NEC7C champions Bentley University
The New England Collegiate 7s Circuit (NEC7C) concluded its nine-stop series last weekend, and Bentley University finished atop the standings with a 22-4-1 record and 32 standings points. National Small College Rugby Organization (NSCRO) awarded the competition an automatic berth to its April 28-29 national 7s championship, seeing the value in a season’s worth of 7s in preparing a squad for playoff rugby.
READ MORE ABOUT THE NEC7C AND ITS GOALS
In spite of the circuit win, Bentley will not be attending NSCRO nationals, as the Massachusetts team is still recovering from its runner-up performance at the 15s national championship trip in Georgia in early December.
“It’s been a really demanding year for us and I think at this point we’re mostly out of steam to gear up for another Nationals trip,” explained Bentley coach Devin DiGiovanni. “We, just a couple of weeks ago, completed paying off our [15s] Nationals trip from the fall and don’t have the commitment level from an admin standpoint right now to organize and fundraise for another trip in short time.
“It’s disappointing but we are happy with both how we competed and developed this spring,” the coach added. “Would definitely consider [NSCRO 7s nationals] in the future; we will try again next year! I think it’s just tough to swing two Nationals trips in the same school year for a club team.”
Endicott and Colby-Sawyer applied and were approved for at-large berths to nationals, while Stonehill and Bryant move into the DII Rugby Northeast automatic qualifier this weekend with a bounty of 7s games behind it. The RNE will send a representative to the USA Rugby national 7s championship.
Additionally, NEC7C director Chip Auscavitch selected 12 players to the All-NEC7C Team.
“In the interest of full disclosure, I picked this team 100% on my own based on what I saw during all nine tourneys this spring,” Auscavitch explained. “There were a number of players who were strongly considered who weren’t ultimately chosen for the team, but still performed remarkably well. As the competition grows, we may expand this to a 1st and 2nd Team All-NEC7C, but for this year I kept it to a 1st Team only.”
ALL-NEC7C TEAM
Kayla Enriquez – Wesleyan
Darien Hubert – Bentley
Janet Khoury – New Hampshire
Morgan Kuehnle – Babson
Hannah Mackay – Stonehill
Nicole McCardle – Endicott
Margaret Mellitt – Bryant
Nicole Moore – Colby-Sawyer
Lea Perugini – Stonehill
Mickayla Roan – Providence
Emma Santosuosso – Bentley
Kearney Worthington – Holy Cross
As an aside, Auscavitch was a phenomenal administrator throughout the series. Every Sunday after the weekend’s tournaments ended, an e-mail replete with all of the tournaments’ scores and updated standings went out to the member teams and the NSCRO women’s commissioner, Bryn Chivers. Auscavitch tracked stats, repeatedly asked for feedback, and is already sending out invitations for 2019. That sort of attention is truly rare across all levels of American rugby.
NEC7C #Bentley