The Lady Aggies traveled to Provo and played two games last weekend. Game one was against Colorado State University. Game two was played just for fun against a city league team.

The Aggies lost to CSU 36-32 in a game they could have won. USU played 70 minutes of solid rugby and had the lead up until that point. Then, with 10 minutes left in the game, everything fell apart.

USU missed a tackle, which led to a CSU try. At that point USU lost its composure and with about one minute remaining CSU scored one more try to seal the deal. Team captains Tabitha Morin and Shannon Woolley both agreed that fatigue and lack of conditioning was a factor in the defensive breakdown.

Team president Vanessa Avila-Esparza agreed along with Morin and Woolley that the team needs to do a better job tackling.

Morin said, “We need to work on the little details. Some players were hesitant with tackles but better tackling comes with experience. (The new team members) need to learn it doesn’t hurt too bad to make a tackle.”

Coach Dennis Kohler said that there are a lot of new players and that the beginning of the season is always spent working the kinks out.

“It takes some time,” Kohler said.

Kohler said that he couldn’t single out any part of the team to blame for the loss.

“It wasn’t just the backline or the forwards, it was an overall team defensive breakdown,” Kohler said.

Even with the loss Kohler remained optimistic.

“I was really happy with how they played,” he said.

The Lady Aggies face Brigham Young University next on Sept. 26 at 11 a.m. on the HPER field.

Both Avila-Esparza and Kohler both spoke highly of BYU.

”They are a pretty good opponent,” Avila-Esparza said. “They have good recruiting, lots of players and they usually beat us.”

Kohler said BYU is a very consistent team because they have a consistent coaching staff and they recruit.

“We’re ready for BYU,” Morin said.

Woolley said, ”We’re really pumped for BYU, it’s an in-state rival, it’s Homecoming weekend. We’re really excited.”

Kohler was very optimistic, saying, “We can beat BYU if we play at the level that I know we are capable of playing.”

Kohler also said to beat BYU they need keep the same level of play for the whole game and not let down at the end as they did against CSU.

“We need to forget the history and have a winning mindset,” Avila-Esparza said. She also said the team needs to have good passing, not be afraid to tackle, make the first tackle and get the job done.

– ty.d.hus@aggiemail.usu.edu

Both Woolley and Morin said the key to winning will be finishing tackles and staying in channels.