First, the women's game.
Kick off on an afternoon that's fit for a November afternoon, with a slight chill in the air. The UT Dallas women host cross county rival UNT in a battle for the number 1 seed for the playoffs. Which will begin next weekend, but more on that later.
The line up for this match:
1. Lupe, 2. Camille, 3. Vic, 4. Cari, 5. Ashley, 9. Alyssa, 10. Baylie, 12. Mel, 13. Marie, 14. Andrea
Reserves: 16. Elaine, 17. Gisselle, 18. Ivy, 19. Brittney
The game kicked off at 4:06, with both teams feeling each other out, play for the first 10 minutes of the 20 minute half was played at mid field, between the 10 meter lines. Both sides ran hard and tackled hard, to bring up a cliché, it was a real barn burner. But it was UNT scoring first 2 trys, one on a nifty run by the UNT backs, they failed to convert the try. Their second try came from a couple of missed tackles, which put us at a disadvantage and not being able to cover the field and UNT converted that try.
It was then that UT Dallas woke up and began to play the game they know. They mounted a series of attacks and got the ball out wide with Andrea making a good run into UNT territory. When she was tackled, she popped the ball up into the waiting arms of Baylie, who sprinted approx. 25 yards into UNT's goal to put 5 points on the board for UT Dallas. The conversion was missed and the half came to an end with UNT leading 12 to 5.
The second half began and was just like the first half, both sides ran and tackled hard, but it was UNT that put up another 12 points and kept UT Dallas out of goal. There was many good things that our girls did yesterday, and while the game may not have turned out the way we wanted. I did see a lot of positive things that our girls did and the future is good for UT Dallas Women's Rugby.
Because this was a match for the number 1 seed for next week's playoffs, UT Dallas needed to win to keep their playoff hopes for their first every championship dreams alive. Earlier that day Angelo St. (ASU) beat Sam Houston St. (SHSU) 72 to 15. Because they both ended in a tie, the tie breaker was the number of trys made against SHSU, The difference ASU at least 13 Trys, UTD 5 Trys. The UT Dallas Women will still be in the playoffs, for final standings and will host Letourneau Univ. next Saturday at UT Dallas. Time for this match will be confirmed and will be posted to this web site later.
The current UT Dallas Men took on the alumni of UT Dallas in a very entertaining match. Ok, it might not be entertaining if you were on the wrong end of the scoring.
The starting line up for the first half.
1. Ryan, 2. Josh, 3. Caleb, 4. Chirs, 5. Connor, 6. Precious, 7. Wade, 8. Jake, 9. Victor, 10. Edmund, 11. Alex, 12. Andrew D., 13. Nicky, 14. Franklin, 15. Brian
Reserves: all went in the second half - Brandon in for Ryan, Andrew E. for Caleb, Will for Connor, Manny for Wade, Daniel for Jake, Kevin Z for Victor, Eric for Alex, Myles for Nicky, Talhah for Franklin.
The match kicked off shortly after 6:00pm and it was the alumni that had control of the game from the get go. The current UT Dallas players were on their heals all evening and the alumni ran in try after try. The lone bright spot as far as scoring was a sweet kick and chase from Andrew Do. Who beat the alumni to the ball and downed the ball in goal to give the current team a try. The conversion was missed and the half ended Alumni 35 to the current team's 5.
The second half was more of the same, the alumni put up another 25 points, but this half was more of the current team showing that there is a fire inside them. On one of the restarts, Flanker Will Stuberfield ran up the middle of the field, splitting the alumni before off loading to a trailing Daniel, as he was getting tackled. Daniel then ran deeper into the alumni red zone where he was tackled. Quickly, support was there to help out and with a series of pick and goes. It was Brandon who powered over the goal line to score his first Try.
Later in this half, Flyhalf Edmund, challenged his opposite and took off with a nifty run, juking the fullback to make it to the alumni goal line. The only bad part of this was that Edmund knocked the ball on in goal. He wasn't able to securely down the ball in goal for the try. There were quite a few more of these things that I saw as a positive and can only mean that we're on the verge of something really great. Time will tell on this, so stay tuned.
The men's next match will be on Nov. 21st against Angelo St. (ASU) in a regular season league match. Details on this match will come later.