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USA Wins Quest for Gold 7s

  • 27 Jun 2021
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Naya Tapper / Photo: Alex Ho

The USA Women 7s team won the Quest for Gold 7s, going 3-0-1 against Great Britain after defeating Jamaica in the opening round. The tournament wasn’t a tournament per se, as day-one results encouraged a change in format for Saturday. Inside Dignity Sports Health Complex, Mexico and Jamaica also played each other three times to competitive outcomes.

The strategy proved beneficial, as both sets of teams banked useful competition. Jamaica beat Mexico 17-10 in the first Saturday match, and then Las Serpientes returned with a 32-5 victory before winning the 3rd place match 26-19. Mexico featured several Americans, including San Juanita Fetuuahu (ORSU), Karmin Macedo (San Diego) and Ariana Lewis (Sacramento).


Ilona Maher / Photo: Alex Ho

The USA had won its Friday match 26-7 against Great Britain, but the fellow Olympics-bound squad steadily closed the points gap throughout Saturday. Ariana Ramsey, the youngest player on Team USA, had scored two tries on Friday but suffered a tournament-ending injury in the first game Saturday. The Dartmouth College student-athlete was stretchered off the pitch but USA Rugby indicated that she is recovering well and looks good for Tokyo.


Cheta Emba / Photo: Alex Ho

The USA opened Saturday with 24-14 win against Great Britain, and Naya Tapper did well to finish scoring opportunities that were built on the infield. The power wing scored three tries, and Cheta Emba dotted down one as well. Nicole Heavirland kicked three of four conversions, and ended the day with a team-leading 29 points.

Great Britain narrowed the gap in the subsequent match, matching the USA’s tries from Kayla Canett, Lauren Doyle and Kasey McCravey. But the Eagles were perfect on their conversions, as Alev Kelter, Canett and McCravey took turns at the posts: 21-17 the final.

Nana Fa’avesi scored the opening try of the final, but then Great Britain surged with back-to-back scores to take the lead. A fabulous run by Kirshe gave the Americans a second try that tied it at 12-12 into full-time.

“We started strong against Jamaica and then just built into four matches against a strong Great Britain side,” USA co-captain Abby Gustaitis told USA Rugby. “They’re no slouches in any capacity. Just really proud of the effort the girls put in, the resilience, the fight — right down to that last minute try to tie it up.

“We’re going home with the gold and just focusing on our game plan,” the prop added. “We’ve got four weeks of hard training at home before Tokyo and then eyes on that gold medal.”

The team will resume training in a few days and depart for Japan in mid-July. The Eagles will spend the first week in Mimasaka before relocating to Tokyo for the Opening Ceremony on July 23.

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