Utah Valley Ends Season Strong
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It’s been an interesting season for the Utah Valley Men’s Rugby team, especially in the final weeks of the current fall semester. After a promising start to the season with good wins over some key local rivals, the Utah Valley team looked as if it might falter.
With a demoralizing loss 31-26 loss to Idaho State University in Pocatello, the team was heading towards a crossroads. The squad size began to dwindle as the cold weather set in, the team only took 19 players to Idaho, and the air of confidence that the team had after solid victories over Snow College and College Premier League team Colorado State had all but evaporated. The upcoming games were important for the standings and seeding for spring playoffs now after the excellent form that Idaho State was showing. The next game would prove vital in the momentum of the team from here on.
Utah Valley back Molo Tuakimoana (with ball) has backs Johnny Schumacher and Dan Ottesen in support outside against Idaho State
The last Saturday on October brought Southern Utah University to the Orem campus and a team that is full of self-belief and an unquestionable work ethic that has seen them improve greatly in the last few seasons. A few roster tweaks and the disappointment from the week before proved to be enough fuel for the Utah Valley fire though and the home team managed to come away with a 24-14 victory. While happy with the result, the team continued to look out of sorts with each other as it had in the last few matches, but managed today to find a way to grind out a victory against a very competitive team.
That left just one more game on the league calendar for Utah Valley, a home game against Utah State University on the 6th of November. The last couple of years have started to develop a real rivalry between the two sides and the last meeting at Rio Tinto six months ago was a high scoring affair with neither side willing to budge and Utah Valley finally finding a way to scrape through at the end. But today would prove no different for the Aggies, the Utah Valley team securing a victory and a 5-1 record in league play for the fall semester.
Utah Valley forwards Robert Jenny, Trevor Matthews, Mo Mitani, Will Hefner and Matt Lefrandt wrestle a Southern Utah University player to the ground
The team will now finish up the fall semester with a match next weekend against our very own alumni, who will very much fancy their chances after a few favorable results over the previous years. Training will begin for the spring semester and the quest for a National Championship when classes begin again in January and the first games will likely be the RedRock Tournament in Mesquite, Nevada at the end of January.
