Pre-Game Release (PDF)

CHARLESTON, Ill. -- After downing instate rival Illinois in the squad's first road trip of the season, Eastern Illinois women's rugby will continue to play away from Charleston this weekend, traveling to Wisconsin to face the Milwaukee Panthers at 1 p.m. on Saturday (Oct. 8).  EIU currently sport a perfect 4-0 record this season.

ALL-TIME PANTHER-PANTHER HISTORY ...
Saturday's game will mark just the third ever meeting between the two feline units.  The EIU Panthers enjoy a 2-0 all-time lead in the previous matchups, including a 45-0 shutout last season up in Milwaukee. In 2009, however, the Eastern squad needed a late score to scratch past UWM, 29-27 in the two team's first and only meeting at Lakeside Field.

HEAD COACH FRANK GRAZIANO ...
Sporting a 104-19 all-time record, EIU skipper Frank Graziano enters his 13th season leading the Panther rugby squad. He currently owns an 88-7 NCAA season tally, which began with the 2002 squad.

COACH GRAZIANO SAYS ...
“We have been working a bit more with contact in practice… to try and get the players to be more comfortable with contact situations ... and the only way to do it is to actually do contact in practice.

This will be our first overnight trip of the season... which should be a good thing for this squad... always good to be on the road to allow the girls to spend some time together... whether it be on the bus or in the hotel... it will only help us to solidify our team chemistry and team bounding… we haven't done that yet since we started the season with three home games and last week's trip to Champaign was obviously an up and back jaunt.

All the players are currently good and healthy for the weekend… we will even have a sub player, as Alissa Patient was able to rest her knee and is now good to go for this trip… so we finally will have 16 players ready to go... so we are excited.

WI-Milwaukee lost last weekend to Minnesota (38-32)... we only beat Minnesota by 20-7, so they will definitely be much tougher than Illinois… which is obviously good for us... I am anticipating that they will be as good, or possibly even better than Quinnipiac… so we'll need to play well to beat them... yet we need this type of test to see where we are right now in the season... and definitely help us gauge our performance in preparation for next weekend's rematch at Quinnipiac.”

DOYLE LEADS THE SCORING ...
Lauren Doyle continues to lead all Panthers with 56 points on the season, including scampering for six trys, while currently sporting a 13-for-31 (41.9%) mark in two-point conversions.

Junior Kayla Heal and sophomore Cara Hahne are neck-in-neck for total trys on the year, with Heal having just one more than Cara as the duo sport nine and eight five-point scores, respectively.

GETTING DEFENSIVE ...
In defensive numbers, newcomer Madison Kissner continues to impress as she leads all Panthers with 28 solo stops, while her six assisted tackles ranks third.

REVIEWING THE ILLINOIS ROUT...
Six different players scampered for a score as Eastern Illinois crushed Illinois, 91-7, last Saturday afternoon in the first road game of the season for the Panthers.
With the win, EIU improved to 4-0 on the year and extend the all-time series lead over the Illini to 7-2 overall.  However, the seven points by the Illini ends two consecutive shutouts at the hands of the Panthers.

Junior Kayla Heal led the Panther attack as she registered six trys to set a new career high in the process while also tying for the third best single-game mark in EIU history.

Heal also dished out two assists to go along with her 30 points.

Sophomore Cara Hahne added four trys in the rout, tying her previous career-high that she set in last season's win over Illinois.  Junior Lauren Doyle and newcomer Nia Williams each chipped in two five-point trys as well.

Both Heal and Hahne collected five runs over 20-yards in the romp of the Illini.

Senior captain Narissa Ramirez earned her own try and tied Doyle with three assists apiece.  Madison Kissner tallied her first career try in addition to feeding off two assists.

Doyle helped the Panthers in two-point conversions on the day, going 9-for-16 for an additional 18 points.  That tally not only sets a new personal best conversion mark but also ties for the third highest number in a single-game.

Defensively, Ellen Wilson and Tina Crema both tied with six solo tackles apiece, while Wilson added two assisted stops to lead all Panthers.  Sarah Sremaniak nabbed three steals-at-tackle followed by two by Hahne.

WEATHER PROJECTION THIS WEEKEND ...
According to weather.com, Saturday temps are expected to reach a high of 81-degrees, with partly cloudy skies.  There is a 20% chance of rain while it may end up being quite windy with projections of 18-mph.

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