The tournament is hosted by the NoVa women at Rosecroft Raceway right outside DC, and it's the only all-women's tournament we've been to this summer. After seeing most of the same teams every weekend for the past month or so, playing a tournament that was both local and single-sex felt kind of cozy. There were only two pitches to play on, 11 teams in 2 divisions, and lots of camaraderie.
The Stingers entered in the social division, and in the morning we played the Furies' second side and Georgetown for two wins before losing to the Maryland Exiles' second side. After a short break (during which I was convinced to buy one of the awesome tournament T-shirts - I am so broke, but it was so cute - green with a pink fish!), everyone was seeded for the finals.
We were seeded third (I believe) to play the Exiles 2 again. We lost (again), and ended up playing Furies 2 (again) and won (again). It was overall a great day of sevens rugby - I felt like I was finally getting the hang of how to play this bastard step-child version of the fifteens game I know and love... just in time for the end of sevens season. Oh, well!
NoVa 4 ended up winning our division, and then everyone was treated to a U15 exhibition sevens game. I hadn't even realized that there were U15 girls' teams in the area, but apparently there are two! Both were from Virginia, and we were all pretty impressed with the girls' skills. They had a lot of smart runs and good tackles, and all the spectators were cheering hard for both sides. I hope most of those players stick it out through college and club-side teams - I'm sure ten years from now, some of them will be playing for the national Eagles team and representing the US at the world cup!
The day finished up with a game slightly closer to Eagle-level as NoVa 1 played the Furies to win their tournament (again). Everyone then gathered for a raffle and presentation of our winnings - pitchers for the teams that placed, and bottles of champagne for everyone who participated!
And thus ended my first sevens season. I have to say, I really enjoyed this new kind of rugby. It's much faster and more dynamic than fifteens, and the game gives me an opportunity to do the things I don't get to do as much when I play in the scrum, like passing the ball and making long runs. I think I definitely improved my ball-handling and sprinting skills, and I might be starting to figure out my footwork as well. I also ended up playing scrumhalf, which was a new position for me (though very different from a 15s scrumhalf) and quite fun. I do wish that our season could have run longer (or that fewer of the Stingers took the summer off!), but I'm already looking forward to next summer.
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