After going 7-2 this season, the rugby team will now set their sights on conference foe University of Alabama-Birmingham.

UNA faces UAB at Veteran’s Park on Saturday, Feb. 15, and it will be the last conference game of the season for the team. If they win, they will take the conference title and advance to the Dixie League Championship in March, said Michael Cole, a third-season veteran of the team.

“We’re really focused on UAB right now,” Cole said. “We haven’t beaten them the entire time we’ve been a club.”

Their success this season, as well as in past seasons, is something Jim Eubanks, director of the Student Recreation Center — which houses club sports — said he would like to see continue.

“I know they’re in the regional championships — hopefully, they will do well and advance,” he said.

Though they are recognized as a club sport by the university, the group has full-varsity team status within their parent organizations, such as the National Small College Rugby Organization, Cole said.

Because the sport is not housed under the Athletics Department, outside funding for equipment, travel and other expenses is minimal, he said.

“We don’t get scholarships for this, like other sports,” Cole said. “(Almost) everything comes out of our own pockets. We just want to represent our school.”

The university’s budget for club sports has been a huge help this year, Cole said. The team was able to purchase much-needed new equipment, as well as fund a small portion of their travel expenses.

“Having good equipment honestly makes all of the difference during practice and games,” he said.

Both of the match-ups lost this season have gone to larger Division-I opponents, Cole said.

“Memphis and Middle Tennessee State are the only games we’ve lost this season,” he said. “But neither of those games have any bearing on conference play.”

With a 25-man roster this season, Cole said injuries have been minimal and the team has not suffered from any injury-related circumstances.

“It’s been a very, very clean season,” he said. “But a lot of injuries that are big in other sports are minor in rugby. (Game) play doesn’t stop for injuries, either. If someone is injured, you have to get them off of the field and continue playing.”

While most of the games this season have been blowout matches, Cole said the team’s closest game came in the form of a last-second win against Covenant College.

“The final score was 45-43, and we won by a play in the last second,” he said.

The team attributes part of their success to Eubanks, who handles their funding each year, Cole said.

“I don’t have as much interaction with (the team) as I would like, but I work closely with the coach,” Eubanks said. “I have the funding to buy them uniforms and equipment, and we work to reimburse them from (their budget).”

If the team advances to the Dixie League Championship and wins, they will advance to the first round of the national championship playoffs in Pensacola, Fla. later this semester, Cole said.

However, the team is just looking to their Feb. 15 game against UAB and hopes for a high-energy crowd on game day, Cole said.

“There’s a very open environment on the field,” he said. “We want to be able to fill up Veteran’s Park. Tailgating, spectators — it’s all welcome. This is our division championship game, and we want to see the same kind of attitude or atmosphere as there is at Braly Stadium for football games.”