The Kent Crusaders girls team won the opening leg of the Rugby Washington HS 7s series, sponsored by Subway as part of the state summer games.

Kent, the top girls team in Washington almost every year, defeated Prairie 57-0 in their opening pool play game, and then shut out Rainier Plateau 34-0 in their second game.

That set up a clash with Shelton, which had defeated Prairie 40-0 and tied Rainier Plateau 17-17. In the final, Kent gave up their first points of the day, but won 24-10.

“The whole team really rose to the challenge, as it was their first 7s tournament ever, and kept making adjustments as needed throughout the day,” said Carly MacKinnon, who coached the Kent team Sunday. “One thing we can be better about is our defensive shape and support lines. There were glimpses of the team getting it, but consistency in these area needs to be worked on.” 

Caley Polkinghorn, Jenny Johnson, and Victoria Tuli were consistent in the tackle and punished girls who tried to run up the center of the field, creating plenty of turnover ball, with most of those turnovers caused by Emily Prentice, who made it her goal to strip opposing players of possession whenever possible.

Emmy Link and Ashley Rolsma split halfback duties and were calm under pressure and handled the job well.

Tori Vallala led the team with five tries, and Kaylie Gladwell added four on the day, while Askley Rolsma and Paige Wyatt scored two each.

“Not only did these players find space out wide to turn on the speed but there was plenty of points scored on the turnover balls and advantage play,” said McKinnon. “The entire team continued to impress me more and more over the course of the day, especially in the final where they were tested by ten-minutes halves and a physical Shelton team. I'm excited to see how the team will look come the end of the season. We can only go up from here.”

Girls Division Standings after June 29 Tournament
Team Points
1 Kent 22
2 Shelton 19
3 Rainier 17
4 Prairie 15