Boxscore (PDF)

ALLENDALE, Mich. -- Eastern Illinois women's rugby saw its program best 29-match win streak come to a halt on Saturday afternoonm, as the squad lost a 17-5 game at Grand Valley State.  The Panthers had recently won their 100th match in program history last Sunday at home against Notre Dame.

The loss drops to 3-1 on the season and marks the first defeat by a Panther squad since the 2007 unit lost at Indiana in the fourth game of the season.  However, that same team also won their final six matchups to begin the unprecedented run that ended on Saturday.

The five points scored is also the lowest by an EIU squad since being shutout 0-5 at Kansas in 2001.  EIU actually won a 5-3 match over Illinois in 2000, marking the lowest score by a Panther squad for a win.

The lone Eastern score came via junior Tina Crema, with an assist to freshman Cara Hahne in the first half, as the Panthers held the lead until the host GVSU squad tied it prior to halftime.

Then GVSU, who are in the process of joining the NCAA ranks in women's rugby at the Division II level, took advantage of a couple of EIU miscues to score two more times, missing the two-point conversion once but connecting for another to pull out the upset win over the premiere NCAA Division I women's rugby program.

Defensively, sophomore Kelsi Wright led with 10 stops, while fellow classmate Stefanie Mahan added seven tackles of her own.  Lauren Doyle, meanwhile, topped all Panthers with three steals-at-tackle.

EIU will return to action next weekend at Northern Iowa, with kickoff moved to a 12:30 pm start in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

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