LACROSSE

The team came out of its weekend with a victory over the NIU alumni, 5-1. Freshman Michael Walczak had three goals to lead the way for the Huskies. Senior Vinny Abate allowed just one goal in the first half in net and fifth year senior John Butler blanked the alumni in the second half.

“It was a bit of a reality check, as the competition we’ll be facing in Madison will be a lot tougher and more prepared,” said club president Dave Jasper. “We also lost a few key players due to injury, so we’re going to spend the next few weeks preparing and hopefully come back from Madison with a trophy.”

The team will head to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for a tournament on Oct. 2-3.

MEN’S RUGBY

Loyola is hoping that it won’t see the Huskies much more this year as it was clobbered, 107-8 by NIU. The “Man of the Match” was freshman Manny Aranda as he started at flanker and made tackles all day as well as scoring a try.

“We went into the game against Loyola not knowing what to expect,” said club president Jim Sronkoski. “We had beat them last spring but that didn’t matter. The only thing that we had going for us is that we had taken our preseason seriously. We trained hard, prepared well and put the best 15 guys out on the pitch.”

The team will next travel to UIC on Sept. 25.

WOMEN’S RUGBY

The women were also victorious at Loyola. This one was a bit closer though as the Huskies edged out Loyola, 22-12. Junior Gianna Bisogni was the “Man of the Match” as she made some key tackles and scored a try in the game. Loyola scored the first try of the game, but the Huskies outplayed them the rest of the way and avenged a loss late last season.

“This game was one of our biggest games that we were going to play this season,” said club president Suzy Richard. “We have not beaten Loyola in five years, so beating them was a big accomplishment for our team. It felt great to win after all the hard work and conditioning that we have been putting in during practice the past few weeks.”

The team will head to South Bend, Ind. Sept. 18 to face Notre Dame.

WATERSKI AND WAKEBOARD

The Huskies came away seventh overall out of ten teams at the University of Iowa’s Hawkeye SkiFest. The NIU men were also seventh overall in their division and the women came away ninth.

Senior John Roberts led the way for the men as he finished second in the individual trick category, ninth in slalom and ninth in jumping. Senior Holly Kulovitz led the way for the women as she finished fourth in individual tricks, sixth in slalom and 12th in jumping.

“All of us are really looking forward to the tournament this weekend at Iowa State,” Kulovitz said. “More of the team will be able to make it out to this tournament. I think we will do very well and are hoping to have some more personal bests.”

The team will be the Iowa State Cyclones Sept. 18 for the Iowa State Ski Wars.