Two familiar faces will be returning to Eastern Saturday, as the Quinnipiac Bobcats come to Charleston to play the Panthers in the season-opening rugby match.

Rebecca Carlson and Michelle Reed are both former student-athletes at Eastern and former assistant coaches under Panther coach Frank Graziano, and are now the head coach and the assistant coach for the Bobcats, respectively.

Graziano said he loves coaching against Carlson and Reed, because they have enormous respect for each other.

“We are not only colleagues, but we are friends,” Graziano said. “I enjoy coaching against them, and they enjoy coaching against me. It is about as friendly as a rivalry as it can get. It is a pleasure having them back out on the field.”

Quinnipiac defeated the Panthers in the season-opener last year and Graziano said he knows this match will be challenging.

“I think this will be one of our biggest challenges we have had in the last decade,” Graziano said. “We have analyzed Quinnipiac. I have been looking over their talent. For us to go out on the field with girls that have are playing in their first rugby game, that will certainly be our biggest challenge.”

The Panthers will be heading into this game with 10 or 11 players that will be playing their first rugby match.

Graziano does not expect the women to be as nervous as people think they are going to be.

“The girls are working hard, and we are going over our game plan, trying to lock-in to ourselves” he said. “I think we have a great game plan prepared. If we do well the first 10 or 15 minutes that will build our confidence.”

The Panthers have been practicing new plays and different tactics, Graziano said.

“How well we execute those, I don’t really know that yet,” Graziano said. “We have been practicing new plays, but it still comes down to defense. You have to tackle the girls. They do not possess any physical advantage over us.”

Graziano has not looked a day beyond Saturday’s game against the Bobcats and said this is the team that they want to play.

“This is the team we want to try and play our best, and we know (Quinnipiac) is going to want to play their best,” Graziano said. “We haven’t really talked about game two or anything like that, especially since game one is such an unknown to the girls that have never played before. It would be unfair to them.”

The match starts at 1 p.m. Saturday at Lakeside Field.

Bob Reynolds can be reached at 581-2812 or rjreyonolds@eiu.edu.