Dartmouth Clearly Top of Women's 7s Heap
Dartmouth Clearly Top of Women's 7s Heap
Dartmouth defeated Life University in quite emphatic fashion Saturday to win the CRAA Women's Premier 7s, taking the final 31-0.
This tournament once again lived up to its billing, providing outstanding entertainment for a strong fan following, and also giving fans some upsets, and plenty of drama.
Day One for CRAA Women 7s Produces Comebacks and Surprises
Saturday's quarterfinals saw Dartmouth handle a surging Princeton 34-5, and Life defeated a Long Island University side that had provided plenty of excitement the day before.
But we also had two crucial upsets. Army did not have blazing speed on the outside but they did have some pace and a ton of heart. With Taimano Fiatoa and Sophie Linder challenging defenders up the middle, and with scrumhalf Emma Gamboa being shifty and unleashing a laser pass, they had options. The Black Knights worked hard on defense and held a potent Harvard side in check, making their gamebreakers Cameron Fields and Lennox London, work very hard for their meters. Tiahna Padilla was very good for Harvard mostly distributing to supporting runners, and her ability to catch and pass in a blink was crucial for the Crimson.
It was defensive that led to Army's first try, as they pinned Harvard back, forced an obstruction penalty, and eventually put Fiatoa through. Alissa Eisenhart converted to make it 7-0. A quick tap from Gabrielle Woenker and her offload to Gamboa got Army close. The Knights just surged on to drawn in defenders and then Eisenhart got a return pass from Fiatoa to sidestep her way over. Up 12-0 Army defended from then on. They were content to hit hard and make Harvard earn every meter. Harvard did get a try midway through the game, and with just over a minute left London burst down the right sideline, and set up a try in the corner for Victoria Stanley on the left. However, Cassidy Bell chased her to the corner to make the conversion much tougher. Extras missed, and Army held on 12-10.
Goalkicking was a big difference-maker in this tournament. The best kickers were, probably, Eisenhart, Bella Vogel and Nina Mason from Life, Alyssa Cunningham from Sacred Heart, and Annie Henrich from Dartmouth. All of those teams did very well and Army won two games by a conversion.
Goalkicking was a difference-maker in the next quarterfinal. Lindenwood had impressed on Day One but sund themselves challenged when taking on a unified Sacred Heart team. Yes Cunningham was excellent for SHU, but she was also (it appeared) carrying an injury and did not play a full game during the tournament. However, she used her teammates well, with Reece Woods and Avonlea Wood strong runners in traffic, and Caitlyn Caldon and Josie O'Donnell dangerous out wide. Caldon and Cunningham, in fact, accounted for most of Sacred Heart's tries. Fabien Millien-Faustin was another strong presence in the middle but she hadn't broken out much on Friday. In their quarterfinal, she did, busting through the Lindenwood defense to score in the first two minutes. Cunningham converted.
Lindenwood exploited some broken play to set up a try for Madison Jersey, which she converted from a tough angle.
Pinned in their 22 SHU got out of trouble when Cunningham booted the ball downfield—not a lot of teams kicked for territory but Cunningham was one of the players who used this tactic well. She and O'Donnell chased the ball down, and as SHU tried to capitalize they got a penalty, tapped, and the speedy Caldon raced through from about 35 meters. Once again Cunningham converted the tough-angle kick. That was hugely important, because while Lindenwood score a try in the second half, they couldn't converted, and SHU held on 14-12. Life beat LIU 31-7 with Azhinaye Barner explosive out wide and young Emerson Callegari also scoring.
So that set up the semifinals, and here it was perhaps a game too far for SHU. Life had a bunch of players that were the same sort of athlete—not tall but powerful, quick, and willing to make tackles. They rolled 26-7. Dartmouth just had too many weapons. Paola Arredondo Almeida had gone from a pure finisher into a playmaker comfortable at almost any position. Annie Henrich ran their attack, while Sia Meni was a strong presence in the middle of the field, along with Sadie Schier, who is a tackling machine.
But the breakout player at the end of the day was Katelyn Walker, who worked her cutback runs to perfection, and when she chose a line, she didn't hesitate.
This continued into the final, where Henrich probably had her best game, and Schier was just everywhere doing those little unselfish plays to keep it going. Walker was on the scoreboard multiple times, and in the end it wasn't close. Dartmouth 31 Life 0. For Life, it was a tournament played five practices after they had played the D1A final. They relied on their rugbyness to get them that far, but teams with more 7s tournaments under their belts were stronger.
Sacred Heart, paced by an excellent first half from Cunningham, beat Army. Harvard blew by Lindenwood for 5th.
But overall the quality was high. Teams that didn't win a lot, such as Princeton (five competitive losses and one forfeit win) were actually very good—Ava Gregory was outstanding for them—still showed off good Rugby 7s. They played with purpose, speed and intensity. LIU was much the same, able to hang with some big dogs. As you move up the ladder, the teams were playing some elite rugby, and it's worth sparing a thought for Davenport, who lost out on a Top 8 spot due to points difference thanks to Princeton's forfeit win, and then went on to beat Navy 22-0 and Penn State 22-5 to take 9th. They were the only team to get close to Dartmouth.
So ... the big question. Was this tournament better than NCR's CRC? Top to bottom, certainly. We can judge this because three teams, Navy, Penn State, and Army competed in both events. All three won their opening-round games via shutouts. Both Army and Penn State made the semis, with Army falling to Brown in the final 19-7. Navy lost to Brown 24-7 in the quarters and lost to Queens in the consolation before taking 7th.
So comparing the finish of those three teams, Army was 4th in Indianapolis, 2nd in Boyds, Md.; Penn State was 10th and 4th; Navy was 11th and 7th. So each team fared better at the CRC than at the CRAA Premier 7s. Objectively, it's hard to find a team better than Dartmouth was on the CRAA weekend, as the Big Green went 6-0, scoring 205 points and allowing 32, an average score of 34-5, and if you look at their scores, they were around that score for every game except Davenport: 42-5, 48-7, 19-10, 34-5, 31-5, and 31-0.
CRAA Women's Premier 7s Order of Finish:
Champions: Dartmouth
2nd: Life
3rd: Sacred Heart
4th: Army
5th: Harvard
6th: Lindenwood
7th: Long Island
8th: Princeton
9th: Davenport
10th: Penn State
11th: Navy
