130 Debi Curson
With a cast of returning players and a desire to improve on last year's 2-4 record, the men's rugby team came close to an unbeatable status in the fall1996 campaign. On the way to an 8-1 record, the Flyers defeated a number of regional rivals. Perhaps the best game of the season came against the Miami University of Ohio Redskins, a long-time bitter rival. In the final moments of the game, the Flyers led 19-17, but Miami had a chance to take the lead with a penalty kick. They missed and the Flyers beat them for the first time in ten years. The victory avenged last year's 18-5 Homecoming rout. Playing on Miami's home turf made the victory even more significant. Team members ranked the victory over the Redskins as the second most important game of the season, behind the hard-fought playoff loss to Bowling Green. "Miami was our toughest game, because it was at their house and it is the biggest game
of the season," Matt Holmes said. "They also play cheap, taking shots at your head and body." Finishing the season with a 1-
Hollie Prunty - Flanker photo by Michael Apice
6 record, the women's team did not fare as well as anticipated. Despite only one win, the women's team played strong and looked toward the future, while
developing the young squad. The Flyers squared off against a number of Ohio schools, including Wittenberg, Ohio University, John Carroll and Bowling Green. "I think our biggest competition was Bowling Green, maybe because we're close together in location, but they are an overall tough team," Hollie Prunty said. Many members of the women's squad felt that some of the challenges that they faced were the physical contact and maintaining team communication. Prunty felt the hardest part was staying off the disabled list. "The thing you really can't avoid is getting hurt, because players are running at you from everywhere," she said. Despite different records, both men and women tended to agree that the attraction to rugby lay in the competition, as well as in the game itself. "I like the action, the flow of the game and the physicality of it," Matt Holmes said.
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Row 1: Jacque Trick, Susan Steller, Jennifer Blum, Molly Mahoney, Jina Bass. Row 2: Anne Flaherty, Alice Gibbons, Jodie Bartello, Amy Cullen, Erica Dickinson, Kris ten Bedio,Kerry Glassmeyer, Shannon Haley. Row 3: Katie Field, Stephanie Sellers, Lesli LaDuca, Stacy Williams, Sarah Tybor, Jen Potocnik, Caitlin Toner. photo
92 RucBY
by Michael Apice
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