Mental mistakes were the cause of defeat for the Huskies this past weekend at the 2009 National Collegiate Paintball Association National Championship.

“The way we went out was devastatingly frustrating,” said NIU Paintball Club President Dave Moore. “Paintball is a game of chance, and things happen. Other teams were on their A-game, and we made some mental mistakes, and that’s what cost us the victory.”

No. 7 NIU finished fifth at nationals after exiting the preliminaries as the No. 1 seed. The Huskies took a 9-0 record out of the preliminaries as the only undefeated team. NIU’s huge start included wins over No. 9 Illinois State and both teams of No. 1 North Texas.

“When we were winning, we were demolishing people,” Moore said. “We definitely had the most experience out of most the teams out there, but there were definitely some good teams.”

With the best record, the Huskies received a bye from the next round of group play and advanced straight to the Ochofinals, four groups containing the final 16 teams.

In the Ochofinals, NIU went 2-1 with victories over No. 2 East Tennessee State 98-4 and No. 3 Northeastern 100-0 to advance to the quarterfinals.

The quarterfinals were where everything went wrong for the Huskies. NIU went 1-2, with both losses coming by Huskie mishaps.

During the 96-8 quarterfinal loss to Texas A&M, there was one player from NIU left and one player of the Aggies left, and they were unaware of each other. The Aggie player grabbed the flag and brought it back to the other end of the field before the NIU player realized what was going on.

Before the start of every match, the officials give a five-second countdown, and then there’s a buzzer. In the 94-12 loss to No. 4 Minnesota, they announced five seconds and four and a half seconds later a different field started its game, and the buzzer went off. About a half second later, NIU’s buzzer went off, but the earlier buzzer made some Huskies go early, and they were

immediately pulled.

“They were really close and frustrating,” Moore said. “I gave my plea, but they did what they had to do.”

Women’s Rugby

The NIU Women’s Rugby Team competed in the 6th Annual Tournament of Champions Saturday.

The Huskies glided through pool play with three shutouts. NIU defeated the Lady Misfits 40-0, Southern Illinois 42-0 and the Chicago Sirens 15-0.

“In these games, it became obvious that the things that we have been practicing have really come through,” said President Jen Studer. “Utilizing the whole width of the field allowed us to get around the outsides of other teams and being able to stick our tackles was another big improvement that showed this weekend. Further, our team has an amazing ability not to give up when the other team is within five meters of scoring.”

The Huskies were set to play Illinois State, a team they lost to earlier this season, for the semifinals, and it resulted with the same ending. With the loss, the Huskies finished third in the tournament.

Men’s Rugby

The men’s team also competed in the 6th Annual Tournament of Champions this past weekend.

NIU finished as the runner-up as it lost to champion Lake Forest 18-15 on a last-second penalty kick.

The Huskies cruised through group play with victories over Illinois-Chicago by forfeit, Lewis by a score of 54-0 and Illinois State 29-5.

The Huskies continue their spring schedule Saturday at the 3rd Annual Condors Collegiate Tournament in Chicago.