This is the first school year that Central’s rugby team will start out as a varsity sport, as it looks to continue its dominance in the regular season.

Central’s Rugby team became a varsity sport in February of 2014. It has been a dominant force in the Northwest Collegiate Rugby Conference, going undefeated in the regular season with a 13-0 record.

In the Varsity Cup, the team exited in the semi-final round with a loss to the University of California Bears, which were ranked 4th nationally

Central’s men’s sevens team (which fields seven players instead of the usual 15) opened its season with the Vikings Sevens Tournament in Bellingham. In the tournament the Wildcats opened up with a 56-0 rout of Oregon State. In the next round, the University of Victoria (B.C.) defeated the Wildcats 7-22.

The Wildcats bounced back with two shut-out victories in a row over Long Beach State University and the University of British Columbia. In a rematch against the University of Victoria, the Wildcats again came up short, 7-17.

The loss sent them to the third round consolation game, where they won 19-14, scoring 19 unanswered points after being down 14-0 at the half.

“We don’t usually get opportunities to compete against UBC, UVIC to go 2-2 against those schools is great,” head coach Tony Pacheco said.

Central will host an intrasquad match on Oct. 4th, where they will be spilt into a crimson team and a black team.

Then they will compete in three more sevens tournaments in Pullman (Palouse tournament), Ellensburg (NCRC tournament) and finish up in San Francisco for the Battle in the Bay tournament.

“I’m excited for Battle in the Bay. It’s going to have a great collegiate field in it and that will be a fantastic tournament to play in,” Pacheco said “If you can come out of that thing with a cup out of that thing, that would be great.”

Fifteen side rugby matches will begin on Nov. 14. Central will open up a two-match home stand against Washington State and Eastern Washington University the following weekend.

There are a few significant injuries that the Wildcats are dealing with.

Captain Tanner Barnes is out for the fall with a stress fracture in his leg. In his place senior wing Josh Bowers has been the captain of the seven’s team.

“We want to take it to the finals of the varsity cup,” Bowers said. “Prepare, progress and execute. That’s what we set as our team goal for the year.”

Bowers feels the team is a national contender, but wants to go beyond the field in terms of success.

“We want to be the most involved sports team, and get more fans to go to our games.” Bowers said.

Central is looking to build off their success from last year and make another deep run in the Varsity Cup.