The first time Lisa Henneman stepped onto a rugby field, she walked off with a bloody, fat lip.
She was trying to tackle a girl about seven inches taller and 40 pounds heavier, and she felt the effects from it. Her brother, Tyler Henneman, remembers it vividly.
"The girl was five years her senior and she stiff-armed Lisa square in the mouth, and Lisa just fell flat on her back," Tyler said.
But Lisa couldn't let herself go out like that. She knew she had to redeem herself.
Her brother remembers that too. Just two practices later, Lisa came back and attempted to tackle the very same girl, but this time she wasn't the one who ended up on her back.
"She's always been very, 'I learned my lesson the first time, I know what I have to do to stop that,' " Tyler said. "She rarely gets beat twice."
That was when she was 13 years old. Seven years later, the junior transfer student on the Penn State women's rugby team has built up an impressive resume that she looks to add to with the Lady Ruggers.
She captained her high school team in her home state of Washington, a team that went to nationals every year she was there. She also holds the school record for most tries scored in a career with 94 -- almost double the 56 tries that comes next on the list, but one would never hear that from her. Tyler says his sister is very humble and not one to brag about her accomplishments.
And that's just the start of it. Henneman also played for a Seattle club team, the USA Under-19 Women's National Team and captained the U-20 team. She has trained at the USA Women's Rugby Sevens camp, which could earn her a spot on the Olympic team heading to the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro. After traveling across the country and
the globe to play rugby, Henneman landed in State College.
But it took some time to get to Happy Valley.
Where it all began
The first time she tried the sport was in England, where Henneman lived for six years while her father was commissioned there for work. She was playing field hockey at the time, but her brother was a rugby player and had recently helped start up a women's team at his school. A naturally aggressive athlete, Henneman was told to give rugby a shot. Her brother said she's a natural athlete and had a knack for the sport since day one.
But she didn't get serious about the sport until she moved back to the United States. Her brother was asked to attend a rugby clinic with the Kent Crusaders high school team, and he asked if they had a women's team.
As luck would have it, they did.
They were one of the first in the country to have a high school rugby team, and Henneman went out for the team and loved it. She said the team's great coaching was a big factor in developing her skills, and once people started to take notice, they told her she could go far in the sport.
Although he was away at college in Montana, Tyler said he realized how much talent Lisa had when their dad sent him a tape of her games during her sophomore year in high school.
"I saw her cut through about four defenders, and when she could have beat the last girl, she passed to a girl who was running next to her and let the other girl score the try," Tyler said. "I just watched that tape and I was like, 'Wow she completely made four girls look like they didn't know what they were doing.' That's when I knew she was going to be really good. She'd rather run somebody over than run around them."
So the other sports she played growing up -- everything from soccer and field hockey, to English games like netball and rounders, and even horseback riding -- were pushed under rugby.
"Rugby just provided me with so many opportunities, so I decided to stick with it and I love it," Henneman said. "The amount of people I meet and all the places that I've been able to travel to has opened so many doors and created so many opportunities. I mean, coming to Penn State was not in my plans when I was 15. It sort of just developed into that."
The road to Penn State
Penn State head coach Pete Steinberg first noticed Henneman when he saw her play on the U-19 team. He was impressed by what he saw and had been talking to her for almost three years about coming to play for Penn State.
"She's been a No. 1 recruit for a long time," Steinberg said. "Rugby's not a very simple game, so you want players that can understand it and transfer that understanding onto the field and Lisa is one of those players."
Henneman was recruited by other teams, and she debated going to Northern Iowa, but ultimately decided Penn State was the best choice.
"When I came and visited last summer, I just realized the team camaraderie and the type of standards they hold for themselves is exactly what I hold for myself as a rugby player and just as a teammate in general," Henneman said.
However, she wasn't able to get to Penn State until her junior year. Because she took college level courses in high school, she earned credits equivalent to the standing of a transfer student. So she earned her two-year degree at Bellevue College in Washington before traveling to the East Coast, where she says the college level of rugby is better than on the West Coast.
In her first semester at Penn State, Henneman has already been an asset to the Lady Ruggers. Steinberg said her decision-making skills on the field have helped the versatile player translate her experience in a new surrounding.
"She provides a lot of depth," Steinberg said. "She has already shown on the field that she provides a lot of attack to help create breaks."
Despite being new to the team, Henneman has shown the qualities of a leader. Steinberg said she is working her way into a leadership role and will continue to develop as she gets more comfortable with the team -- something junior Deven Owsiany said hasn't been hard so far.
"She came in and was talkative to everybody," Owsiany said. "She's just such a friendly girl, and she's helpful to anybody in anyway."
Henneman said it was an easy transition because the girls on the team were so welcoming. They even gave her a place to stay when she first arrived in State College.
"I didn't have a place to live because I got accepted so late," Henneman said. "I packed two suitcases and some of the girls just took me in and let me stay with them for three weeks until I found a place. They are the best group of girls that I've ever come across."
Leading the Lions
Owsiany has already noticed Henneman's leadership ability, saying her experience has helped the team's overall knowledge of the game.
"She's not afraid to open her mouth and be vocal about things that need to get done," Owsiany said. "She'll come out of nowhere and say, 'c'mon guys let's step up the intensity of the game,' and people will listen because we know she knows what she's talking about, and she knows what's best for the team."
Henneman said it comes naturally for her to want to fill a leadership role because she wants to be someone players can come to with questions, something that doesn't surprise her brother at all.
"She's an innate leader," Tyler said. "People look to her for what to do or just for that quick, 'hey that was an awesome play or hey this is what we have to do.' Even with her group of friends, girls have always sort of confided in her. I think it's just something that she doesn't realize about herself."
It's a quality that Owsiany thinks will be a factor when the team looks to defend its national championship title this spring -- just one more thing Henneman can add to her resume.
