Pregame Release (PDF)

CHARLESTON, Ill. -- The Eastern Illinois women's rugby squad will head north to face the Iowa State Cyclones on Saturday (Sep. 19), with a scheduled noon kickoff.  The Panthers are on a program-high 18-game winning streak, but battled ISU last season at home, winning 26-21.

PANTHERS HOME OPENER ...
... Eastern continues to take it's program-high and current 18-game winning streak into Ames, Iowa this Saturday, facing the Iowa State Cyclones at noon. 
... EIU owns a 2-0 all-time series lead over Iowa State, including last season's hard-fought 26-21 win at home early in the 2008 season.
... Last week, the Panthers won a hard-fought, defensive battle over visiting Grand Valley State, 32-0, in EIU's home opener.
... With the victory last Saturday, Eastern is now 10-2 overall in home openers, with the only two loses coming at the hands of Illinois back in early 2000 and 2001.
... The Panthers have recorded 45 shutouts the last eight seasons. EIU's largest margin of victory, 124-0, was achieved against Michigan State in 2006.
... During this same time period, EIU has outscored the opposition an astounding 5,042 to 371. 

COACH GRAZIANO SAYS ...
"Since we will be on the road, we have to anticipate a competivie game... our confidence is good at this time, but we just can't survive on that… we have to go out and play… ISU came close to beating us last year with a final push… so we need to get off to a very good start… it is critical when on the road… it's our first time going up there and the girls are excited about the trip… we had good practices this week, but we are still stepping into the unknown… excited to play well and have a good game and keep our momentum going… we talked a lot about defense during practice this week… we are going to have to handle their back line better then we did last year… so we worked a lot on midfield defense… one advantage is that they haven't played a game yet this year, while this is our third game… so we need to take advantage if and when they are out of rhythm."

UP NEXT FOR EIU ...
Next week the Panthers return home for a noon contest versus Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Sat., Sept. 26. It will be the first-ever meeting between the two squads.

GIVING A CHASE ...
Senior Chase Cain is leading all Panthers defensively so far this season, having already tallied 28 solo and 10 assisted tackles. She had 10 solo stops last week versus Grand Valley State and came close to setting a new single-game tackle record in the Panthers' opener at Ball, recording 18.

GETTING A KICK FROM McKINNEY ...
Junior Coartney McKinney is currently 12-18 for two-point conversions and the Charleston native also knocked in her first penalty kick for three points versus Grand Valley State last weekend.

GRAZIANO APPROACHING '100' ...
When the EIU Panthers tackle the Purple Panthers of Northern Iowa at home on Saturday, October 10, it will mark head coach Frank Graziano's 100th game as skipper of the Eastern rugby squad. He is currently 79-17 (82.3%) in his 11th season at EIU. 

A BALANCED ATTACK ...
Eight of the 19 Panthers have scored at least one try this season, giving the Panthers many scoring options. Twice in last weekend's win over Grand Valley State an EIU player jumped on a lose ball in the end zone to earn a Panther score, while 14 of the 19 total trys have come from a key assist, with sophomore Narissa Ramirez leading all players with four assists so far this season.

.... for more info, contact Bart Rettberg, Asst. SID