The Eastern rugby team will be looking for its first win on Sunday as it visits the Grand Valley State Lakers in Allendale, Mich.

Coming off a tough loss to the University of Pittsburgh last Saturday, Eastern will be looking to keep improving in every aspect of the game, coach Frank Graziano said.

With the Panthers defense only giving up 14 points last week, Graziano said he knows his defense needs to step up again.

“I believe Grand Valley is going to challenge us a little bit more. They are a better team than Pittsburgh is,” Graziano said. “From what I know from their coach, they will be better in certain aspects of the game. We are going to have to be better defensively in certain areas of the game”

Graziano said this week the Panthers are going to move players to different spots this week, because he sees some of his players simply getting better.

“In positions we haven’t been as good, we are going to try and shore that up by moving a better player into that position,” Graziano said. “We are kind of juggling who plays where. Hopefully that gives us a better result.”

He also added that by shuffling the players around and adjusting the plays a little bit, he thinks that will improve them a little bit.

After the first three games, Graziano can see how much more the Panthers are starting to understand the game.

In the second half of the game last Saturday, Pittsburgh did not score once in the second half and Graziano said it barely got the ball onto the Panthers’ side of the field.

“We made some adjustments, we played better defense, we were on the offensive attack a lot more, and we had more scoring opportunities,” Graziano said. “We just need to learn how to finish.”

He also added that his team was running the ball a lot better against Pittsburgh, but got tackled inside the five yard-line at least five or six times.

With the game starting at 9:30 am on Sunday, this is the earliest the Panthers have ever played a game.

Graziano said he doesn’t know much this will affect his team in anyway, if at all.

“We are a team that gets up early anyway,” Graziano said. “We may need to have a little intensity in warm-ups to wake up our body a little bit.”

Graziano said at least two of his players are ready to break out and have a great game, in red-shirt freshmen Emalie Thornton and Miranda Hankins.

He adds that they are ready to score multiple times this game.

“We are going to need that to beat Grand Valley,” Graziano said. “If we don’t get scores from them, I am not sure we are going to be able to win, but they are ready.”

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