By Taylor Nigrelli
Sports Editor
It’s just about that time of year again.
Basketball season is close. So close, you can already hear rambunctious St. Bonaventure students proudly cheering for their team and screaming obscenities at overmatched officials.
But it is not yet here. We’re still in the latter stages of fall and, thus, the fall sports teams are finishing up their respective seasons.
St. Bonaventure sports fans usually don’t give the fall sports teams the same attention they give the basketball teams. But perhaps they should, if just for these upcoming weeks.
The cross country teams have completed the invitational portion of their schedule and will travel to Mechanicsville, Va., for the Atlantic 10 Championships. Both teams seem poised for their best finishes in program history after another season where both won invitationals, and more school records fell.
The men’s soccer team will play four of the final five games on its schedule at home with the unique opportunity to finish with a winning record. The program has done so in only two of the last nine seasons. The team also has a chance to qualify for A-10 playoffs for the first time since 2010.
The women’s soccer team won both of its games last weekend, improving its conference record to 2-3. Much like last season, the Bonnies will likely need a late push if they hope to make their sixth consecutive A-10 playoffs appearance. They have just two home games remaining, including a senior day matchup against A-10 rival Saint Joseph’s Sunday.
While fall has been kind to the varsity sports teams, their accomplishments pale in comparison to the performance of St. Bonaventure’s most popular club sport: men’s rugby.
After last year’s run to the “elite eight” round of the DI-AA USA National Rugby Championships, the team seemed destined for a letdown. It lost a number of key players in the offseason due to injury and academic concerns.
Then, the ruggers opened their 2013 campaign with a tie against Brockport. But since that initial draw, the Bonnies have won all four of their matches, demolishing the competition along the way. They’ve averaged 64 points in the four contests while allowing only an average 11.5 points per match. This includes victories over schools with much larger and more prominent athletic programs such as Syracuse and the University at Buffalo.
The ruggers have clearly established themselves as the best sports program at St. Bonaventure. They consistently win, often in blowout fashion, and are nationally competitive.
The team will play the final home game of its fall schedule against Iona Nov. 9. Any Bonaventure student who considers him or herself a sports fan should be there. That goes for the final soccer matches of the season as well.
Rugby and soccer aren’t the two most popular sports. They aren’t as exciting or as easily understood as basketball. They’ll never be as popular as basketball is at St. Bonaventure. But, for the next few weeks, they deserve the attention of the St. Bonaventure sports community.
Particular circumstances transcend all sports; they should be universally appreciated. As it currently stands, three sports teams on campus are fighting for playoff spots. For one team, this success is rare. One team is attempting to continue a playoff streak that stretches back to the Bush administration. One is attempting to establish itself as one of the best rugby programs in the nation.
Each deserves, at the very least, awareness from the Bonaventure community. If nothing else, it will give sports fans something on campus to yell about until basketball season begins.
Taylor Nigrelli is the sports editor of the Bona Venture. His email is nigreltn11@bonaventure.edu
