Panthers on the Road -- Week 4

By: Marshall Mayne

Photo: Lorenzo Parker 

WRugby -- Panthers @ Axewomen, October 7th, 7:00pm

The UPEI Women's Rugby Panthers (2-2) defeated the Huskies (0-4) last weekend 76-0, with a record breaking performance from Alysha Corrigan who scored 31 points for the Panthers. It may have been a blowout on the scoreboard, but coach LaBoyne said, "The game vs SMU was much harder than the score indicated. They are a hard team to play.  We had a great day with hard working support players being where they needed to be.  Alysha had a barn burner of a day with her tries and converts.  Everyone seemed to feed off each other's play and rise to the occasion.  Once again our defense bent, but did not break."

The Panthers will look for revenge this weekend when they travel to Acadia (2-2). This will mark the end of the season series against the Axewoman, the first game saw the Panthers fall 29-17. Acadia suffered defeat last weekend when they fell 32-7 to St. FX (4-0).

Friday nights game is a battle for second place in the AUS Standings with one week to go in the season.  "Acadia is a great team in the AUS and the CIS.  We played well against them at home in spite coming out on the short end of the score.  What our players took away from that game was a great deal of confidence.  The Panthers always play every game with pride and determination, and Friday in Wolfville will not be any different," said LaBoyne following Wednesday's practice.

The Panthers will finish the 2016 campaign at home against the undefeated St. FX X-Women on October 15th, at 2:00 pm.

You can catch Friday night's game at austv.ca and follow @upeipanthers on Twitter for updates.

Cross Country -- SMU/DAL Invitational

The Cross Country team are set to compete in their third meet of the season when they travel to Halifax this weekend for the SMU/DAL Invitational. The Panthers were off last weekend and head coach Colin MacAdam says the Panthers are ready.

"Training has gone well for the last two weeks and we are looking for strong performances.  Jeremy Thompson and Brandon Higginbotham have been the team leaders so far this year and we look forward to the return of Alec Brown who missed the meet at University of Moncton due to illness.  On the women's side I hope to see another strong performance from Rebecca Doyle who has been the strongest Panther so far this season," said MacAdam.

The Cross Country team will compete again at the UNB/STU Invitational in Fredericton next Saturday, October 15th.

MBball -- Mounties vs Panthers at Holland College, October 7th, 8:00 pm

           -- St. Foy vs Panthers at Holland College, October 9th, 10:00 am

The UPEI Men's Basketball Panthers will begin their exhibition play this weekend in a tournament hosted by Holland College. The Panthers will play two games, one against the Dalhousie Tigers, and the second against Sainte Foy, a team out of the Quebec CEGEP league, on Sunday morning.

"I am generally pleased with our progress so far," said head coach Tim Kendrick Tuesday morning. "We have some new guys who are fitting in very well, and our veterans came back in very good shape. We are certainly looking forward to playing Mt. Allison & St. Foy this weekend at H.C. It will be good to see guys in game action. We will be looking at getting a bit of a regular rotation going, and seeing who adjusts the best to their specific role within the team."

The UPEI Panthers will host the annual Mickey Place tournament next weekend, which will see them play three games in three days. The Panthers will begin their season on November 4th, at 7:15pm against St.FX.

WBball -- Panthers vs Concordia October 7th, 6:00pm

-- Panthers vs Ottawa October 8th, 1:00pm

-- Panthers vs Guelph October 9th, 9:00 am

The Women's Basketball team will begin their exhibition play this weekend when the travel to Montreal for the Concordia tournament. "The team has been practicing hard preparing for their first CIS competition this weekend, it is still early in the season, but I like how camp has been going," said head coach Greg Gould.

The Panthers will have 9 new players in the line-up this season. "It takes time to get all our systems in place. It is a process and you can't short cut this process," said Gould.

The Panthers will be in tough this weekend as they are facing three good competitors including an Ottawa team who competed in the CIS Nationals last season. "The goal for this weekend is to find out where we are and what we have to work on. We are much bigger overall than last year which, we are are hoping will translate into better rebounding which was our achilles heel last year," said Gould.

The Panthers season will begin on November 4th against St.FX at 5:00pm.