The Panthers will host their final home match at 11 a.m. Saturday against Eastern Kentucky at Lakeside Rugby Field.

Head coach Frank Graziano said after being gone the last few weeks, the team is excited about playing at home one more time.

The rugby team will also be celebrating Senior Day. On Saturday, the players will be honoring three senior captains: prop Jaki Brophy, scrum half Marlise Davidson and fly half Eileen O’Rourke.

“The seniors are a huge part of our team and are our leaders,” Graziano said. “It is going to leave some very big shoes to fill when they leave.”

Graziano said it is especially disappointing for O’Rourke, who hasn’t been playing the majority of the season because of a knee injury.

“She has always been the glue that held the team together, and I think that the loss of her has a lot to do with how we’ve been playing this season,” Graziano said. “Without that glue, we have been falling apart sometimes, and it hurt her to only be watching from the sidelines – and it hurt us not having her out there.”

Graziano said EKU is the only other women’s rugby team in the Ohio Valley Conference, the main conference Eastern Illinois sports compete in.

He wanted EKU (5-2) to play them for years, but it never worked out.

“I want to show them what kind of program we have here and try and convince them to make their program a varsity-level program as well because we need more teams in our conference to join,” Graziano said.

Graziano said this game is going to be used to practice some different plays and drills he has planned for the rematch against Illinois next weekend.

“We are still focusing on EKU, not looking past them by any means, but the game plan is going to be used to evaluate things I am working on from the previous Illinois game to see what will work when we play them again next weekend,” Graziano said.