DeKALB | The NIU women’s rugby team seemed to lose some of its resilience and stamina after falling short in the Midwest playoffs this past weekend.

The Huskies’ first opponent was the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse.

Similar to the men’s team’s first-round performance during the Parmenter Cup, the women seemed to be on track toward victory as they had a 5-0 lead at half.

However, the bleak lead didn’t do enough for the Huskies as the Eagles came out firing and pounced NIU 27-10.

All year long, the Huskies haven’t lacked in talent, but were thin in the amount of players on their roster.

Jen Studer, women’s rugby club president, noted that this disadvantage had great impact in the second half.

“I guess we started to run out of gas,” Studer said. “They were able to run subs where we were short on numbers.”

Following La Crosse, NIU had a matchup versus Illinois State.
“Less than a year ago, they ran us into the ground,” Studer recalled of their previous square off with the Red Birds.

Scoring was widespread as the teams traded turns putting points on the scoreboard.
In the end, the scoring came to a stall as the teams tied 27-27.

Ending their playoff drought, the Huskies will look to build off this season, and they have high expectations for next year.

Studer and company will look to recruit more players to alleviate some of the fatigue that seemed to settle in for this year’s team.

“When you are playing 80 minutes of rugby, it really helps to have fresh legs,” Studer said. “So I hope more girls become interested in [our] rugby team in the future.”

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