South Independent leader Life University had cruised through its first two matrix matches and was looking toward Central Florida, the region’s traditional powerhouse, to provide some resistance in week three. UCF then dropped a 41-17 game to Georgia Tech on Feb. 15, but there was a cushion of forgiveness since that loss occurred on the second day of a double-header weekend. All questions to Central Florida's relative strength were answered, however, when Life traveled to Orlando and posted its third consecutive shutout, 53-0, on Saturday.

Life has yet to concede a point against this season, but for comparison purposes, the Running Eagles beat Florida State 90-0 and Tennessee 122-0.

“UCF was, by far, our strongest competitor we've faced this spring,” Life University coach Ros Chou wrote. “They were tenacious in the breakdowns and had a number of strong ballcarriers. Because we were outsized, we ended up having to commit several players to the tackle to get them to ground. This also made the scrums more challenging than we've seen so far. The coaching staff was pleased with the defensive effort overall, as UCF is known for their dangerous attackers, and we were lucky to walk away with a shutout.”

Captain Nicole Strasko scored five minutes in, and the team followed with six more tries in the first 40. Life led 41-0 at halftime before penalties slowed down the second half, allowing only two tries. By game’s end, Kaitlyn Broughton dotted down three times, while Kimberly Semiglia, Strasko and Deshel Ferguson scored twice apiece. Madison Ohmann slotted four conversions.

“The biggest lesson we learned from this extremely physical match is that we need to be able to make better decisions when we're fatigued,” Chou stated. “We spent 20 minutes of the second half with 14 players on the field because of yellow cards. These were penalties given because of repeat infractions. We were well warned by the official and didn't make the proper adjustments to avoid the yellow cards. That made it much more difficult for us to run our pattern of attack because we were often on the back foot, playing too much defense.”

Chou singled out Strasko for growing into her leadership position, as well as co-captain Sarah McCandless, who missed nearly all of the fall pre-season due to injury.

“The resiliency of this team is really impressing the coaching staff,” Chou commended. “It's just a fantastic bunch of student-athletes, and while we still have a long way to go and improve, they are stepping up to each challenge we present to them at training.”

The upcoming competition will take care of the challenges going forward. In two weekends, Life will play Georgia Tech, the team that handed UCF its first loss of the season. The weekend after is Florida, which is undefeated as well. Both games will be at home, a welcomed change for the Marietta, Ga., side.

“We're really looking forward to having a match at home and know that Georgia Tech is going to give us a great game,” the former Georgia Tech coach said. “They have some incredible strikers, and it will be another big test for our team defense. Their kicking game is also stronger than most of the teams we've seen thus far, so I'm really hoping the work we've done on counters will pay off.”

In other SIRC news, Florida defeated Tennessee 85-5. See below for the current South Independent DI standings: