Women's Rugby
- Title:
- Women's Rugby Head Coach
- Email:
- rebecca.carlson@qu.edu
- Phone:
- (203) 582-3914
Carlson enters her 15th year at the helm of the Quinnipiac Women's Rugby team in 2025-26, leading the transition from a new varsity program into a three-time national champion. Carlson has been a key advocate for women’s NCAA rugby and equality in athletics for over a decade.
As the original head coach of the Quinnipiac women's rugby team added in 2011, Carlson boasts 94 wins over her first 14 seasons as Head Coach. including back-to-back-to-back Division I NIRA national championship titles in 2015, 2016 and 2017. Under Carlson’s tutelage the program has named 18 All-Americans.
In Carlson’s first year as head coach in 2011, the Bobcats became the second Division I NCAA rugby program in NCAA history. Quinnipiac began as part of the Metropolitan New York Rugby Football Union (MetNY) before the name was changed to the Tri-State Rugby Conference in 2012. In their inaugural year, the Bobcats earned the program’s first victory at SUNY-New Paltz. Quinnipiac currently remains the only NCAA women’s rugby program in the nation to begin without a prior existing club program.
In the 2012-13 season, Carlson led the Bobcats to a 15-1 overall record and went undefeated in the regular season at 12-0. Quinnipiac was named the Tri-State Conference Champions after a 22-14 win over Albany and received a bid to the national tournament in Stanford, California. The Bobcats defeated the Temple Owls in a 44-0 shutout before taking down Lee University and Appalachian State. In the semifinals, Quinnipiac suffered its first loss of the season at the hands of Winona State, but bounced back to defeat the University at Buffalo in the third-place game.
In 2013-14, the Bobcats joined the Northeast Conference and finished 10-3 overall, including six consecutive wins to close at the regular season. Quinnipiac outscored its opponents 567-200 across its 13 regular season contests, highlighted by a season-high 94 points coming against the University of Massachusetts. After going 9-2 overall in the regular season and 4-2 in Northeast Conference action, the Bobcats saw themselves atop the conference standings. Quinnipiac received a bid to the American Collegiate Rugby Association (ACRA) National Tournament and defeated No. 10 Boston University in the round of 16 before falling in the quarterfinals against Navy.
In 2014-15 under Carlson’s tutelage, the Bobcats compiled a 9-4 record as they headed back to the final four of the national tournament. Carlson was also named “College Rugby Coach of the Year” in 2015. After trudging through one of the most demanding and difficult regular season schedules in the country, the Bobcats stood at 5-2 entering the ACRA postseason tournament. Quinnipiac went on to take down two tough opponents on their way to the semifinals. The Bobcats defeated Army, 46-17, in the round of 16 at Vassar before going on to overpower an undefeated Brown squad, 46-20. Quinnipiac advanced to the semifinal for the second time in three years, but fell in a difficult matchup with Penn State, 35-12. The Bobcats would end their season on a high note, defeating Indiana, 55-32, and capturing third place in the national tournament.
In 2016-17 the Bobcats would capture the second of their 3 eventual titles by taking down Central Washington in the finals followed by another NIRA league championship in 2018-19 over Dartmouth.
From 2004 through 2006, before joining USA Rugby, Carlson was an assistant coach with the Eastern Illinois University women's rugby team. In that role, she assisted in all operational facets of the team including travel, practice and game-day management as well as film editing and analysis and student-athlete development. She previously worked at Ferrum College as a women's lacrosse, women's soccer, and softball assistant coach in 2004.
A former student-athlete herself, Carlson was a dual sport athlete in women's rugby and women's tennis at Eastern Illinois. As a member of the first NCAA D-I Women’s Rugby program in the United States, Carlson received the program's 1999 Strength and Conditioning award and was awarded the Panther Award for All-Around Student-Athlete. As a member of the women's tennis team, Carlson played at No. 1 and No. 2 singles and No. 1 and No. 3 doubles. A two-year captain in 2002 and 2003, she earned the team's Strength and Conditioning Award three times.
Carlson graduated from Eastern Illinois University in 2003 where she was a dual sport scholarship athlete in tennis and one of the very first recruits of the very first NCAA D-I Women’s Rugby program in the country. where she majored in journalism with a minor in public relations. Carlson completed work on her Master’s degree in physical education and sports administration from EIU in 2004. During her tenure as a graduate student, she was also the assistant coach for the EIU Panther’s rugby program. Carlson is also a current student of the Tulane University law school. She is seeking a degree in Law specializing in Labor and Employment.
A triple sport varsity athlete and 1999 alum of Arundel High School, Carlson became the first female in Maryland to play high school boys' baseball in 1996 and appeared on ABC’s Wide World of Sports with the former Women’s Professional Baseball team, the Silver Bullets.
Carlson is a graduate of the NCAA Coaches Academy’s Class #36 and the recipient of the 2015 Judy Sweet Award from the Academy. An author on issues in coaching and team culture development, Carlson’s most notable piece, “An Open Letter to the Athlete We Must Stop Recruiting" is currently one of the highest viewed articles on the business and networking platform, LinkedIn. A fearless advocate for coaches at all levels Carlson’s mission outside of her coaching role at Quinnipiac continues to be education and advocacy in the area of supporting coaches and returning accountability and high standards to the responsibility of the student-athlete.
