College 7s Championships

Life Wins Women's CRC

Life Wins Women's CRC

Life University defeated Lindenwood 17-12 to take the Women's Collegiate Rugby Championship final for the second straight year on Sunday at Talen Energy Stadium in Chester, PA.

Jun 4, 2017 by Alex Goff
Life Wins Women's CRC
Life University defeated Lindenwood 17-12 to take the Women's Collegiate Rugby Championship final for the second straight year on Sunday at Talen Energy Stadium in Chester, PA.

In a hard-hitting title game, the Running Eagles benefited from a yellow card for a hair-pull tackle that put Lindenwood down a player at the beginning of the second half, and that period turned the game around.

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Early on, the teams were battling each other but couldn't quite break through. It wasn't until late in the first half that a Lindenwood break and nifty offload set free Caring De Freitas. Both teams had chances to score in the first half, the best being a break for Lindenwood in which one player opted to cut back inside for the switch pass and one player looked to pass out wide. A connection there would have produced a try.

The second half opened with the Lions' Natalie Kosko inadvertently pulling a Life player down by her hair. With Kosko sin-binned, the Running Eagles worked the ball a little bit better and stayed out of contact more successfully. Paced by Darien Lovelace, Life scored three tries in quick succession to lead 17-7.

Back to full strength, Lindenwood was able to get one more over under the posts. The final hooter had not gone, and the Lions opted to forgo the conversion attempt in order to play for one more try. But they didn't tell the referee they wanted to avoid taking the conversion, and, regardless, the ref said time was up on her watch. This was the second time this weekend that a referee had overruled the hooter, calling the game when a restart seemed possible.

But the referee's decision was final, and Life won the CRC for the second year in a row, denying Lindenwood a USA Rugby/CRC double. Having already won USA Rugby's championship, the Lions wanted to get the CRC, too, and just fell short.

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Also in Chester, PA, Penn State beat Dartmouth 24-5 for third. The National Small College Rugby Organization All-Stars took fifth over Bloomsburg with a 34-0 win.

Notre Dame rebounded from going 1-2 in pool play to finish 3-0 in the Challenge Rounds and win the Challenge (consolation) bracket. The Irish beat Temple 21-5 in the Challenge Final.