The Penn State Women participated in the 2017 USARugby 7s championship the weekend of May 20th at Infinity Park in Glendale, CO and walked away with 6th place. This weekend sees them heading to the Penn Mutual Collegiate Rugby Championships at Talen Energy Stadium for a chance at redemption.
The women kicked of The USARugby 7s championships with pool play against Davenport University, this year’s DII 15’s National Champion. Sophie Pyrz started the scoring shortly after kick off and the team would lead 20-0 at half. 2nd half tries by Berta, Carly and Cantorna would finish the shut out 34-0 and put the team in good standing for their 2nd pool game of the day against Princeton University. PSU would score 42 unanswered points against Princeton before letting in a late 2nd half try and finishing the contest 49-7. The women’s most challenging pool match would be the last of the day vs the Black Knights of Army. Penn State scored first but Army would answer back to take the lead 5-7 with 2 minutes left in the 1st half. Tess Feury would score and convert her own try to take the lead into the half 12-7. Army would mount a very determined comeback coming within 2 points of Penn State before the game would finish 19-17. Penn State would finish the day 3rd in the standings and seated in the Quarterfinals against 6th ranked Dartmouth.
Penn State, to their detriment, started slow against Dartmouth University in the quarterfinals and let in two unconverted tries and would kick off the 2nd half down 10-0. PSU looked to rally at the beginning of the half but the potential 1st try was knocked on in the try zone by Penn State. Dartmouth took that momentum in their favor to put in another score and lead 15-0. Heavner would finally dot down a try for PSU with 3 minutes to go in the game followed by a try and conversion by Tess Feury closing the gap 15-14. Unfortunately, that would be Penn State’s last opportunity before letting in the last try of the game and losing to Dartmouth 14-20 putting them in the plate semis versus U.C. Davis. A hat trick from Tess Feury in the semis against U.C. Davis would insure a rematch with Army for the Plate (5th/6th) final.
After a very close pool game Army would take a commanding 21-0 lead in the plate finals and Penn State would once again attempt a late 2nd half comeback dotting down 3 tries in the last 4 minutes. Two missed conversions would see the Nittany Lions fall 21-17 and finish the tournament 6th, their lowest finish to date. You can rewatch all of the action on therugbychannel.tv with a subscription login.
PSU will see many of the same contenders at the CRC’s kicking off Friday June 2nd and have a chance to improve on their 6th place finish. The Nittany Lions will face Kutztown (11:10), UNC (1:10) and Drexel (3:10) in pool play. A single quarterfinal match will follow on Saturday with the semis and finals to be played on Sunday.
There is still time to purchase your CRC tickets through Penn State at a discounted price. Buy your tickets at the link below and we will see you this weekend in Philadelphia!
