With a light rain falling gave a cleansing feeling to the women’s rugby team, last year’s RSEQ semi-final loss to Laval University could not feel further away.

A combination of new and familiar faces hit the field at Raven’s Road over the weekend, with a sense of determination about each of them, said Anastasia Bourka, fourth-year member of the Ravens women’s rugby team.

“I think this year, everyone came with that grit attitude and were very, very relentless,” she said.

“Everyone was coming up hard, even when we broke it down from like the high intensity and worked on micro stuff, everyone was still very, very focused and still very mentally committed. And I think that made a big, big difference.”

This was the team’s first practice together ahead of the new season, and a first chance for the new players to audition for their preferred positions.

“We’ve been really impressed with the skill level of the first-year players coming in and it’s clear the veterans have been putting work in in the summer as well,” said Pat Thompson, women’s rugby team coach.

One player who may be moving into more of a leadership role this year after a big summer is RSEQ All-Star Maya Addai.

Addai is returning from a stint on the Canada women’s under 20 team, which travelled to England as part of the Tri-Nations Cup, playing against England and the United States.

She said she was relishing the new leadership role, and learned a lot from her experience representing Canada that she can bring to her own game with the Ravens.

“I’ve become more rugby smart,” she said. “I’ve learned more fine details in my tackles and jackaling and different things on the wing, how to step a person better than I did before, and how to use my speed even more than I did before; like really key and fine details on micro skills and stuff like that.”

While it is still early days, Bourka says she hopes the team continues their trajectory of improving every year.

Finishing first in their division is the goal this year, but this will be challenging, as this year, the RSEQ league has undergone some restructuring.

This year, the league will be divided into two divisions, the top four seeded teams in one division and the bottom four in another division. So instead of every team playing each other once, every team plays the teams in their division twice.

Carleton is one of those top-seeded teams, and thus will face the best teams in RSEQ including last year’s national bronze medalists University of Ottawa (U of O) and fourth-placed Laval University.

The U of O is hosting next year’s U Sports nationals, which means they automatically qualify. That leaves only one qualifying spot in Carleton’s division, meaning they have to come first in their division to qualify for nationals.

“Playing in the top division of RSEQ is tough. It’s gonna be the most challenging division in U Sports for women’s rugby.” – Pat Thompson, women’s rugby head coach.

But players and coach alike are hopeful.

“I think it’s very attainable with the group of girls we have, not just talent-wise, but character-wise, the relationships that we build off the field right away play in to how it will be when we get on the field,” Bourka said.

“The plan is to continue to grow, and as long as we’re getting better every day, we’ll be in a position to compete,” Thompson said.

Making everyone feel welcome and comfortable on the team is important, said Bourka.

“Us being friendly and like a family comes first,” she said. “So, we first try and build those relationships before we really focus on, like, competing on the field. So, I think we really did that off from the first day.”

Joleen Mason, first-year psychology student, said this approach helped her feel comfortable with her new teammates.

“Right away when Pat and I first contacted each other, he called me and we talked for about an hour,” she said. “When I came in here to be introduced to the team, they weren’t awkward around me.”

Building relationships and understanding between the players will help with adapting to new players coming into new positions, said Bourka. A few key veterans, such as last year’s captain Ellen Spannagel, have left the team, which may mean rotation for some players.

“The way we’re looking is very, very dynamic,” she said. “So a lot of us move around. I played second row [for the] first two years. Last year, I played back row, probably this year background, maybe centre. The nice part is that we all are very interchangeable.”

Bourka herself predominantly plays in the back row, but last year spent sometime at lock, and this year may move into the backs to play centre. Currently, nothing has been decided on, said Bourka.

“But it’s nice when everyone does get a role in each other’s positions, then everyone’s a bit more appreciative of each other and knows how hard everyone has to work. It makes it a bigger fight to protect each other,” she added.

The players will get their first chance to fight for each other when they face off against the U of O on Aug. 22, before playing two more exhibition games against Brock University, and Queen’s.

The regular season starts at Laval on Aug. 31.