Premier 7s

Dartmouth was outstanding on the day, Paola Arredondo Almeida was a breakout star in last year's tournament and she's back and clearly has hit the weight room. Stronger and more powerful in contact, Arredondo Almeida scored tries and pulled a lot of attention from defenders. When that happened, there were other Big Green players, such as Annie Henrich, Sia Meni, and, off the bench, Jordynn LeBeau and Katelyn Walker.

The result was a 42-5 defeat of Long Island University, a 48-7 defeat of Penn State, and a thrilling 19-10 win over Davenport.

Lindenwood also ended the day 3-0. Amy Brice was superb, punishing penalties, distributing, and finding gaps. Ava Dennver and Madison Jersey were dangerous out wide, although it took the Lions a while to finally connect with them. Easily their toughest game was against a Sacred Heart team led by Alyssa Cunningham and the speedy Caitlyn Caldon. Those two players had the lion's share of SHU's tries, and they were dangerous once more in a game that was tied 10-10. Lindenwood was able to pull away late 25-10.

Life University was in the pool that only had three teams, the result of Central Washington's rugby programs losing their University backing. As a result every team received a 28-0 win. Life beat a surprisingly tenacious Princeton team that saw big performances from Ava Gregory and Annabelle Edwards. Speedster Azhinaye Barner prduced several breakaway tries.

And then they beat Harvard in perhaps the most intense and thrilling game of the day, holding off the Crimson 24-12.

Cameron Fields was a thriller once more while Skylar Jordan impressed, but Life won the physical battle. Lei Opeti, Madelyn Jennings, and AJ Haughey were some of the stars, but it was Life's overall teamwork and with Bella Vogel and Nina Mason distributing well (and with Vogel kicking well) Life was the stronger team.

So the 28-0 bye win had little effect on the top seeding—Dartmouth took the #1 spot. But it did have an effect on the 8th seed. Davenport was solid but had lost a surprise match against Long Island—LIU was down 17-0 and exploded for three converted tries, led by Kori Fields. That meant Davenport needed a good showing vs. Dartmouth to get the right points differential. They lost by nine 19-10, and that was enough. Princeton, as we said, had lost twice but had battled hard. With the bye win their points difference was +3, better than Davenport's -10.

Sacred Heart also made the top eight with a 1-2 record.

LIU's 2-1 day was a surprise, but a wonderful chance for the Sharks to show their talent.

And Army put together a strong showing, paced by a last-second try by Cassidy Ball to get by SHU 12-10. Sohpie Linder, who had missed all of the 15s season, her final 15s season, with a knee injury, returned to give her side some go-forward and scrumhalf Emma Gamboa was a dynamo.

So the quarterfinal matchups are as follows:

Dartmouth vs Princeton
Harvard vs Army
Life vs LIU
Lindenwood vs Sacred Heart

Games will be on The Rugby Network and on CRAA's Youtube Channel.