MADRID – Lauren Doyle captains the USA Rugby Women’s 7s Team for the final HSBC SVNS event of the season in Madrid. Unlike years prior, the series champion is not being named via season-long standings. The top eight teams following the conclusion of the series in Singapore now have equal opportunity to win top honors through a final championship tournament in Spain. Games begin on Friday, May 31, culminate on Sunday, June 2, and will live-stream for free on RugbyPassTV. [lead photo: Alex Ho @hoiho_photo]
RELATED: Madrid 7s Fixtures
USA Roster | 2024 Madrid SVN
| Name | Position | HSBC Tournaments |
|---|---|---|
| 2. Ilona Maher | Center/Prop | 29 |
| 3. Kayla Canett | Flyhalf | 28 |
| 4. Nicole Heavirland | Hooker/Scrumhalf | 38 |
| 5. Alev Kelter | Center/Prop | 46 |
| 6. Alena Olsen | Scrumhalf | 23 |
| 10. Steph Rovetti | Scrumhalf/Flyhalf | 14 |
| 11. Kris Thomas | Hooker/Prop | 43 |
| 12. Kristi Kirshe | Prop/Hooker | 24 |
| 13. Sarah Levy | Hooker | 10 |
| 17. Spiff Sedrick | Center | 18 |
| 21. Ariana Ramsey | Wing | 6 |
| 22. Sammy Sullivan | Prop/Hooker | 13 |
| 23. Lauren Doyle (C) | Flyhalf | 45 |
USA Staff | 2024 Madrid SVNS
Head Coach | Emilie Bydwell
Assistant Coach | Zack Test
Strength & Conditioning | Trey Ford
Athletic Trainer | Nicole Titmas
Sports Psychologist | Peter Haberl
Team Manager | Liz Strohecker
The Eagles prepared in southern France last week, playing Ireland, Fiji and France in a friendly tournament. The extra field time also brought extra confidence and cohesion (the USA beat Fiji 14-10 in the final), and that will certainly help in a tough Pool A in Spain.
“We are very excited about the opportunity to experience the pressure test that Madrid presents for us this weekend,” USA 7s Women’s Team Head Coach Emilie Bydwell said. “We have a challenging task ahead of us in our pool with Canada, Great Britain, and New Zealand. We are focused on taking things one game at a time, we must play the game we have in front of us and control our attention in the moment to maximize our ability to execute and play to our strengths. We have set the challenge out to ourselves to ensure that we use this competition to elevate together and deliver the right competition of collective determination and collective focus when it matters.”
Pool B includes Australia, Fiji, France and Ireland. After pool play concludes on Saturday, the eight-team field will split in half. The top-two teams in both pools will funnel into Cup semifinals, and the bottom-two teams in both pools will advance to 5th place semifinals. The Gold medal match will occur at 1:49 p.m. ET.
USA Schedule | 2024 Madrid SVNS
Friday, May 31 (all times ET)
12:19 p.m. v Canada
Saturday, June 1
10:39 a.m. v Great Britain
2:33 p.m. v New Zealand
Sunday, June 2
Knockout matches starting 4:05 am ET