Every sports team has its rival, and with that rival comes an even greater desire to win.

For the Penn State women’s rugby team, that team comes to town tomorrow afternoon as the Lady Ruggers will square off against Navy at noon on the East Campus Fields near the flower gardens. The B side game will kickoff at 1:25.

Not only is Navy a rival, but the Lady Ruggers are coming off a 20-0 loss to Navy in the finals at the Beantown Tournament in Boston three weeks ago.

The Lady Ruggers hope to use that loss as motivation for tomorrow’s game.

“We have a lot of tradition with Navy as rivals and always have a lot of motivation, but we are especially motivated for this game because of Beantown,” flanker Cara Sams said. “We want to make a strong showing. We want to show Navy what Penn State rugby is all about.”

Navy and Penn State have very similar programs, including the coaching staff and physical toughness. Navy is the only one of four teams in Penn State’s league and have been in the Final Four most years.

In order to prove the score at Beantown was a fluke, the Lady Ruggers have had an intense week of practices, where they worked on new plays and learned to work together better as a team.

Practices were not the only place the Lady Ruggers prepared for tomorrow’s showdown.

In the past two games the team played, it faced much more experienced and physical women’s club teams. Despite its losses, the team learned a great deal about itself.

“We learned how fast paced a game can be. We’ll be quicker and aggressive this week,” center wing Katie Gloyer said. “We need to come out hard on defense and take what we’ve learned and use it against Navy.”

The players say they expect a tough game because Navy did not lose much experience to graduation, but are confident their team is ready to play Navy.

“If we are intense and want to win it,” said forward Kirsten Aerts, “we have a good chance to come out on top.”