WIIL defending champs UW-Whitewater picked up where they left off Sunday, defeating Marquette 70-10, but there are still some conference contenders to worry about.

Whitewater returns the entire backline from a team that made the 2015 national final. So really all they need to do is get back working together and win some ball, and that's what they did. School started just this past week so after only a few practices the Warhawks were a little rusty early on, trading tries with Marquette.

"But then we realized, hey, this is college rugby and we better get going," said fullback Eric Pachowitz. "We still have some stuff to work on but we're returning so many guys it wasn't hard to get back in the flow. We put our foot back on the gas and didn't let up for about 50 minutes."

New prop Kenny Ewert showed well in his debut and he partnered nicely with big Brandon Lopez in the front row.

But also worth noting is that UW-Stout, a program that hit some rough patches last year, is back on the winning side. Stout defeated UW-Lacrosse 36-15 Sunday to open their conference account. On Saturday, UW-Milwaukee looked impressive with an 82-5 win over UW-Platteville. UIC defeated Illinois-Wesleyan 41-22.

One result that was a little surprising was that of Northern Iowa. Expected to be a major contender, UNI won, but the scoreline of 24-19 over Loyola wasn't exactly dominant.

Northern Iowa dominated in the first half and led 17-0. But they kept committing penalties in the second half and those infractions, plus other mistakes at the breakdown, gave Loyola some opportunities.

"We can correct those mistakes," said club president John Schwarte. "Overall, we were more aggressive and more athletic than them. Once we get some of our starters healthy, we will be much better off."