The UW-Platteville men’s rugby team came into the Mudfest tournament weekend hoping to bring home a second consecutive team title. Unfortunately for the Pioneers, the Blue Devils of UW-Stout were too much to overcome on April 5 as Stout walked away with a 7-5 victory in the championship game of the tournament.

The tournament started with much promise for UW-P. The men faced conference rival UW-La Crosse in their first match. In the fall, the Pioneers crushed the Eagles by the score of 60-0 and as a result rested many of their starters for the first half of the match. Great passing by Corey Siemandel and Andrew Vyhnanek helped propel the Pioneers to a convincing 19-0 victory.

“Our goal was to come out and immediately put our opponents face down in the mud, then run our offense and let the defense speak for itself, which it did,” senior lock Joe Fiegen said. “We only allowed one try throughout the tournament.”

The second game was more of the same for the Pioneers, who were able to dispatch a pesky Ripon College team whom they had lost to the previous weekend using mostly B-side players. The final score of 15-0 did not prove how dominant the physically superior Pioneer squad was. Forwards Mitch Spaeth and Fiegen were able to maul the Red Hawks in the offensive end, and Spaeth scored an impressive try from distance to help propel UW-P into the finals against Stout.

The championship match was an epic battle between familiar opponents. The Blue Devils beat a good UW-Eau Claire team to get the finals where the well-rested Pioneers were waiting for them. The first half of the match was an even sided battle as the Pioneers broke through with the first try of the match but were unable to convert on their kick and took a lead of 5-0 to the halftime interval.

“The championship game was a battle in every sense of the word from both sides. Stout is one of the best teams in Wisconsin and we were up on them for three quarters of the game,” Fiegen said.

The second half though was another impressive performance by veteran-laden UW-P teams who worked the ball consistently inside the Stout zone, but were unable to score. But turnovers and penalties were ultimately the Pioneers undoing as the Blue Devils broke through on a try, off of a UW-P miscue and with a good conversion kick, took the lead at 7-5, a lead Stout would not relinquish.

“We were disappointed with how we played,” senior wing Brett Hundley said.

“Overall, by the third game we were playing our best rugby of the day,” sophomore scrum half Vyhnanek said. “In the second half we didn’t play as well as we could but we dominated the match but we just came up on the short end against a good Stout team.”

“We were hoping to win the title but we were not able to capitalize on some opportunities,” Hundley said.

The loss is disappointing for a team that hoped to win another tournament title.

“It was a tough loss but everyone on the team played their hearts out and left it all on the field and I couldn’t ask anything more from my teammates,” Fiegen said.

The team looks forward to the Milwaukee Cup on April 19 where they will face off against familiar competition UW-Milwaukee, Stout and many other teams from around the state. The Pioneer team is blessed great size at forward with Fiegen, Spaeth and Erik Rusch being driving factors for a talented front line. Coupled with those forwards are an experienced set of wings in Hundley and fellow senior Ted Swenson. And being quarterbacked by the talented Vyhnanek and outside centre Pat Gardner will help UW-P get back to its familiar winning ways.

The setback this weekend will not prove to last long as the Pioneers hope to rise to success in tournaments in Milwaukee and in Dubuque on April 26 to show the state that UW-P rugby is among the Midwest’s elite.