A frustrating game delay in the SIUC women’s rugby game against rival University of Illinois was partly responsible for the Salukis’ loss.

SIUC lost the game Saturday on the road 17-10 a loss that diminished SIUC’s changes of making it to the union regional.

The Illini now have a union record of 6-0, while the Salukis move to 5-1 in the union. The Illini received an automatic bid to regional competition.

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Fly half Liza Roscetti said the confusion of waiting for a union official to begin the game took its toll on the SIUC players. There was an hour delay in the start of the game.

When we first got there at 10 a.m., we were singing, Roscetti said. We warmed up three different times. The second time we were a little quieter, and by the third time, we were annoyed.

The Illini wanted to use one of their coaches to officiate the game, but the Salukis wanted a union official. Because the game was delayed an hour, the Salukis are looking to see if the game should be forfeited.

But coach April Beardsley said she doubts the game will be forfeited.

It is their responsibility to provide a union (official), Beardsley said. Finally the ref did show up, but (someone read somewhere) that 20-25 minutes was all they were supposed to get. But I don’t think the game will end up forfeited.

Unless the game is forfeited, the only way for SIUC to get into the Midwest regional tournament is to get an at-large bid.

Roscetti said she expects the team to make the regional tournament because they played the U of I so close, along with the fact that they have played well in union battles.

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We’ve blown away every other team out of the water, she said. We have scored an average of 34 points per game without any points scored against us.

Illinois surprised the Saluki defense and was able to use some big plays to get points.

U of I also ran a few trick plays, Beardsley said. Our team is a young team, and they scored. But our scrum blew them away.

The scrum half gets the ball when the ball is rolled away from the packs. The scrum half also is important in tackles.

SIUC scrum half Sara Prombo was named by U of I as the SIUC player-of-the game because she was dominating the scrum so well in the game.

I was just playing aggressive defense, Prombo said.

Beardsley said SIUC could have won the game, but a few errors made the difference.

We played a great game, Beardsley said. We made three mistakes, and (the U of I) scored on all three mistakes. One mistake happened when the ball was in the open field. One of our players, instead of picking up the ball, let the other team get it, and she blew right by her.