“I felt like it set the tone for the season,” sophomore Wing Alex Revetta said.

The Moosemen fell behind early 6-5 to the Hilltoppers after WKU scored twice on penalty kicks, which are worth three points apiece.

However, at the 27 minute mark of the first half, MTSU scored a try, which is five points for crossing the goal line to take a 10-6 advantage. The Moosemen would outscore WKU 20-0 to end the opening 40 minutes.

“I thought we came out flat,” MTSU head coach Jody Hensley said. “We hoped to come out with a bang, but that was corrected pretty quick.”

The second half was all Moosemen and they pulled away with two tries and a couple of two-point conversions late for their first conference victory of the season.

“It’s huge,” Hensley remarked about the team’s win. “The league is not big enough. We got to go through undefeated to win the league. Next week is huge.”

That game is at Georgia Southern in Atlanta this Saturday. Coming into the season, the Moosemen felt like they were their best competition for the conference title. However, that all changed late Saturday afternoon.

During his post-game press conference, Hensley received a text with the Emory-Georgia Southern score and it read: Emory won in an upset by a point, 19-18. He then jumped up and told the players the shocking result.

All four teams mentioned above make up the Division II Independence Conference of USA Rugby South. Memphis was also slated to play, but they had to drop out before the season started.

The Moosemen have two more games including Saturday’s match up in Atlanta and a March 19 home match against Emory. The Moosemen are now 2-0, including a 20-0 forfeit win against Memphis on Feb. 12. Georgia Southern is 2-1. Emory is also unbeaten at 2-0, and it will improve to 3-0, since they were scheduled to play Memphis on Saturday. WKU is all but eliminated with a 0-3 record.

“We talked at the beginning of the year about our goals,” Hensley said. “One of them was to go undefeated in conference and play at nationals.”

MTSU has hosted the South playoffs the last two seasons, but this year’s tournament will take place March 26-27 at a different location. The other three conferences include the Dogwood, the Southeastern (Not the one everyone is used to) and the Florida.

The nationals will take place in April at Sanford, Fla.