The Sam Houston Rugby Club fell short in its quest for a Division II National Championship title this past weekend in Jonesboro, Ark. The team defeated the University of South Florida 27-12 on Saturday to make it to the semifinals of the national tournament, but a tough University of Northern Iowa team proved too much on Sunday as the Bearkats fell 24-19. Casey Dillon, Cornell Swain and Dennis Walker were the primary try scorers.”We have nothing to be ashamed of,” said coach Johnny Smith. “I’m really proud of the way everyone played. These young men rose to the occasion. We just came up against a strong opponent. We have no regrets.””We achieved our goal of getting to nationals,” said coach Wesley Boyd. “It’s too bad that we were one score away from a shot at the championship title, but getting to the Final Four isn’t chopped liver. It’s as far as the team has ever gone. We’ve worked hard all year, and our efforts paid off. I’m proud of the way we represented our union.”I was particularly pleased with the way we bounced back in Sunday’s game,” Boyd said. “We haven’t been behind in many games this year, but when Iowa went up 12-0 early in the game, we kept our composure. Our scoring twice in the final minutes of the game proved the character of this team. We actually played much better in Sunday’s loss than we did in Saturday’s win.”If we had 10 more minutes, we had some momentum, we could have pulled it out,” Boyd said. “But the whistle just blew on us.”The team will now focus on the abbreviated game of seven’s, played during the summer, in which each team consists of only seven players on the field.