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The men’s rugby club at Pitt State played a game against Missouri University of Science and Technology on Saturday, Oct. 5 but couldn’t manage to get ahead and lost the game (24-15).
Men’s rugby club president and senior in communication Ivan Walter says the team was upset and frustrated with the game. However, with the conditions and weather the way it was, Walter saw a lot of good things shine through in the game.
“I think… for the conditions we had, the weather we had to deal with, and just the competition itself, I think we played for what we were handed,” Walter said. “Obviously, I would have liked to have played better. It felt like we got down and out on ourselves early in the game and we just seemed frustrated. When in reality, it was raining sideways, it was cold. We were doing well for what was going on and we just really best ourselves early. We showed a lot of promise. I’m happy with a lot of the stuff that happened, but I’m sad that we didn’t get the win.”
Walter was also proud of the team for sticking to the game and not giving up despite the harsh rain and the cold.
“Yeah, I think… like I said, we dealt with a lot of rough circumstances and the way we stayed with it, because we never gave up; like I said, we got onto our selves when we were down but we never gave up, we always were playing hard and the game was close,” Walter said. “It was only a nine-point game and those points can be scored super-fast. So, I think the best thing I saw was just how hard we played and how we never gave up. It was all of our starters and then all of the guys we brought in from the bench. Everybody was playing hard.”
Despite not giving up, the team did take the game hard mentally. According the Walter, “mental toughness” is going to need to be improve upon throughout practice and heading into the next games. With the new members on the team, gaining experience is also going to help the team get the upper hand in future games.
“Yeah, I’d definitely say mental toughness is the biggest thing we can work on,” Walter said. “It’s hard to play in those rain games but they’re going to happen, and you just have to be ready for the next one. Then, we just need more experience (and) we just need to keep playing…”
The men’s rugby club’s next game is against Central Missouri on Friday, Oct. 19.
“We have (some time to practice) until we play Central Missouri,” Walter said. “I really see us getting healthy, getting rested up, and bouncing back stronger than ever.”
Walter wants to the team to know how proud of them he is.
“(I would like to add) just that I’m proud of my guys and I’m really excited for what we’ve got in store,” Walter said.
