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The Chisago Lakes Spartans rugby club is back for a second year, and they are much stronger than they were last year.

After fielding one very competitive team last year that made it to the state tournament, the Spartans now have enough numbers to field two teams, and both of them have skills to stick with any teams.

The girls had their season opener last week in Waconia. Their primary team, playing Minnetonka, won handily, 29-0.

Their number two team played host Waconia, and escaped with a 10-5 win.

Head Coach Tony Randall was impressed with the early season progress of his team, which includes 19 girls who played last year and 17 newcomers this year.

He highlighted the performances by Abby Collins, Marissa Aliegro, Dana Benfield, Rishawn Radziwill, Courtney Fautsch, Bailey Elwood, Meghan Juelich, Anna Stein and Libby Storlie on the day.

Collins had two tries, while Aliegro and Fautsch both scored. Benfield converted two kicks, and one was from a tough angle. The kicks were a major problem for the Spartans last year in their inagural season.

Randall was very pleased with Radziwill, who is returning from last year. She took over as the scrum half, which is about as important as the quarterback in football, and she played exceptional in place of the graduated Jordan Burnett,

In the first game against Waconia, Elwood opening the scoring up with the first try of the season against Waconia, and Juelich scored the winning try when the game ended 10-5.

The Spartans played their first home game of the year this week, hosting an East Metro co-op and Wayzata at Mollner Field on Wednesday at 5 and 6:30 p.m.

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