The Wayne State women’s and men’s rugby clubs took on UNL’s Cornhuskers and SDSU’s Coyotes, respectively last weekend.

The women squeezed out a 15-7 victory over Nebraska while the men fought to a tie with SDSU.

Both teams had seen their opponents before, giving them each an opportunity to gauge their progress thus far in the season.

Although neither game ended in defeat for our Wildcats, they learned a valuable lesson: there will always be room to develop.

The men’s game kicked off first on Saturday, an unusual switch from the normal line-up.

They took the field facing up not only against the Coyotes, but also the cold, windy weather all outdoor athletics dealt with this weekend.

Luckily, the weather didn’t seem to faze Wayne State and they scored quickly in the first part of the game, taking a swift lead of 12-5 by halftime thanks to two trys from James Garcia and a successful field goal by Quinn Rochford.

SDSU wasn’t willing to lie down so easily for the Wildcats and they struck back after half, defensively and offensively.

The Coyotes stopped the men from scoring in the second half and put up seven more of their own points in the final moments of the game, causing it to end in a tie.

This scene was especially frustrating for the Wildcats because it was a flashback to last year when the men played SDSU for the Great Plains Conference and saw the exact same outcome.

Ending in a tie isn’t necessarily bad (both teams take half of the NSCRO bracket points) and it gives the Wildcats a wake-up call on what needs work.

“We need to move people into positions better suited for them, to clean up our game and reduce penalties, to condition, to work on tackling and scrum downs so our small size doesn’t bring us down in future games,” junior Quinn Rochford said.

The women took the field shortly after the men’s game ended, and they came out running.

The Lady Wildcats entered the try zone within the first 10 minutes of the game with a great run by senior Charlie Caniglia.

The Cornhuskers came ready to play hard though, and it wasn’t until the first half was almost finished that Wayne State scored again, with freshman Leanna Rosberg carrying the ball, making the score 10-0.

The second half of the game was the real battle.

The Cornhuskers scored on WSC first, taking away some of the team’s momentum, but that wasn’t the root of the problem.

With penalty after penalty, the Wildcats pushed themselves farther from the try zone. And if that weren’t enough, there were numerous injuries on both sides, creating an ominous energy on the field. However, the Lady Wildcats recieved another try by senior Alesha Rosberg in the final moments of the game to finish with a score of 15-7.