College Rugby Subject of Master's Thesis Study
Former Cal rugby All American Michael Bush is working on a Master's Thesis at Berkeley that involves rugby, and he needs your help in gathering data.
Bush is conducting a study of student welfare and sports experience among student-athletes around the country in sports that aren't traditionally varsity.
"The NCAA conducts the Growth, Opportunities, Aspirations and Learning of Students in college (GOALS) survey every five years to track experiences and well-being of student-athletes from a variety of sports across all three divisions," explained Bush. "Some of the areas examined include college experiences, recruitment, time commitments, and finances."
S&T Looking to Repeat in Gateway
Defending Gateway Conference champs Missouri S&T look like they might be poised to repeat after an impressive 39-7 win over UMKC.
For Head Coach Dane Meyer, it was a good victory, but there’s still more to do.
“Compared to last year we may be a little bit stronger,” said Meyer. “We’ve got some new players and overall a better team. But we need to work on our overall rugby awareness. We are getting good athletes, but I want to win rugby matches, not just brute athletic contests.”
Meyer said his team is learning the game, and that’s a good thing.
Missouri Science & Technology is one of a number of technology and engineering schools that have been playing good rugby of late (Colorado School of Mines, Cal Poly, RPI, RIT), and there’s reason to believe they will do well in the conference playoffs.
Men Fall DII College Rankings Week #3
We've got a few changes in the Men's DII college rankings this week, and it's all based on results, including an upset or two.
First off, Minnesota-Duluth drops out of #1 simply because they had to work for a win over Winona State, while Whitewater beat Stout quite handily. We had Stout ranked higher than Winona - maybe we were wrong about that - but we're rewarding UW-Whitewater for the big result anyway. NC State moves to #3 because they keep winning - yes we know that many might say NC State isn't really a DII team and is really a DI team. There's not much we can do about that right now; we just rank the teams in DII competition. Whether they should be there is a discussion for another day.
Furman Beats USC
Furman University made a splash this weekend, defeating SCRC DI team South Carolina 44-14.
The game was supposed to be Furman against the USC 2nds, but when Vanderbilt canceled on the Gamecocks in their league match, Furman took on more of a 1st team from South Carolina. Furman played a smart, fast-paced game and Jacob Milchuck, Matty Newman, Adam Miller, and Adrian Marcogliese all scored tries in a first half where the Paladins led 29-0 at the break.
Milchuck added a penalty kick early in the first half before USC scored two tries in answer. Furman’s RJ Bradley and Miller added tries for the Paladins during the game’s final ten minutes.
New Paltz, Vassar on Collision Course
Both SUNY New Paltz and Vassar are 4-0 in the Tri-State Men's DII Conference Central Division, but they've arrived at that lofty spot in fairly different ways.
New Paltz has dominated, scoring close to 50 points a game and giving up less than seven. Vassar, on the other hand, has had to tough out some close ones.
"We are off to a great start," enthused James Fryer, recent New Paltz grad and now the team's coach. "The boys have been playing phenomenal, aggressive defense while putting together many organized phases on offense. We have really put together a winning system and we believe that the Hawks will be turning heads come playoff time."
Utah State Turns Heads in West DIA
Utah State recorded their first DIA win in beating Wyoming 27-20 on Saturday, giving the program a nice boost in their first season in the new level.
USU opened their West DIA season with a very competitive 29-17 loss to Air Force, and considering Air Force’s wins over Utah and Navy of late, that result was not a bad one.
Salve Leads Colonial Coast
Salve Regina keeps rolling in the Colonial Coast, and they look very good for a repeat as conference champs.
Last week, Salve beat Western New England 58-0 with captain Joe Goff (no relation to the GRR editor) and Nate Misbach scoring almost half the points. Gary Cali, Colin Palmer, Dakota Williams, Kyle O'Connor, and Connor Gembecki also scored in the rout.
But they didn't let up this week, beating a solid Boston University team 54-5. Gembecki, Brian Schmidt, Braden Occhialini all scored two tries for Salve, while Brandon Kistler, Nicholas Spitz, Goff, and Ben Faulkner all touched down, as well.
With three weeks gone in the Colonial Coast Conference, Salve and Plymouth State both are undefeated - Plymouth State is 2-0 and Salve Regina 2-0. All eyes have to be on the October 15 meeting of those two teams.
MSM, Va Tech Continue in Chesapeake
Mount Saint Mary’s is still in first place in the new Chesapeake Collegiate Conference, but they better look over their shoulder, because Virginia Tech is coming.
