Club sports corner Women's rugby seeks toughness There are only two pre-requisites for those interested in joining the Michigan women's rugby club - 1.) you must be a woman and 2.) you must be tough. "It can get pretty rough," team captain Jamie Johnson said. "We definitely want aggressive people." In the vast landscape of Michigan club sports, many clubs can afford to pick and choose their players on the basis of past experience. You'll find no such snobbery on the Michigan Women's rugby club. "Most of the people on this team, and all of our starters, had never played until they got here," Johnson said. In a sense, when the club begins its recruitment in the fall, everybody is in the same boat. "A lot of people are in the same situation," Johnson said. "Everybody picks up the general idea of the sport at the same time." Women's rugby on the college club level is split into two groups - division 1 and division 2. The best clubs stay in the top division based on the strength of their records in past years, instead of the size of their respective schools. "Based upon how you do, you can choose to challenge a team in division 1 if you are a top division 2 team," Johnson said. Michigan, though down this fall, is a perennial division 1 club. "We are a pretty young team," Johnson said. "But in the past we've been quite good." Rugby is played on a 100 meter-long by 69 meter-wide field. The games are an hour to an hour-and-a-half long with a five minute halftime. It is played with a larger variation of a football and points are scored when a try is converted in an opponent's goal area. Additional points can be scored with a place kick marked perpendicularly from the spot on the field it was scored from. Practices are at 9:30 p.m. - 11:00 on Mondays at the Sports Coliseum and 10:30 p.m. - 12:00 on Tuesdays at Oosterbaan Fieldhouse. If you are interested in or have more questions about the Michigan Women's rugby club, please contact head recruiter Erin Connolly at econnoll@umich.edu or captain Johnson at jljohnson@umich.edu. -Ryan C. Moloney Men's Volleyball to host top club teams at CCRB The Michigan Men's volleyball club will host the annual Michigan Classic this weekend at the CCRB. The tournament features club teams from all over the country, including the top three college teams in club volleyball - Arizona, Graceland College and Utah Valley State. The tournament runs all day Saturday and from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday. As a special bonus to club volleyball fans, additional matches will be held on Friday night at the CCRB as well. Michigan will take on Virginia Tech at 6 p.m. while Michigan State will meet No.3 Utah Valley State on the neighboring court. Also, Ohio State will meet Florida. For more information, contact Oskar Nordstrom at onordstr@umich.edu. Information submitted by Ben Gerhold. -Ryan C. Moloney Originally on page 2B in the 1-24-2000 issue of the Daily.