Busy weekend for Travelling Panthers
Women's Rugby set to face the #5 ranked team in Canada Friday night.
By Marshall Mayne
Image by Lorenzo Parker
WRugby -- Panthers @ X-Women September 23rd, 7:00pm
Panthers Rugby picked up UPEI's first win of the varsity season last weekend in Halifax against the Huskies with a 54-7 victory.
"St Mary's came out of the gate hard and determined. The Panther defense was up to the task, playing many minutes under pressure, bending, but not breaking," added LaBoyne.
UPEI took advantage of the Huskies defensive miscues, turning turnovers into tries. Terrisa Lynch and Holly Jones led the way with 4 tries each with newcomers to the team Caitlin Arsenault and Tara Campbell contributing one each. Alysha Corrigan added two conversions on an extremely windy and difficult kicking day.
Competition gets tougher this weekend as the squad travels to Antigonish to face the #5 ranked St.FX X-Women who are off to a 2-0 start. In two contests last season the UPEI Panthers were 0-2 and being outscored 95-5.
"Their huge pack will try and dominate the game; they also have speed on the outside. The game will be a huge challenge for the Panthers, but they will be up for the tilt on Friday night at StFX," stressed LaBoyne following Wednesday's practice.
The UPEI Rugby Panthers will return home on October 1st against the Huskies, kickoff at 2:00pm. For live action go to austv.ca or follow @StFXAthletics on Twitter.
Women's Hockey -- Panthers @ Huskies - September 23rd, 7:00pm
Panthers @ Tigers - September 25th, 1:00pm
The UPEI Women's Hockey are getting set for a busy weekend on the ice. The team will play three games in three days, including two in Halifax and one in Charlottetown at the Cody Banks Arena. Coach Bruce Donaldson has had a busy offseason, bringing in 9 recruits.
Out of the 24 players on the roster - 14 of them are either 1st or 2nd years, making them one of the youngest lineups in the AUS.
The Panthers are coming off a campaign which saw them go 6-15-3 and only scoring 33 goals. This season will see a new set of goals set out by the coaching staff.
"Our goal is to secure a solid playoff position throughout the season and improve in two key areas - team offense and specialty opportunities," said Donaldson prior to this week of practices.
Throughout the next two weekends the UPEI Women's Hockey team will play 6 exhibition games, all of which will give the team a focus to work on and begin to create a team identity. "The girls have been working exceptionally hard on and off the ice, The girls compete level in practice has been very strong and we expect to see this transition to our games," added Donaldson.
The UPEI Women's Hockey team will kick off their season October 14th in MTA, and their home opener is scheduled for October 21st against STU.
Cross Country -- UdeM Invitational, September 24th, 12:45pm
Last weekend saw the Cross Country team enjoyed a modest weekend having three runners inside the top 25.
Jeremy Thompson was the highest Panther to place at the Acadia Invitational with a solid 13th place finish in a field of 37. Coach MacAdam said, "Thompson had a very strong race from start to finish, will look for him to have a strong season moving forward."
The Cross Country team will enjoy a weekend off next week before they head to the SMU/DAL Invitational on Saturday, October 8th.