The Mount handed Mary Washington a 32-10 defeat Saturday to move to 3-1 in the conference and 16 standings points.
“We feel nervous in every game,” said MSM Head Coach Jay Myles. “We’ve got nine freshmen and sophomores starting, and each week it’s a growing process for us. Mary Washington has brought in some great players and they are a very well-coached team. So we knew it would be a challenge.”
So it was. Both teams made mistakes and missed scoring chances. But when they were in scoring position, MSM was a little more efficient and led 15-5 at halftime. Mary Washington had a tough time getting out of their own end, and the pressure from Mount Saint Mary’s began to tell.
Coastal to 3-0 in Southern
Coastal Carolina moved to 3-0 in the Southern Rugby Conference, beating East Carolina 31-18 Saturday.
Coastal looked impressive early on, getting a turnover and setting up Peter Amabile for a long run down the sideline. ECU replied to take an 8-7 lead with a try and a penalty, but Tsunami Skrypek went wide to make it 14-8 for Coastal, and they would not relinquish the lead after that.
Amabile set up Zack Price for Coastal's third try, and while ECU scored another, and the Price set up Thomas McNamara to make it 26-13. Caleb Claton finished off Coastal's scoring with his first try for the program, and while ECU's Thomas LaMuraglia would score late it wasn't enough.
Tri State North - RPI, Siena, Sacred Heart
Siena College hosted Hofstra Saturday on Parents Weekend and came away with a crucial Tri-State Conference win.
Siena emerged 43-12 winners behind tries from fullback Brett Gaughan, No. 8 Ryan Powell, two from center Ryan Flynn, and three from flanker Matt Demm.
It toko almost a half hour for anyone to get on the scoreboard, but eventually Siena worked the phases well and got some nice running from wing Drake Shichak to set up the first try for Gaughan, Demm powered over on a pick-and-go just before halftime.
Upstate NY Latest - Cortland Wins Clash at Top
SUNY Cortland took sole control of first place in the Upstate NY Men's DII College Conference, as they upended the other undefeated team in the league, RIT.
In an intense game where both teams understood what was at stale, the boys from the Rochester Institute of Technology came out strong.
Cortland weathered the early storm, and unleashed a fairly potent backline attack. That speed opened up options for everyone, and senior No. 8 Rob Rodriguez scored three tries in a breakout performance. Kevin Olsen has been enjoying a consistently good season this fall and added two tries as the Wolfpack won a wild one 53-31.
UNC-Charlotte Sets Standard with Win
Two undefeated teams met up in the Southern Men’s DII college conference, and the result was something of a surprise.
It wasn’t that UNC-Charlotte won that was the surprise, but that they beat Appalachian State - historically a very strong team in the conference - by the score of 48-0.
Charlotte came into the game 3-0, having outscored opponents 283-24, but that was just the issue for Head Coach Bo Pasko - what did three blowouts, including 133-0 last week - tell him? Well, apparently, a lot. Appalachian State came into the game 3-0 also, having held opponents to only 25 points and scoring 40 points a game. So they weren’t slouches by any means. But in this game, it was all about the 49ers from Charlotte.
East Rises as Kentucky, Tennessee win in SCRC
Tennessee and Kentucky won two important crossover games in the SCRC, as the East Division Vols and Wildcats defeated West Division rivals Florida and Alabama.
Those losses were the first of the conference season for the Gators and Tide rugby teams. Kentucky put in some outstanding defensive pressure on a very good Alabama team.
Colgate Downs Syracuse as Empire Tightens Further
The Empire Conference continues to be a wild one, as Colgate beat Syracuse to bunch everyone up again.
Syracuse came into this weekend's clash having beaten Stony Brook on the road and moved into 1st. Colgate, for their part, had started with an impressive win and then were shut out by Fordham and lost to Binghamton, as well. And yet, Colgate handed Syracuse a 39-10 defeat.
"We were just going through the motions [in those earlier losses]," said Colgate Coach David Chapman. "We needed to be more competitive and we started being more competitive in practice. Once we approached it that way, the guys got on board."
Rugby East Latest - Wins Set Up Clashes Next Week
Wheeling Jesuit, Penn State, Kutztown, and Army are all still undefeated in the Rugby East after Penn State won two games this weekend and the other three won one each.
Wheeling Jesuit slammed West Virginia 72-12 on Friday. Flyhalf Allan Hanson, fresh off being named Wheeling Jesuit’s male athlete go the week, scored two tries and converted four, while adding a penalty goal for 21 points on his own. Andrew Waggoner also scored two tries, as did Peter Malcolm as WJU weathered a strong start from WVU before pouring on the points.
