Rugby suffers first loss of the season at the Hands of Catholic University 18-10
Despite playing well throughout the match, AU Men's Rugby team lost to the Catholic University of America, 18-10, on Saturday.
The Eagles' first loss of the season came on a day when the team was plagued by bad weather and untimely injuries. An early-morning rainstorm made the field at Kenilworth Park sloppy and tough for the Eagls' usual aggressive style.
Deadlocked early, with both teams making easy forays into the other's side, the match came to a head when Catholic scored early in the second half. At the 60-minute mark, both teams traded penalty kicks to make the score 13-3. A tough defensive game all around, the Eagles made it close by scoring their only try at the 73-minute mark to make it 13-10. However, a boot connect with the ball sent a Catholic scorer 90 meters in the opposite direction to make the score 18-10 and put the game away.
The Eagles will be back in action Oct. 16 when they take on George-town.
- DAVID BERGMAN
Equestrian team shows its stuff scores multiple ribbons at Goucher College
The AU Equestrian team competed in its first horse show of the season Sunday, three riders placed.
Sophomore Lana Ciaramella was AU's highest finisher, winning a second-place ribbon in the Intermediate Flat classification - a division for riders of intermediate ability that does not involve jumps.
Ciaramella's teammate, junior Patricia Swezey, finished third in the Intermediate Flat class. Meanwhile, freshman Kristin Dillingham took home two sixth-place ribbons, in the Novice Flat and Novice Fences classes.
Five AU riders competed in the show, hosted by Mount St. Mary's at Goucher College's barn in Baltimore.
"For our team's first competition, we did well for ourselves," said Ciaramella, captain and co-founder of the two-year-old program. "We came in with one rider who had never been in an IHSA (Intercollegiate Horse Show Association) event before, and four riders who were returning."
Sunday's event was an English show, consisting of classifications both with and without jumps. The team has six English shows and four Western ones - shows with only flat courses and of a different style of riding - during the fall semester.
Now in its second season, the team has doubled membership from six to 12 riders, 10 of whom will ride competitively this year, Ciaramella said.
Their quest for growth and improvement continues this weekend when they will ride in a show at their home barn, The Clay Hill Stables, located in Springdale, Md.
"Our goal is mainly to have a consistent showing attendance and to just progress," Ciaramella said. "The team got its feet wet last year. Now everyone's accustomed to the judging and the style of IHSA shows, and it looks like were going to place higher."
-IAN QUILLEN
