Wheeling, W. Va. - After opening the postseason run with a win last time out, the Wheeling University Men's Rugby team (5-1) has their sites set on another National Championship. With their eyes set on the gold, they moved into the top three in this week's National Collegiate Rugby (NCR) Top 20 Coaches Poll, sitting at #3 in the nation. The Cardinals will be playing for their second consecutive Big Rivers Rugby Conference (BRRC) Championship on Saturday, looking to build on their standing in the nation.
Last time out, Wheeling Men's Rugby battled Iowa Central Community College in the BRRC semifinal round, in what has been a playoff rivalry between the two teams. It was a competitive game early on, with the score sitting at 7-6 in favor of Wheeling halfway through the first half. The Cardinals were able to expand that lead before halftime and held a 28-9 as the teams headed into the locker room. The Cardinal's offense just kept rolling into the second half, and scored the first 12 points of the half, expanding their lead to 40-9 with 20 minutes to play. Iowa Central CC battled back throughout the half, scoring 14 points over the final 20 minutes of play, but the Cardinal defense would be able to hold them off as they picked up the 52-23 victory.
Leading the way for the Cardinals so far this season has been Alex Nyamunda, who has scored seven tries, and totaled 35 points on the year. After being held off the board against Davenport, Nyamunda has had a strong showing since, scoring multiple tries in each of the last three matches. His biggest effort came in the match against the University of Rio Grande, when he scored three tries on the day. The Cardinals have also had a lot of success in the kicking game, led by Shadreck Mandaza. Mandaza has made each of his 18 conversion kicks on the year and has been 3-3 on Penalty Kicks on the season. The reigning CRC 7's MVP has also added two tries to his ledger, and it the team leader with 63 points this season.
The top spot in this week's poll flipped for the second week in a row as the University of Queens gets back into the #1 spot. Brown falls to #2 in this week's rankings, while Wheeling leapfrogs St. Bonaventure for the #3 spot to round out the top three. The rest of the NCR Top 20 Coaches Poll looks like this:
The Wheeling University Men's Rugby team returns to action on Saturday, November 9th, when they take on Thomas More in the BRRC Championship at 2 PM.
