The women’s rugby team’s conference championship hopes fell only 30 yards short on Sunday as the Panthers were defeated 12-10 by Marquette University.

In the waning moments of the second half, the Panthers (3-4) were a few plays away for the go ahead score when time simply ran out.

The time ran out, not only on the game, but also on the season, which turned out to be the only losing season in head coach Frank Graziano’s 10-year career.

“We were driving and had the momentum in the last 10 minutes of the game,” Erin Voelz said.

“We just ran out of time,” she said.

The first 20 minutes of the game saw plays at both ends of the field as both teams threatened to score, but came up short by strong defensive stances, which resulted in the Panthers being down 12-0 at half.

“We held each other off on both sides of the ball,” Voelz said.

The second half started much like the first with big offensive drives by both teams, but near the end of the second half, the Panthers made a push towards victory with a kick for goal by Jeanine Frederick and a score by Casey McLain, as Frederick made the conversion.

The scores gave the team 10 points to put up on the board before time ran out on their dreams of both conference and national titles.

The loss to Marquette continued to fuel the rivalry that has existed between Eastern and Marquette for years. But regardless of the outcome of the season, Graziano was proud of Eastern’s style of sportsmanlike battle.

“We win and lose with dignity,” Graziano said. “And we are not going to play (the way Marquette does).”

Graziano was quick to point out Marquette’s “dirty” style of play, as he said they often used tactics to delay the game to their advantage and deliberately injure the Panthers.

“Jeanine Frederick has a cleat mark on her back,” McLain said.

One player said that the opposing coach told their players to “play dead” on the field to get extra injury timeouts.

“They used tricky, gimmick plays and we played our hearts out,” Voelz said.

“It is hard to play against a team that plays that way and we wouldn’t lower ourselves to that level.”

On the bus ride home, the veteran players didn’t need to tell the younger players who the true foes were.

“I know now that they realize who our rivals are,” Biesboer said.

Everyone on the team will be returning for next season and participating in off-season practices, except for senior Katey Biesboer.

Biesboer will be student teaching next semester and will forego her final semester of eligibility.

“It is disappointing to end my rugby career like this,” Biesboer said. “If they didn’t cheat, we would have killed them!”

After a season filled with adversity and ups and downs, the team believed it was able to put it together and still have a successful season, despite the comments of critics and naysayers.

“I am pretty damn proud of the girls,” Graziano said.

“I know our record does not show how good we are.”