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CHARLESTON, Ill. -- After winning a thrilling 22-20 game over UNI last weekend, the Eastern Illinois women's rugby squad hosts Big 12 power Missouri at 11 am at Lakeside Field on Saturday. The EIU Panthers are 6-0 on the season and are in the midst of a program-high 22-game winning streak heading into the Homecoming Weekend matchup.
HOMECOMING 2009 ...
... Eastern continues to take it's program-high and current 22-game winning streak into Saturday's home contest against Missouri.
... Last week, the Panthers clawed past Northern Iowa, 22-20, as senior Crystal Jones ran in a five-point try with only a minute remaining in the game to pull-off the come-back bid.
... The Panthers have recorded 46 shutouts since moving to NCAA Division Status back in 2002.
... Since going DI back 2002, EIU has outscored the opposition an astounding 4,324 to 384.
SECOND-EVER MEETING ...
Saturday's game with Mizzou will mark the second time the Panthers and Tigers have met on the rugby field. The first and only meeting came way back in 2002, when Eastern moved to NCAA Division I status. In that game, EIU blanked the Big 12 power, 68-0 at home.
GRAZIANO REACHED '100' ...
Last Saturday's game against the Purple Panthers of Northern Iowa marked head coach Frank Graziano's 100th game as skipper of the Eastern rugby squad. Now in his 11th season, he is currently 83-17 (83.0%) all-time since joining EIU back in 1999.
GRAZIANO ON MIZZOU ...
“As physical as last week's game was, we are pretty good heading into Saturday's game... it's really amazing how well we have held-up injury-wise this season, and with only 19 kids… We haven't played Missouri awhile… don't know too much about them… what we focused on all week was improving some of the opportunities that we missed against UNI last week… we have had some good film session and were able to discover and isolate some areas that weren't as good as they needed to be… unfortunately we haven't had a whole lot of good outdoor practices this week either, due to recent weather… but still has been productive week… if we can improve on those areas we didn't do as well last week we'll be just fine… the kids are excited about actually being home for Homecoming this week… so it'll be fun for them to be involved in the entire Panther Nation activities… unfortunately we will miss the parade, but we'll be out there ready to go at 11 am for the game versus Mizzou... this three-game homestand has been nice… we just hope it gets just a little bit warmer out there, temperature-wise.”
UP NEXT FOR EIU ...
Next week the Panthers continue three-game their homestand, hosting I-57 rival Illinois at 11 am on Saturday, October 24. EIU owns a 6-2 series lead over the Illini, after downing the Big Ten twice back in 2007, 32-21 on the road and 36-19 at home.
.... for more info, contact Bart Rettberg, Asst. SID
