In fact, she didn’t even know she was good enough to play college rugby until she earned a spot on the Wildcats’ roster as a walk-on.

“I just started playing during my senior year of high school,” said Sagapolu, who grew up in Tacoma and chose Central because it was close to home. Her decision had little to do with rugby, but her future coaches encouraged her to walk on.

What ended up happening over the next four years was nothing short of miraculous.

Not only did Sagapolu become a team leader for the Wildcats; she ended up winning the MA Sorensen Award for the top women’s rugby player in the nation last season. She also earned a spot on the U.S. national team and is currently playing for the Leicester Tigers of the Women’s Rugby Premiership.

“It wasn’t until my last year at Central that I really made my mark,” said Sagapolu, known by her coaches and teammates as “Mae.” “The program helped me develop the character traits I needed to get better, and once I started really understanding the game, I just kept improving.”

Her ascent started with an invitation to try out for the under-23 U.S. National Team in the summer of 2022. It didn’t take long for her to catch the senior national team’s attention, and by the time she graduated in spring 2023, she was on the cusp of signing a professional contract in the United Kingdom.

“I already had a job lined up, but when the national team invited me to compete with them, I just had to go,” said Sagapolu, who earned a degree in communications, with minors in digital marketing and family sciences. “I almost feel like it was God’s plan.”

Sagapolu admits that the transition from the college game to the national team felt intimidating at first. She knew she could have played better in her debut, so she committed herself to working even harder over the next three months.

Finding that extra gear ended up propelling her to a level even she didn’t know she was capable of.

“I told my teammates and coaches, ‘I promise you that the next time you see me, it will be a whole new ballgame,’” she said. “I changed my nutrition habits and started spending more time in the weight room and working on my fitness.”

Sagapolu went on to earn a starting spot on the senior U.S. national team last spring before signing with Leicester in June. She looks forward to playing there for the foreseeable future.

“This team gave me a home,” she said. “They had only seen me play once for the national team, and they took a chance on me. That meant so much to me, and my heart is truly with them. We are really building something here.”

Sagapolu is proud of how far she has come in her young rugby career, but she knows there is still much work to be done. She recognizes that, in the end, it’s not just about her.

“I want to keep getting better—not just for my teammates, but for all of the people who believed in me,” she said. “I want to give back to my coaches and the Central program that helped me become the player I am today. I want to give back to the Polynesian community that has supported me all of these years. I have so many people to thank, and I’m doing this all for them.”