Alabama set down something of a market this past weekend with a win at the Moosemen 7s in Murfreesboro, Tenn.

The Tide won their pool, which was a tough one as it included Mississippi State and the seemingly impossible to intimidate Lindenwood-Belleville squad. That set them up for a semifinal clash with Georgia, which they won 31-7. Lindenwood-Belleville beat Middle Tennessee State 19-5 in the semis to set up a rematch in the final.

"In both Alabama games we were a try up at halftime, and we just didn't handle the emotions as well as we could," said Lindenwood-Belleville Coach Pat Clifton, whose team is still very young. "That first game was really sloppy as it was our first real 7s game ever. Almost no one on the team had played any real 7s before, so I could tell them what it's going to be like, but until they actually did it, they didn't know. Our shape really got better throughout the day."

Each game Alabama came back to win, taking the final 12-7.

"We are off to a good start, but know we still have plenty of work to do to prepare for SCRC play," said Alabama's Ross Depperschmidt. "Our goals as a team this year are to improve our game with every practice, perform well in the SCRC tournaments, and ultimately defend our title and return to the CRCs. We want to be the best conditioned team on the field and to be a strong defensive unit, making the opposition's life as difficult as possible. We did have a few influential players from last year's team graduate, so our camaraderie and team chemistry is still building with time."

That translated to some strong second half performances.

For Lindenwood-Belleville, which is trying to qualify for the CRC at the Las Vegas Invitational, and is also thinking about a DII 7s championship, this was a good very good showing. A new program this 2015-16 school year, L-B made the national DII 15s playoffs, only to be knocked out by the eventual champions - their only losses being to the top two teams in the nation. Despite some rocky experiences for some freshmen in a freshmen-heavy team, they have regrouped nicely for 7s. Ben Martin was outstanding for Belleville, once again, making line breaks producing clutch plays, and kicking well, also. 

Logan Gillespie and Alex Quinn were aggressive and hard-working as forwards, while shifty scrumhalf Jacob Gilliam kept the attack moving.

For Alabama, Ignacio Guisasola led the team in scoring with six tries, but Matt Pikowski and Bobby Collins also showed very well.

"We played unselfish, quality rugby, relying on our attacking scheme rather than trying to win on athleticism," said Depperschmidt."

"In the final." added Lindenwood-Belleville's Clifton, "I think the moment of being in a final was bit too much for us. Alabama had Nashville forfeit in pool play, so we had played five and them just four. The guys, again who had never really been in a 7s tournament, were really beat up after five games."

See our list of college 7s tournaments around the country here.