The Pitt News Sports Podcast · Matthew Scabilloni

The Pitt News Sports Podcast | Pitt Women’s Club Rugby and March Madness

·26 min·1 clip

A cheerleader became a rugby captain—it's a 180-degree career change.

The episode opens with Jermaine Sykes and Matthew Scavoloni welcoming Liz Scavoloni, who is both Matthew's cousin and the backs captain for Pitt women's club rugby. The family connection gets a quick laugh, then the conversation settles into how Liz found rugby during her freshman spring after stopping by the Activities Fair. She saw the rugby table, wanted to try something new, and showed up to a first practice that turned out to be contact right away. She says she got tackled a lot and did not really know what she was doing yet. The hosts let her describe that early learning curve without glossing over the awkward parts. From there, the questions shift into how she thinks about rugby itself and why the sport hooked her after that first try. The talk gets into how rugby differs from football in a way that works even for listeners who know one sport better than the other. Liz points to the nonstop flow of rugby as a major difference. She explains that players do not stop after every play, so the game leans more on endurance than on repeated all-out collisions. She also notes that rugby limits high tackles because they are dangerous. By contrast, she says football allows more contact up high and can create more injury risk in different ways. The conversation stays practical instead of abstract, which keeps the comparison easy to follow. The hosts then imagine a Pitt women's football team and ask whether Liz would join it. She says she had already looked for flag football before choosing rugby because she loves football too. Even so, she says juggling both sports would be tough now that she plays rugby. The episode then turns to one of the hardest parts of learning the game. Liz explains that passing in rugby is not just about throwing the ball away and moving on, because the passer has to follow the play and stay involved. That detail gives the segment a useful inside look at how rugby positions and movement work. Near the end, the conversation shifts from sport mechanics to the rest of her life, including her communication science and disorders major and her goal of becoming a speech-language pathologist. The episode closes with a plug for Pitt women's club rugby's spring home game at the Pitt Sports Dome on April 6 against WVU, along with a reminder to check the team's Instagram for details.

As heard by us

A breezy Pitt rugby interview that makes a club sport feel immediate.

The episode gives Pitt women's club rugby a clean, grounded introduction. Liz Scavoloni talks about finding the team at the Activities Fair, getting thrown into a contact first practice, and taking on the backs captain role.

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Want a quick Pitt Women's Club Rugby primer with campus energy?

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