Pre-Game Release (PDF)

CHARLESTON, Ill. -- Undefeated Eastern Illinois women's rugby is set to travel north to face instate rival Illinois in the squad's first road match of the season.  Kickoff has been moved to a noon start on Saturday (Oct. 1), to help Illinois during their Homecoming weekend festivities.

ALL-TIME EIU-ILLINI HISTORY
Saturday's game will mark the ninth meeting between the two instate squads, with the Panthers taking a 3-0 season mark on the road.

The Panthers enjoy a sizeable 8-2 all-time lead in the previous matchups, including having won the last six meetings by a combined score of 286-to-60.
In fact, Eastern has actually shutout the Fighting Illini in the last two games, 60-0 and 96-0 in 2009 and 2010, respectively.

COACH GRAZIANO SAYS
“We made good use of not having the Purdue game last weekend... we had a very long practice this past weekend and both sessions were excellent as we had an opportunity to address our needs and improvements... it also allowed me to develop a more sophisticated offense this week, which I had been holding back so as not to overload some of our newer players… especially regarding some of the nuisances of the plays… overall, we made some nice progress in practice.
Everybody is in very good shape and obviously having the week off helped us heal even more.

The kickoff change for the Illinois game came about at their  request because of the Illini homecoming activities this weekend… having the game played at the rugby field on the south east from Memorial Stadium will also help us be able to get in and out with no problem by taking Route 130 all the way up and back.

I hope we have a very good offensive performance… we have been working on the timing of our plays… it has been challenging for our newer players to grasp some of our concepts in such a short time... but luckily we were able to go slowly these last two weeks to help them prepare… so I'm hoping to see an offensive explosion this Saturday as we need a break-out game like that.

We have also been working on our steals-at-tackle… and counter-rucking… especially important since Quinnipiac held us without a SAT for the first time in our program history.

We are expecting a nice fan showing at the game as our numbers keep growing for the post-game dinner plans… over 60 at this point, which includes only 20 or so players and staff… our parents and community folks have always been awesome in their support… especially good since this is really the only close road match for the next few weeks before we return to Lakeside Field for Homecoming Weekend... which our squad is excited about... as it is pretty rare that we are actually in town during the annual Homecoming festivities.”

DOYLE LEADS THE SCORING
Lauren Doyle continues to lead all Panthers with 30 points on the season, including scampering for four trys. She is also 5-for-16 (31.3%) in two-point conversions.

Sophomore Cara Hahne and junior Kayla Heal are also tied with four trys on the year as both have secured 20 points.
Doyle's nine steals-at-tackle also leads the squad.

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

A DEFENSIVE RARITY
For the first time in school history, the Panthers failed to register a single steal-at-tackle in the crucial win over Quinnipiac a couple weekends ago.

WEATHER PROJECTION THIS WEEKEND
According to weather.com, Saturday temps are expected to reach a high of 61-degrees and a low of 40.  Sunny skies are expected with zero chance of precipitation.

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