Last week was a good one for the Davenport women. A member of the DII Great Lakes conference, the Panthers played two DI teams in the course of three days, and beat them by a combined 52-12.

Last Thursday, the Big Ten’s Michigan traveled to Davenport for a pre-season friendly, and returned to Ann Arbor with 32-7 loss from which to recover. The game remained deadlocked until the second quarter, but the hosts used the final 20 minutes of the half to send Caren Brown, Julia Mayer and Jennifer Hang into the try zone for the 15-0 halftime lead.

Davenport duplicated its efforts in the second stanza, as Danielle Ordway, Brittany O’Dell and Carrie Eggleston all scored. Michigan prevented the shutout during the final minutes of the match, and matched DU’s conversion tally for the 32-7 ending.

On Saturday, Davenport improved to 3-0 with a 20-5 victory over visiting Lindenwood.

"It was just a really hard fought match by both teams," Davenport head coach Greg Teliczan said. "I think we were over-booked in the ice baths. Lindewood is a top quailty side, and we're glad not to have to see them again this year."

It was anyone’s game during the first half, as both teams failed to relinquish any tries. Davenport was more composed, however, and a couple of penalties in Hannah Tennant’s range gave the hosts a 6-0 lead. But it was Lindenwood that broke the try drought, scoring the game’s first five-pointer with fewer than five minutes remaining in the half.

But just when Lindenwood was enjoying the reduced point deficit, leading scorer Danielle Ordway responded with a try (the wing's seventh this season), while Tennant converted for the 13-5 lead into the break.

There the game remained for the majority of the second half, as Lindenwood desperately tried to break the Davenport defense. The Panthers remained strong throughout and were rewarded in the final minutes of the game, as Courtenay Fafel powered her way into the try zone for the converted (Tennant) try, 20-5.

Davenport needed these two tough games before the season, as the Panthers have dominated the local competition. The previous game in particular taught DU some important lessons.

"Although we controlled the ball well, we were way too slow getting the ball out of the rucks, and Lindewood was very strong at counter-rucking," Teliczan said. "We will have to improve on that quickly. Our scrums were very strong and took quite a few against the head. We were solid across the board in defense but made some bad tactical decisions when our backs were against the wall."

With three good wins on its resume, Davenport is poised to start its regular season this Saturday, when the Panthers travel to Grand Valley State for the teams’ conference-opener. DU handled GVSU easily last year (43-0) and is the heavy favored to win the Great Lakes conference.