Despite a loss to Indiana University Saturday, the rugby team is thankful.

USI’s rugby team is Division III, but head forward coach Patrick Oyodo said he appreciated the chance to compete against a skillful team like IU.

The DI school has more players than USI, Oyodo said, which gives IU an advantage when selecting players. USI has about 30 compared to their 65.

“With those numbers, their training is much better and they are the national champions right now, three times in a row,” Odoyo said.

This is the first time the rugby team qualified for DIII nationals. Odoyo saw the game against IU as a chance to practice.

Odoyo said the team’s bond brought them to nationals.

“Teamwork, dedication and discipline — those three things are what helps,” Odoyo said. “They hang out together, they work out together and they know where every player is at all times. They support each other on the field and off.”

Captain Jon Stinnett said the team is focusing on being able to physically play in a state like Colorado, and he knows nationals will not be easy.

“Definitely getting up our cardio, that’s what we focus on from the beginning of the season and that’s what we try to do every practice,” Stinnett said. “We know up in the mountains and Mile High City, the atmosphere is going to be really thin so we are trying to prepare for that as much as we can.”

The team had a rough spring season, playing only two games. Having five games scheduled and teams canceling on them limited their chance to practice against competition.

There are not a lot of DIII teams close by to set up games with. That is one thing Stinnett would like to improve for the future.

“Our funding is limited to traveling to other teams,” Stinnett said. “Just this spring season in general, we’ve had five games scheduled and we’ve only played two counting today, and it will be our last actual game before nationals.”

But that hasn’t discouraged the team from making it to nationals. Even if they have to play tough teams like IU, they still want to be able to compete and prepare for nationals.

“(IU is) a fourth-ranked team in DI and we knew they had numbers on us and size and strength, but we try to stick with our fundamentals and our game strengths and not try to play theirs,” Stinnett said. “It’s good to get as much competition as we can, especially great competition like them, before we go to nationals.”