NEW ORLEANS– Tulane women’s club rugby surprised everyone last year, even themselves, when they brought home the national championship last spring.

This year they’re headed back to nationals in California, with a different mindset.

“It’s incredible, three years ago we didn’t even have enough girls to make a full team,” said team co-founder Lily Wissinger, a junior at Tulane University. “We started this is an outlet to have fun, and be social, and out of nowhere we realized we were really good.”

Originally the team was founded after Katrina, but took a leave of absence from Tulane’s club sports program. Wissinger started the club up again three years ago, and shocked the whole campus when they made nationals last year.

“No body expected us to win our division, let alone make it to nationals, let alone win,” said junior Maddie Brenner.

The bar has been raised and this weekend the girls will head to California, no longer an underdog, but a threat.

The Green Wave has rallied behind their girls in support. The Newcomb College Institute at Tulane has donated $3,000 to the team to help fund their trip to the west coast. As a club sport the girls do not receive financial help from the university, so they began a go-fund me to make up for the remainder of the cost.