Vic Tise has learned a lot about his team in the past few weeks. The new Air Force coach took over for Lisa Rosen this fall and led his team to a 4-4 record. The Zoomies won the games they should have won and lost the games they should have lost, but that’s not to say the team didn’t improve throughout the season. Heading into the Round of 16 of the USA Rugby Women’s DI College Fall Championship, hosted by ACRA, Air Force hopes to tip that .500 average toward a winning record.

Attention shifted toward Air Force when it defeated Navy on its home turf, but then three consecutive losses to BYU, New Mexico and Army drew questions of the team’s competitiveness. Those defeats, however, were hugely educational – especially on defense – for a team that had to scramble with its roster.

“Against BYU we were not counter-rucking well at all, and our fringe defense needed lots of work,” Tise remembered the team’s first loss. “The BYU wingers' speed got us pretty good.”

New Mexico’s outside speed also proved devastating, but at this point, mid-term grades had been released and academic probation benched a few key starters.

“Consequently I was playing lots of young, inexperienced, but very coachable players,” Tise said. “Our fringe defense had improved, but our defense focused on the breakdowns. We gapped our defense, and the two New Mexico wings [Tanya Aragon & Whitney White] took advantage, got outside of our last hands, and scored a lot.”

Air Force appeared to be fixing its issues in tight, but when the Colorado side flew to West Point for the highly touted “Think Pink” match, its weakness out wide continued to hamper the squad. But there were some other distractions as well.

“[It was their] first time playing under the lights in front of a large crowd, thus we had a lot of turnovers by knock-ons, we gapped our defense, and the Army line – mostly wingers [Kate Roose] – hit the holes or got outside of our last hands.”

After those three losses, Air Force was happy to play Colorado and bank a big win before playoffs. Again, eight players were missing from the A side, allowing the younger players to bank ample playing time.

Tomorrow, Air Force will face Northern Iowa at UNI, and will be looking toward senior Lydia Hill and junior flanker Marika Nemeth to lead the forward front. Scrumhalf Lauren Bramblett, a threat herself, will look for senior center Hallie Marohl and freshman wing Jenny Bruggemann for the open-field attack.

“There will be two experienced sophomore backs – Noelle Heiser and Christil Pasion – playing in their first and second matches of the season, respectively, and they are very eager and are worthy of watching,” Tise said. “Another unsung hero is junior flanker Emonna Knox. She was a starting basketball player for Air Force who gave up varsity status to come out and play rugby – and does she love the game, and can tackle and run.”

Northern Iowa impressed during last year’s final four, but the Panthers have graduated seven seniors from that squad, and that took time from which to recover. UNI’s 8-0 win over Iowa State in the teams’ season-opener was proof of such.

UNI only has 23 players on its CIPP list, but it’s still packed with power. A bunch of Panthers were part of the Midwest Thunderbirds’ tour to Canada this summer: Talia Carasquillo, Olivia Frey, Mel Janss, Eileen Leib, Angie McCardle, Megan Salyars and Bri Towers.

McCardle is the epitome of the Panther attack – a nice mix of confidence in contact and finesse of skill. She’s also 19-22 in conversion kicks and has great range. And look for newcomer Andrea Hughson to punch up the backline, opening up space for players like Janns and Jessi Martin to attack.

Enjoy the juxtaposition of undersized loose forwards Leib and Carasquillo. They’re fighters who refuse to let their minute statures affect their performance.

But it would be remiss to expect the same dynamism as last year, the kind fueled by players like Meghan Flanigan, Becca Brown and Crystal Nye, who had a special bond playing together for years. UNI should have enough to beat Air Force, but should Indiana beat Iowa State in the other Round of 16 match, then the Redstorm could pose real trouble in the Sunday quarterfinals.

The DI games begin at 12:30 p.m. Central, with Air Force vs. UNI kicking off at 2:30 p.m. For the entire DI brackets, click here.