makena said, “I feel I have made a lot of new friends out of rugby, and it has also helped me grow more as a person, and I have made the life lesson of toughness. Mentally and physically, because rugby can push you past your limits.”

Sometimes joining a team can be due to inspiration. Freshman Hannah Decaro mentioned, “I had watched the past Olympics and saw the USA Women’s Rugby team and how well they did to earn the bronze medal in 2024. I also got inspired by Ilona Maher, and Sammy Sullivan, who were great players on the team.”

Strengths of the Team: Teamwork

This didn’t stop the confidence the team had for their season. When practicing, there was an influence and positivity the coaches brought letting the team know that they’ve improved a lot, and were ready for their season.

“I feel a strength on the team is that we are really close as teammates, and I think that if we weren’t as bonded, then we wouldn’t have the right connection to play the sport well.” said Annie McDevitt.

When the team would be summed up in one word, Annie came up with the word unique. “Because I think that every single girl on the team is their own person, and everyone brings their own personality, and they have certain characteristics that make them who they are. I also just think the sport of rugby in general is unique, too.”