Perseverance was the word of the day on Saturday for the Eastern Illinois women’s rugby team, which lost its game against the University of Illinois 36-5.

The Panthers (2-1), still recovering from injuries that have plagued them all season, had to bounce back from a disappointing first half in which they were held scoreless.

The women from the University of Illinois put 29 points on the board in the first 40 minutes and seemed to have control of the game, but Eastern held them to only seven points for the remainder of the contest.

The Panthers managed to scrape up only one score, which translated into five points when Kate Taake scored in the middle of the second half.

The scoring chances were difficult to come by and luckily the Panthers were able to capitalize when they were just a few yards away.

“We were only on their side of the field a few times,” Jessica Conrad said.

The club team from the University of Illinois didn’t bring as many players as expected, which played to the advantage of the Panthers. As was the case last week, Eastern had a minimal number of substitutes.

“We didn’t play bad,” Taake said. “We just had some mental lapses and that is why they scored so much in the first half.”

Conrad said the team came out of the gates flat.

“We didn’t have the intensity right when we took the field,” she said. “After they scored a couple of times we were just trying to be defensive.”

When Illinois scored they did so by break away runs between 10 to 30 yards out.

“They didn’t have to fight to score in the first half like they did (in the second),” Taake said. “The last score was the closest they were to the line all game.”

The second half was a defensive struggle for both teams as both squads combined for only 12 points.

“After halftime we wanted to make the rest of the game ours,” Conrad said.

A lack of focus contributed to the Panthers’ early woes.

“We wanted to put them back on their heels, but we had a loss of concentration.” Taake said.

The Panthers travel to Vanderbilt and Clemson this weekend.