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NDC Impressive in LVI

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NDC Impressive in LVI

The Notre Dame College players, men and women, pose together in Las Vegas. Paul Rudman photo.

The Women's College 7s tournament at the Las Vegas Invitational was wild one, and ended up with the University of British Columbia taking the Cup.

But several US teams showed well. Both Notre Dame College and AIC impressed through the weekend. AIC beat Dixie State, Colorado, and Montana State on their way to a 3-0 pool finish. NDC had similar success, beating Utah State, Abenachics, and Lewis & Clark. That ld to the Cup Quarterfinals, where UBC hammered Dixie State, the select team from the National Small College Rugby Organization (NSCRO) shut out Utah State, AIC downed Arizona 12-5, and NDC beat Nation Sports 26-0.

In the semis, UBC handled NSCRO 26-10, while Notre Dame College came back late to edge AIC 12-7. UBC defeated Notre Dame College in the final, but for the Falcons, who had just undergone a coaching change, it was a strong performance.

After the university had let go the previous women's team coaches, led by Mark Andrade, despite some on-field success, Luke Markovich stepped in as interim coach while also still assisting the Notre Dame College men's team during the LVI. With Markovich racing between teams, graduate assistant and former NDC men's team player Tom Walsh did an excellent job keeping the Falcon women on task.

With Markovich and Walsh working hard the team embraced the new approach by the coaches, and a new system.

"We have only been working on our pattern for three weeks," said Markovich, who repeatedly deflected credit to Walsh on how the team performed. "We got a good culture going in the squad and we play a pretty physical type of 7s. We do take a lot of contact but it works for us."

Kayla Rudman and Alex Strasser put in some key performances for NDC, specially in the semi against a very good AIC team. The Falcons' defense was outstanding, as didn not allow a point until the semis.

"I was very impressed with how everyone played as a team," said Markovich. "The players have been amazing, and they have helped me love coaching."

Notre Dame College Women's Team 7s Roster: 

Marcaya Bailous
Hannah Long
Kayla Rudman
Meckena Hultin
Katie Klemencic
Karmin Macedo
Lea Walsh
Alex Strasser
Jess Fox
Emmy Klemencic
Hannah Bazemore
Emilia Ferrera
Alyssa Riedel
Tayler Valentine
Sarah Tomasulo