The Wayne State Men’s and Women’s Rugby teams were in action last Saturday at Pittsburg State in Kansas for three matches.

The women’s team went undefeated on the day, defeating Pittsburg State, Oklahoma University, and Arkansas John Brown.

“I was very pleased with their performances,” head coach Darrin Barner said. “These games were scheduled a very long time ago and were meant to be some of the hardest games of the season.”

While each win was significant, Barner was particularly proud of WSC’s win over the Oklahoma University Sooners.

“We knew, heading into this game, that the OU women were going to be tough,” Barner said. “They’re a solid team; we played really well.”

The WSC women handled the Sooners without much of a problem, finishing with a final score of 55-0.

The WSC men also had a good day on the rugby field, finishing with two wins and one loss on the day, with wins over Pittsburg State and Arkansas John Brown.

Just like the women, the men also had one win that stood above the other, their win against opponent Pittsburg State, beating them by a score of 19-12.

“Pittsburg State is a strong opponent for the men,” Barner said. “We knew it was going to be a dogfight, and they gave us a strong challenge down there.”

Heading into the day, the strategy for the men’s team was pretty simple according to senior captain Austin Urbauer.

“We had to do our best to limit turnovers inside our own 22-meter line,” Urbauer said. “We focused on good communication on defense, and we just wanted to play the best team game we could possibly play.”

While the men did fall short once on Saturday, they’re looking to use that loss as a learning experience for the games to come.

“Inexperience was really a big factor in that loss,” Urbauer said. “We had a lot of freshmen playing, but hopefully that game gave them experience and gave them an opportunity to learn and better themselves.”

With such a tough weekend behind them, both the men’s and women’s teams are looking back at them as learning experiences with the postseason in sight.

“We really want to use those games as measuring stick games,” Barner said. “We knew how tough those games were going to be, and we wanted to go into them to see just how good we were.”

Last Saturday concluded the regular season for the Wildcats, with the next step to glory coming November 10-11 in Wayne, as the women will be battling for a spot in the Final Four in Georgia, and the men will be battling for a spot in the Elite Eight in Texas.