Elon and Queens will be playing 7s this weekend. / Photo: Amy Nicholson
The spring 7s season is well underway, and teams up and down the east coast are readying for a sprinting Saturday. The Emperor 7s (Princeton, N.J.), Queens Cup 7s (Charlotte, N.C.) and Tropical 7s (Orlando, Fla.) are just three tournaments fielding diverse lineups.
EMPEROR 7s
Princeton University is hosting its first Emperor 7s, which honors legend Emil Signes, and 22 sides are competing overall. There are 12 squads in the A-side bracket, and five of those are DI teams. All five have also supplied second sides to the B-side competition, which is eight teams large. Host Princeton of the Ivy League, Northeast’s Boston University and Northeastern, independent Navy, and NIRA’s West Chester are joined by seven DII teams: Bloomsburg, Columbia, Drew, Hofstra, Salisbury, St. Joseph’s and Temple. Second sides from Bloomsburg, Salisbury and Hofstra fill out the B-side bracket.
QUEENS CUP 7s
First-year program Queens University of Charlotte is hosting a 10-team 7s event, which has drawn a variety of squads to North Carolina. Clemson (S.C.), Virginia Tech (Va.) and UNC (N.C.) hail from the DI Mason Dixon – where Queens will play next 15s season – and the latter two are heading to the DI Spring Round of 16 on April 21-22. DI Indiana University (Ind.) is making its second trip to the east coast this month, the first being to the Frostbite Tournament in Pennsylvania.
Mount St. Mary’s (Md.) was a first-year member of the National Intercollegiate Rugby Association, the collegiate varsity league. There are five DII teams competing and all hail from Carolinas conference teams: Queens, Citadel, Elon, UNC Greensboro and UNC Wilmington.
Teams are grouped into two pools of five and play poolmates once. The top-two teams in each pool move onto semifinals, while the third-place teams compete for fifth. Click here for the full schedule.
Swift and Gauthreaux have graduated but the Life vs. Lindenwood rivalry lives on. / Photo: Colleen McCloskey
TROPICAL 7s
Life and Lindenwood are the only U.S. sides in the University Elite division, but they’re also two of the country’s best 7s teams. Lindenwood is the reigning USA Rugby 7s champion, and Life is the reigning CRC 7s champion. The duo will face four teams from Canada, which always bodes well for the competition: University of Guelph, Central Alberta, Brock University and Trent. The University Open division includes five DI and DII Florida teams.
There are also two four-team high school divisions, which includes squads from the U.S., Canada and Mexico.