Princeton Women Win the Ivy Sevens Championships
The Ivy Sevens is a qualifying tournament for the USA Rugby Sevens championship to be held at Texas A&M (College Station, TX) on Nov. 30-Dec. 1. Last year Princeton Women also qualified for this tournament and finished 3rd in the country.
In the men’s tournament, held at the same time on the same fields, the Princeton Men finished 3rd, after a really tough loss to Penn in the semifinal. Dartmouth, two-time national champion, was clearly the best team in attendance.
With their main competition gone (Brown Women), Princeton Women were tournament favorites. The competition was limited to Yale, Columbia and Penn which are all second tier Ivy teams for 2012. A Princeton championship seemed a foregone conclusion, but the play of the other Ivy teams proved different than expectations.
Princeton Fall 2012 7s Rugby Results
Date Venue First VII (9-0)
10/27/12 Navy Champions W 5 L 0
11/10/12 Princeton Champions W 4 L 0
11/30-12/1 Texas A&M USA Rugby Nat’l 7s championships
Princeton Roster
Morgan Arthur ‘14
Olivia Garard ‘13
Kristy Giandomenico ‘14
Tzu-Yung Huang ‘15
Ariel Jespersen ‘13
Madeleine Karn ’13, R
Devan Kreisberg ‘13
Cat Lambert 15
Maddy Lea ’16, R
Andrea Malleo ’16, R
Mireille Pardon ‘14
Lauren Rhode ’12 *16
Emilie Burke ’15 videographer
(R = rookie)
Missing from action was the Princeton star Dot Mittow ’14. Head coach Emil Signes commented that, "the absence of Dot, a force in the middle, was felt throughout the day."
Princeton began with a 19-7 victory over Penn. In a 15-a-side game earlier this season Princeton put 72 points on Penn. Penn showed up and under the pressure of the earlier defeat played strong. Morgan Arthur scored 2 tries and Lauren Rhode had a try and 2 conversions for Princeton.
In Princeton's second game, they again struggled a bit and played below their potential, but still winning with a 10-0 victory over Yale. Yale did a lot of good things, but Princeton was able to contain their speed on the outside and Yale didn’t really threaten to score. Devan Kreisberg and Mireille Pardon each scored a try for Princeton.
In their third pool game Princeton defeated Columbia 22-12. Columbia had a couple of little fast people suited to sevens and scored twice in the contest. Devan Kreisberg scored two tries and Kristy Giandomenico and Morgan Arthur one each.
The final match was a replay of our Yale game. In this 20-minute game, Princeton jumped out to a 24-0 lead in the first half. Yale came to play after an inspiring halftime speach by Nate Gallow. The final score was 24-0. Olivia Garard, Morgan Arthur, Devan Kreisberg and Kristy Giandomenico had a try each; Lauren Rhode made two conversions.
Princeton is Ivy champions for the first time since 2005, and the first-ever Ivy Sevens champions.
Morgan Arthur and Devan Kreisberg led the scoring with 4 tries each, Kristy Giandomenico had 2, and Lauren Rhode, Mireille Pardon and Olivia Garard each had one. Rhode also had 5 conversions.