This article was published in the BYU Daily Universe on January 24th, 2011
The BYU men’s rugby team began the season 3-0 with a convincing sweep of three Southern California opponents this weekend.
The Cougars rolled to two victories, beating Division II champion Claremont Colleges 86-0 and league rival San Diego State University 69-0.
The second team also got a chance to represent BYU in a 25-10 win against the University of San Diego, leaving the record a perfect 3-0 to start the season.
With impressive showings from veteran players and freshmen, team captain Ryan Roundy said the team came together this weekend.
“Everyone’s buying into the program,” Roundy said. “Everyone’s buying into the system.”
The four-day trip allowed the team to integrate its new freshmen into the mix.
Freshman twins Josh Whippey and Jared Whippey, from Fiji, combined for nine of BYU’s 30 trys over the weekend. At one point in the victory against SDSU on Saturday, Jared scored three trys in a row in 11 minutes. Josh had a similar showing against Claremont Colleges on Thursday with four first half trys.
When asked about his big trys against rival SDSU, Jared responded humbly.
“It was a good team effort,” Jared said. “I didn’t think too much about it. As long as we were getting points, I was happy.”
BYU has played SDSU tight in its past few meetings, with a come-from-behind victory in the final four of their 2009 championship run and a 36-22 hard-fought battle last year in Provo. This year, the Cougars had their number in a much more convincing fashion.
Vice captain Dylan Lubbe had nothing but positive things to say about the win.
“We are very proud of the weekend; we wanted to win three games,” Lubbe said. “I think the boys have got a confidence boost from the weekend. We want to prepare for each game as it comes and keep the wins coming.”
BYU will take a few weeks off to prepare for its next test, which will be a road trip to Las Vegas on Feb. 11 and 12 to battle two more league opponents, Cal Poly and Penn State.
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