The Eastern women’s rugby team capped of a successful season with a 25-21 road victory over the University of North Carolina on Nov. 8 in Greenville, S.C.

In her final game for the blue and white, senior center Becky Carlson scored twice to pace the Panthers. Freshman Laura Valcore added a try and the Panthers defense preserved the victory against North Carolina.

Junior prop/hooker Desi Pence said the win ended a great season for the Panthers.

“It was really important for us to win against North Carolina because if we didn’t win it wouldn’t have mattered what we did the rest of the season,” Pence said. “It was great to beat a large school like North Carolina at their home.”

Senior center Mary Archer said the victory against North Carolina was a goal the team knew they could attain.

“First of all, we knew we could beat them,” Archer said. “This win shows everything we worked so hard for came into place.”

With the victory, the Panthers finished the season with a 9-1 record that included two victories over schools from the Big Ten (Illinois and Ohio State), one from the Big 12 (Iowa State) and also a road win against Stanford from the Pacific 10 Conference.

The Panthers started their season by defeating instate rival Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Eastern overcame an early deficit and outscored the Fighting Illini 13-5 in the second half to pick up the victory 23-15.

Junior Nikki Ponce scored on two trys on the day including one to tie the score at 15. With the games balance still uncertain, sophomore Amber Logsdon scored the eventual game-winning try to put the Panthers up 20-15.

“That (Illinois) was a win that kick-started our season,” Pence said. “Without that victory, we wouldn’t have been able to accomplish all that we did.”

Archer agreed with her teammate and added that it’s always nice to beat a rival.

“The Illinois game really set the tone for the season,” Archer said. “It seems like every year the other team wins and last year they beat us. They are a rival and it was important to beat them.”

Eastern picked up two more wins against Iowa State (75-0) and Dayton (72-5) before a late September showdown against The Ohio State University.

In a match which Panthers head coach Frank Graziano described as an “ugly win,” Eastern would pick up their 15th consecutive win and improve to 4-0 on the season at home with a 22-7 victory over the Buckeyes.

Carlson started the Panther scoring at the middle of the first half with a try and conversation. Senior captain Kate Taake would increase the Panthers lead to 17-7 in the second half and Ponce would close out the scoring with just one minute remaining with a successful try.

Unfortunately for Eastern, both winning streaks would come to an end the following Saturday in Charleston in a match against Penn State. The Nittany Lions opened up an 18-0 lead at halftime and led 30-0 before a try by Billie Salyers put the Panthers on the board. With just minutes remaining in the match, Penn State added their final try of the game to put the Panthers away 35-5.

“This was a difficult defeat for us,” Graziano said. “We prepared well for this game knowing it might be the toughest on the schedule but we simply did not match up athletically in several positions. Penn State was just too tough in certain areas of the game.”

As tough of a loss as it was for the Panthers the defeat did not hamper the rest of their season. Eastern still had four contests remaining, including three on the road, and won those four games by a combined score of 208-29.

“It was an excellent season for us,” Pence said. “We faced a lot of tough competition and other than the loss against Penn State we played great.”

With Eastern being the only NCAA certified rugby team. there is not a tournament or bowl game for athletes in other sports to look for. Pence said that the Panthers objective at the start of the season wasn’t necessarily to defeat every team, but rather to go out and play the best they could.

“Our goal going into the season isn’t to win every match; instead, we want to go and play our game and not let the other team control the match,” Pence said. “Coach Graziano sets high standards for us and we want to fulfill them.”

For a team that has won 20 of their last 21 games over the past two seasons, the only concerns are replacing the graduating seniors. This year, Eastern had just three seniors (Carlson, Taake and Archer) but each will leave Charleston with many accolades.

Carlson, back after a two year hiatus that included letters in track, tennis and soccer, was the team’s best overall athlete. Taake is the two-time reigning most-valuable player and was Eastern’s leader in tackles with 49. Archer was named the team’s most improved player last year and, in 2000, she earned the Panthers outstanding freshman award.

“It will be close to impossible to replace them,” Pence said. “Putting freshmen in their spots next year will be a challenge.”