Bullets struggle against Kansas; Bulls drop first
Conor Nicholl
Issue date: 10/14/04 Section: Sports
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At least not on the rugby pitch.
Reesor, the player-coach of the Bullets' rugby club, was not pleased with her team's performance after the Heart of America tournament Oct. 2 and 3. The squad lost all three games.
"It was a disaster," Reesor said. "When we had practice the following Monday. I told the girls I did not want to be a mom and put them in timeout but that we had to change our attitude. We took 15 to 20 minutes, and the girls talked about ways to improve. We had to stop criticizing people when we got down."
Reesor said the squad worked on getting excited for last weekend's match during practice sessions.
"We did ball position drills to get ourselves pumped up," she said. "On Thursday, we did cheers to get ourselves excited."
The excitement did not result in victory against the University of Kansas, but play improved. The Jayhawks, normally composed only of college players, did not have enough athletes to field a team and added more experienced players to fill the roster.
Truman still led 7-5 after the first half behind a try from junior Helen Russell. Unfortunately, the lead did not hold, and the Bullets fell 24-7.
Despite the score, however, they still won the game.
"Kansas could not qualify for the Westerns [playoffs]," loose forward senior Elizabeth Gentry said. "Since they did not have enough collegiate players, then it was technically a forfeit."
The score will go in the books as a 49-0 Bullets victory. This win was crucial because Kansas is in the same Union as Truman and was the merit-table match. Because the Bullets won the merit-table, they are in position for a run at Westerns in the spring.
"Unless Kansas can get its act together in the spring and field a team and beat us by more than 49 points, then we are going to Westerns," Gentry said. "Right now, it is only KU and us in the Union."
Reesor said she thinks the season will get even better.
"The season always goes up from here," she said. "We are a team that is normally known for spirit and not complaining."
Spirits should be high for the remainder of the season when the Bullets play their annual alumni game in two weeks.
"The alumni always come back and love to play," Reesor said. "It really gets us pumped up."
The Bulls rugby team suffered its first loss of the fall season Saturday against Arkansas State. It was close throughout the contest, but the Bulls fell 26-25.
"They were a very athletic team," head coach Bill Sexton said. "We were better technically, but we could not contain their athleticism, especially in the last few minutes."
The Bulls currently stand at 3-1 on the season.
Arkansas State, the USA Rugby National Division II 2003 Runner-up, overcame an 18-7 Bullets halftime lead. Junior Sean Foley had two tries in the first half while senior Chris Bell tallied the third try.
Arkansas State rallied and eventually took a 19-18 lead with eight minutes left in the contest. After earning a scrum put-in, senior Brian Wilson picked and scored over the right side of the line, giving the Bulldogs a 23-19 lead with three minutes left.
Foley scored the two-point conversion, increasing the lead to 25-19.
ASU then took the kickoff and scored - bringing them within one point of the Bulldogs.
Finally, as time ran out, ASU's kicker converted the try and gave them the victory.
"We need to stay focused," Sexton said. "We need to be a little more conservative in protecting the ball in the final minutes."
The "B" Team fell to 0-4 with a 5-0 loss to Arkansas State. It actually was a victory of sorts, as the Bulls gave six of the their players to ASU to fill out its roster.
The only try was scored, however, by Bullets sophomore Leonard Stephens, who played for ASU.