Tropical 7s Women and Girls Roundup
Tropical 7s Women and Girls Roundup
Here's a quick look at the Tropical 7s women's and girls brackets and who came away with hardware.
Women U23
Tsunami, Trinity Western, and Harvard all emerged 3-0 from pool play. Ultimately, it was the Crimson that emerged victorious over the Canadian opposition. After beating Sacred Heart, LIU, and Quinnipiac on Day One, the Criimson rolled through Army, Dartmouth, and Trinity Western to win it the Elite division.
Familiar names Brogan Mior, Chloe Headland, Maya Hilger, and Lennox London all were effective, as was Junior Jara Emtage-Cave, who is back making waves in 7s for Harvard, and Cameron Fields, who was huge on Day Two.
In the quarterfinals, Fields scored two tries to lead Harvard to a 24-14 defeat of Army. In the semis, Reese Morgan, London, and Olivya Snyder set the scoring tone in a 22-14 win over Dartmouth. And then in the final Lennox and Morgan broke out for big scores to give Harvard a lead they would not relinquish. Harvard 17 Trinity Wester 7. Dartmouth took 3rd over Brown, Tsinami secured 5th over Sacred Heart, and Army beat Quinnipiac for 7th.
In the Open Division, Lander defeated Florida State, Dartmouth, and Harvard to win that bracket. On the weekend, Lander went 5-0-1, with their only non-win being a 12-12 tie with Army. And while, yes, this was 2nd sides for the D1 NIRA sides, it was still a massive showing from D2 Lander. The Bearcats haven't lost a 7s game (12-0-1) all this year.
Girls U18 Elite
The All-Midwest Thunderbirds and The Rugby Advantage Black teams blasted through pool play and, no surprise, met in the final. However, they did have to work for it, both winning their semis by razor-thin margins.
This was a thrilling final and The Rugby Advantage took the final 21-19.
Last year's winners Majestics took 3rd 22-5 over Atlantis. Overall, the Thunderbids and Advantage dominated. The T-Birds outscored their opposition 220-76, and consider that half of those 76 points came in the semis (19-17 over Majestics) and the final. The Rugby Advantage outscored their opposition 162-68 ... giving up more than half of their points in the semis and final.
Other U18 Girls Brackets
North Carolina unleashed some impressive rugby in beating all comers in emphatic fashion. NCYRU beat Niagara Thunder, Sacramento Harlequins, and PEI in pool play and then took care of Woodlands, the Thunder again, and Eastern Ontario to win the bracket. In the knockout rounds they gave up just the one try and overall outscored their opposition 172-30.
Oceanside out of South Carolina went 6-0 in a simple round-robing for seven teams. USA West was 2nd.
U16s
USA Rugby South Panthers took the Elite bracket final 17-12 over Hawkeyes. The Panthers had to survive a tough quarterfinal 7-5 over an Atlantis team that took 5th and bizarrely went from being 0-3 on Day One to being one of tbe better teams on Day Two.
U14s
USA Rugby South took this one as well, beating a very good Upright Rugby side in the final. The Panthers lost to Upright in pool play 15-12 but bounced back 22-12 in the final.
Rugby Quebec won the open bracket, beating Eastern Ontario 22-0 in the final. Quebec lost their opening game 12-10 in pool play but after that smoked their opposition 154-10 in the final five games.
