With their sequined prom dresses shining in the sun, about 30 women wrapped their arms around one another and smiled wide for the camera. Some had their hair in curls, and others donned tiaras.
But they all had one garment in common: sports bras.
The UF Women's Rugby squad marched onto the UVS Field Saturday morning, clad in formalwear and cleats, for its seventh annual Prom Rugby Charity Match. The squad collected donations for Sunna, a program named for a Scandinavian sun goddess that aims to help women cope with cancer through the Shands at UF Cancer Center.
Andrea Morley, the team's president, said the squad raised about $100 on Saturday.
Morley wore a red-and-white plaid dress. She said the best part of the event is seeing the outfits participants find at the thrift store.
"It's just two things you don't usually picture together - prom dresses and rugby," she said.
Kerri O'Malley, one of the squad's coaches who wore a red, floor-length gown, said the squad planned its last three prom-rugby matches to coincide with UF Women's Rugby alumni weekend.
Members of UF's first rugby squad of 1976, or the "original Florida old girls," as they call themselves, attended and participated in this year's match.
Before the game began, the "old girls" chanted the traditional UF Women's Rugby cheer. The undergraduate team shouted back, "You're old!"
After about an hour, it became clear that age didn't matter. The final score was 20-20.
Cindy Diven said she started playing on UF's Women's Rugby squad in 1978. She played Saturday's in a coral dress with a matching jacket.
"You forget about it once you're playing," Diven said of her dress, which she had to cut in the back so she could run.
Most of the girls had to lengthen the slits of their dresses or rip them off at the knees to make playing easier. By the end of the game, there wasn't much material left.
Carmel Glynn, an environmental management senior, had her green dress ripped down the back after she was tackled. Glynn had to throw on a T-shirt and wear her dress backward so she could keep playing.
Nicole Belkin, a UF medical student, said her powder blue dress fared pretty well in this year's match compared to previous years.
"In our seven years of prom rugby, I've never walked off at the end of the game with a dress still attached," Belkin said.
