DeKalb | Men’s club rugby season has not begun as it had hoped after qualifying for nationals last season.

Coming off of its bye week NIU is looking to come out strong and turn its season around at home on Saturday versus Ball State. Over the bye week the Huskies worked on their fitness and emphasized tackling.

“We have been working a lot defensively. Our offense has not been too bad; it’s more of a fitness-related thing,” said team captain Osama Shayeb. “We are working on a lot of defensive drills, working on tackling ability and really setting up an organized defense.”

Last year’s matchup versus the Cardinals featured two strong teams. Both teams have had down years, but it looks to be another tough match.

“Last year they were a solid team,” said backline captain Joe Swon. “We just need to work on our fundamentals to get a win.”

NIU isn’t looking to start off running and gunning, but wants to slowly break down ISU.

“They are a physical team and the best way to shut teams like that down is to use our fitness…,” said team President Pat Caulfield. “We are going to use that to our advantage and just wear them down at the beginning. We hope to retain position of the ball for as long as we can and just get them really tired on defense. I think that is going to be the key to winning: Just keep breaking them down and when they hit us, we hit them back harder.”

NIU’s (0-2) season started slowly, but the seniors will not go down without a fight.

“At this stage in the season, because of our success last season, we have a lot of seniors, myself included, [who] refuse to go down quietly,” Caulfield said. “The seniors are more determined than ever. Same with the new guys that want to send these seniors out with a successful season. At this point forward, people are getting more determined to win.”

While the men will be at home, women’s club rugby will be on the road for its first conference game.

Prior to the season, women’s rugby beat its alumni for the first time in 18 years. Last week the team recovered from an opening weekend loss to beat the University of Illinois-Chicago, 41-17. This team has shown it is strong and striving for success. This week the players head into a tough matchup on the road against Lindenwood University.

Senior president Dee Sanderson believes team captain Rose DiBalsamo has been a huge reason for the Huskies’ (1-1) success this season.

“We have mostly all new girls and Rose has really transformed them into strong players,” Sanderson said.

While DiBalsamo has been influential so far, the team will need more this weekend. NIU faces one of its toughest opponents of the season and it is going to take everything the Huskies have to come away with a victory on the road.

“…They are going to be our top competition this season,” Sanderson said. “We are really looking forward to just putting what we worked on so far and our success we have seen at practice and prior games all into this weekend.”