By
Jeff Lund
Arizona Daily Wildcat
After avoiding a second-half disaster against rival Arizona State, the men's rugby team said they are looking forward to keeping their loss column empty when they take on UC-San Diego today at 2:30 p.m. at Estevan Park.
"It will be a good game for us," UA head coach Dave Sitton said. "Two years ago they won the national championship in division two, then moved up last year."
The Tritons (3-3, 1-2) - coached by one of Sitton's former players - gave UA fits last year. UA came out on top 22-17.
"UC-San Diego conducts an outstanding program," Sitton said. "Any teams that win national championships at any level at any sport are to be respected and studied."
"We need to get out to a good start and play 80 minutes," Sitton said. "We are looking for some growth. We need to identify a few players that can play up at a top level."
UA's team members are still suffering from injuries and the flu.
Josh Allen remains out with a knee injury, while Rob Burris and Mike Bennett are both under the weather. Burris will be sidelined for at least a week, and Bennett's status is questionable.
"We still are missing Josh," Sitton said. "His playing status is still kind of up in the air. We also have a couple guys that are still sick."
Senior Jonathan Gray is confident going into the game with UCSD.
"(UCSD) has some good players," Gray said. "But they have lost some good players too. We have been working on our defense a lot this week so we don't have another letdown."
The letdown Gray is referring to is the 20-minute lapse that allowed ASU to climb back and nearly steal a win. A late score by freshman Kyle Hoertz ended the ASU comeback and gave the Cats their 13th straight win over the Sun Devils.
"We missed a lot of tackles against ASU," he said.
Today's game will end UA's homestand.
"We are confident we can go undefeated throughout the league," Gray said. "We aren't sure about nationals, but we should make it through the league pretty easily."
