After its first win in rugby sevens on the season, the women’s rugby team will take on Middle Tennessee State Saturday morning in Murfreesboro, Tenn.

The last time these two teams met was more than a decade ago when Eastern faced off against the Blue Raiders in a national rugby tournament in 2000. The Panthers stomped Middle Tennessee State 48-0 and finished 3-1 in the tourney.

Eastern is coming off success in the rugby sevens format, especially after its win against Lindenwood, where the Panthers defeated the Lions (10-14, 24-0, 12-0), en route to their first rugby sevens victory in the history of the program, after losing their first two sevens matches.

The Blue Raiders, much like the Panthers, have a winning record heading into this matchup. Eastern heads into the contest sitting at 4-2, largely because of contributions by underclassmen on the team.

Sophomore center Madison Kissner leads the team in trys, points and runs more than 20-yards. Her three-try performance last Thursday put her at 20 on the year, to go along with her 100 points for the season.

Kissner and sophomore scrum-half Carissa Burge continue to light up the stat sheet, with Burge adding three trys of her own last week.

Both will be factors in this matchup, as well as sophomore lock Kim Youhas, who leads the team in tackles with 33.

Eastern head coach Frank Graziano has agreed to reschedule the start time to 11 a.m. on Saturday instead of the original 1 p.m. start.

This will be the last match before the Panthers head to Georgia Tech for their final game of the season.

Nicholas Ruffolo can be reached at 581-2812 or nfruffolo@eiu.edu.