Alex Ho Photo
The knockout rounds are officially set for the USA Club 7s National Championship. The women’s division required a seeding round for the 13-team event, but now that’s sorted.
Washington AC and Tempe faced each other and the home side got off to a rough start as Erica Legaspi and Megan Sanders were yellow-carded for high tackles. Tempe did what a good team does and capitalized on the two-player advantage. Chloe Jex just powered through a stressed defense for the converted try, 7-0. But once back to full strength, WAC went to work and followed with five tries from Lauren Barber, two from Legaspi, Sydnee Watanabe and Nikki Kenyon. Sanders added the extras for the 29-7 win. WAC will now play Rocky Mountain, which lost to ARPTC 40-5 in the Cup quarterfinal seeding round.
Alex Ho Photo
Life West and Optimus closed out the day inside the stadium, and the Gladiatrix got up 14-0 on tries from Frieda Fetu’u and Nene Persinger, who also kicked the conversions. Penalties started to cripple Life West and Optimus kept moving down-field, eventually sending Sydnee Cervinski over the line for the 14-5 scoreline at the half. Both teams coughed up yellow cards in the third quarter, and both teams took advantage with tries: 21-12 to Life West. Optimus scored the latter try through Cyndi Campbell, and had the momentum at the restart. An offsides penalty, however, handed the ball back to Life West, and the Californians ended with two Nicole Strasko tries: 31-12 the final.
Alex Ho Photo
Sunday’s Cup Quarterfinals are now set and all occur inside the stadium:
940 Scion v Tempe
1000 Washington AC v Rocky Mountain
1020 Life West v ORSU
1040 ARPTC v Optimus
And then regular Cup and Plate brackets evolve from that point on. The Bowl contains five teams, so there’s just one play-in match – between NOVA and Santa Monica – to the Bowl semifinals. Boston Belles will play the winner of the aforementioned play-in, and the two Chicago teams – Lions and North Shore – will contest the other semifinal.