A somewhat telling moment for the USA Women’s 7s team came in the third-fourth game against Australia.

Lauren Doyle had the ball and was angling to the outside. That’s where Cheta Emba was, and she cut inside to take a switch pass from Doyle to go through a huge gap to score. Emba punched her fist in the air, and that was the moment.

The USA had been trying to execute that move all weekend. Sometimes it didn’t work, sometimes it kind of worked. But this time it worked perfectly, and you got the feeling that this one little piece of execution was important.

The Eagles finished third in the Dubai 7s, putting aside Australia quite easily. Kristie Kirshe made the tournament Dream Team, and well she should. She was a compact little pickup truck all weekend long, challenging players to tackle her—they usually failed.

Emba wasn’t far behind. Quickly embracing her role as an open-field badass and aerial wonder, Emba, as much as anyone, makes the USA team tick along.

So the Eagles came out of Dubai proving they are a solid team, and showing, also, that they have more to give. Finishing 3rd when they didn’t really do anything to the best of their abilities is probably good news at this point.

The only thing that chafes, perhaps, is that Canada finished 2nd and the USA was way better than Canada.

Women's Sevens World Series Top 10:
1. New Zealand (36 points)
2. USA (36)
3. Australia (32)
4. Canada (28)
5. France (26)
6. Russia (18)
7. Spain (18)
8. Fiji (10)
9. Ireland (9)
10. England (8)