Photo courtesy Quinnipiac Women’s Rugby
Quinnipiac University entered the spring 2017 7s season with a 15-game winning streak. After claiming trophies at Crimson 7s (March 25) and American International College 7s on Saturday, the Bobcats are currently 24-0.
During the Crimson 7s, the Hamden, Conn., squad outscored opponents 215-10, but those points against occurred during the 22-10 final against host Harvard. Quinnipiac’s 7s season (which is technically an off-season, as an NCAA sport) is focused on player development, and with only three fixtures in the spring, the most is made of every opportunity to play.
“AIC was our second of the season, and we knew that after the score was close in Crimson 7s with Harvard that we could not be complacent if we wanted to repeat and also stand up to challenge Army,” Quinnipiac coach Becky Carlson reflected.Quinnipiac was one of 12 sides that competed in the Springfield, Mass., tournament. Each of the four pools contained two National Intercollegiate Rugby Association (NIRA) squads with one non-NIRA team: Boston, Endicott, New Hampshire and Springfield College.
Each team played two pool matches apiece, and the field was reseeded. Quinnipiac and Army were ranked #1 and #2, and advanced directly the championship semifinals. The Bobcats had beaten Army B 58-0 and Springfield 48-0, while the Black Knights topped Norwich B 62-0 and Endicott 47-7 in pool play.
Harvard won its play-in semifinal against West Chester 31-7, and Norwich A topped host AIC 34-17. But those victories ended in the final four, as Quinnipiac shut out Harvard 39-0, and Army dominated Norwich 52-5 for title match berths.
In the teams’ fourth match of the day, Quinnipiac put down a 25-5 victory.
“Flora Poole continues to impress with her relentless pursuit of the ball in contact that has provided the bulk of our turnovers,” Carlson thought on memorable performances. “We saw some great stuff from our younger players too who saw some good time this weekend.”
Ilona Maher was named tournament MVP. Both Maher and Poole are candidates for this year’s MA Sorenson Award (vote here).
Quinnipiac will finish its spring off-season with the Brown 7s tournament this weekend. The culminating 7s tournament for NIRA teams will occur Sunday, April 30 at Dartmouth College.