National Collegiate Rugby (NCR) held its Women’s Small College 7s National Championship on April 30-May 1 and welcomed 12 teams from as far as South Dakota, Tennessee and New Hampshire to Cheswick, Pa. After two days of competition, the Univ. Chicago hoisted the annual trophy, bringing the title back to the Great Waters conference for the first time. [Stay tuned for interviews with Chicago coaches Nora McConnell-Johnson and Betty Nguyen].
RELATED: Full Championship Results
Teams were divided into four pools of three, providing the field two pool games on Saturday. South Dakota, Baldwin Wallace and Chicago all went 2-0 to top their respective pools, and York College and Lee University went 1-1 in Pool D, tying each other 10-10 in their match. York had defeated pool mate Univ. Washington St. Louis by a larger margin than Lee did, and thus took the top seed out of that group.
RELATED: South Dakota Wants Nationals to be the Norm
The tournament was supposed to resume on Sunday with the Cup quarterfinals, involving the top-two teams from each pool. But extreme weather delayed the start of day two, and the competition had to condense. Instead, Sunday began with the Cup semifinals, and pool runners-up moved into the 5th place semifinals, and third-place teams into the 9th place bracket.
Photo: @haleyt_photography for NCR
South Dakota beat York 10-5, and Chicago topped Baldwin Wallace 19-0 in the Cup semifinals. The final required overtime, but Chicago surged forward with a 10-5 win against South Dakota. [Stay tuned for interviews.]. Lee University won the 5th place bracket, beating Rochester 7-0 and then St. Bonaventure 12-0. Gannon University won the 9th place bracket after a 17-12 win against Loyola University (Md). See full results.
Univ. Chicago’s Ally Bartholomew was named Championship MVP and was one of seven All-Tournament selections:
ALL TOURNAMENT TEAM
Saira Alexander – York College
Ally Bartholomew – Univ. Chicago
Molly Cancian – Baldwin Wallace
Jamee Lawyer – Lee Univ.
Eden Liebenthal – Univ. South Dakota
Sophie Mackenzie – Univ. Rochester
Trixie Jo Schlecter – Univ. South Dakota
Tournament MVP: Ally Bartholomew – Chicago