CHARLESTON, Ill. -- Fresh off the program's first loss in three years, the Eastern Illinois women's rugby squad will look to rebound on Saturday (Sept. 25), traveling to battle the Purple Panthers of Northern Iowa, with kickoff moved to a 12:30 pm start.

The Panthers (3-1) had their program high 29-game winning streak snapped with a 17-5 loss at Grand Valley State last weekend, as Eastern finished with their lowest point total in a game since defeating Illinois, 5-3, back in 2000.

“The 29-game win streak has been a great experience,” said EIU head coach Frank Graziano. “Some girls on the team have never lost during their entire Panther career, so this was an entirely new experience for probably half the team. Literally only two girls of the 22 total players on this year's roster have ever lost a game while in a Panther uniform. There wasn't a sound from anyone during the first two hours of the bus trip back to Charleston as the squad was emotionally drained and sore from game. So it was a much different trip home than in the past. It was very strange to hear such silence behind me on the bus.”

But coach Graziano says that the loss is an excellent teaching moment opportunity. “We have definitely been learning from our mistakes at GVSU,” he said. “Yes, our ego was bruised, but I would like to believe that we can grow as a team and individually to improve our play. The girls have seemed much more focused this past week. The last couple of weeks we were kind of sleep-walking thru practice and not as intense as we need to be and add a great game plan by GVSU and suddenly we lose. So we just need to fix that versus UNI.”

Last season at home, the EIU Panthers clawed past the other Panther squad in a thrilling win as time expired, with former EIU standout and current volunteer coach, Crystal Jones, leaping for the game-winning try to down UNI, 22-20. In the all-time meetings against Northern Iowa, both teams have won a contest, with UNI picking up their lone 25-5 home win back in 2000.

“UNI plays a very different style then we do, which requires much more film sessions and adjustments in our defense and offensive patterns,” said Graziano. “We usually watch film once or twice a week prior to a game, but with UNI we have been watching it every day in practice. We need to make adjustments, which hopefully will not be too challenging for the girls. We can't go out and play our normal style and expect to do well versus UNI. It appears that we are getting it and we will finish up those adjustments in the next couple days of practice.”

The biggest challenge for EIU this weekend is that UNI plays a style of game is so different then what they squad normally expects. UNI plays more one-on-one set-ups, using lots of one and two yard increments of offense, which leads to a lot of plays. Graziano calls the style “pick and go”, with a group of eight players or so continually rotating and set to advance the ball one to two yards. Meanwhile, EIU plays a much more wide-open offensive scheme, throwing the ball all over the field and spreading out the offense.

“UNI is very good at what they do,” Graziano said. “Unfortunately I can't duplicate their style of play in practice. Which is unfortunately as it is a style of play that can be very difficult to defend. In fact, while watching tape on UNI, many of our new players were getting confused by what they were doing on the field. So it will definitely be a challenge to our newer players this week.

“We have been working hard on tackling drills this week, which should help us prepare for the physical contact to come. Plus there are certain plays we can utilize to attack them offensively, but the defensive part will be a challenge as it can wear out a team very quickly. The players returning from last season remember how we struggled against them last year so they know what to expect.”

Graziano says that as of now everyone looks healthy, albeit a bit sore still from last weekend. “The ones that have been a little bit bruised have been taking it slow in practice, but we'll do a full evaluation on them prior to Saturday,” he said. “We have had good practices this weekend, so I have to credit the girls for refocusing and putting a nice effort in preparation this week. That includes morning and evening workouts in an attempt to master the offensive and defensive game plans.”

“I am still very proud of the squad's effort last weekend, as we played hard the whole game,” said Graziano. “I just believe that GVSU did a good job of minimizing our strengths, while we didn't take advantage of their mistakes. Both teams had miscues, but they were able to capitalize on ours while we couldn't do the same against them. We would tend to rush and make a bad pass or commit a silly penalty. We easily had eight to ten scoring opportunities and was only able to punch in one score, which is disappointing.

“But like I already said, this is definitely a great opportunity as a coach. Although no one likes to lose, if we use this as a good teaching moment then in the long run it can have some value. We are still young and hopefully we'll be able to refocus the rest of the season as there is lots of rugby to played this season.”

Following Saturday's matchup, the Panthers return to Charleston for two consecutive home contests, hosting Big Ten powers Minnesota and Michigan on Oct. 3 and 10, respectively, with both games set to begin at 11 am at EIU's Lakeside Field.

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