The USA Women’s 7s team opened up their account at the Atlanta 7s in impressive fashion, taking apart South Africa 36-5. 

Under criticism for lack of power and precision in the breakdown, the Eagles did a better job in that aspect, and also showcased some better ball handling as well. Victoria Folayan scored three tries in the first half, and Jessica Javelet added another. Then after an iffy start to the second half, the Eagles ran in two more tries, both of encouraging quality.

Folayan went over in the first minute after a snappy series of direct runs and rucks. Alev Kelter and Bui Baravilala were among the players who challenged the South African defenders before Folayan saw a fractured line and sliced through from 50 meters.

Moments later from a scrum the Eagles moved the ball to Javalet. Now lining up as a center much of the time, Javelet has shown a solid pass and serves as a decoy against defenses that need to respect her pace. She slid to the outside, Folayan cut inside, and the switch move put the former Stanford All American over.

So that made it 14-0, and then it was 21-0 when some good work in contact - with the USA retaining ball and Kelter once again strong in the ruck, put Folayan into the arms of three South African tacklers. Not one held on, though, and it was 21-0 just like that.

The USA capped it off with straight hands from a quick tap to Javelet, who had too much space to be denied.

At halftime, Head Coach Ric Suggitt was almost all smiles and reminded the team that “the crowd are going to love it” when they do what they need to do.

But the second half started poorly. South Africa had the ball and, forced to defend for the first time in the match, the USA defended poorly. Penalties and missed tackles resulted in a try in the corner to make it 26-5.

And then the USA lost the ball in a ruck in their own 22, trying, really, to do too much. They had to battle to hold off South Africa, but did, and eventually sent the ball wide to Kristen Thomas. Known mostly for dropping the ball in-goal against New Zealand in Sao Paolo, the Central Florida star just stretched her legs and outstripped all of her chasers. It was a try that showed exactly why she’s on the team - all power and speed and complete comfort in her ability to outrun players - and it resulted in a try that put the game away.

The Eagles finished it off with a beautiful team effort. Lauren Doyle got them going, dragging a couple of defenders with her. The support was there and Hannah Lopez surged on, passed to Katie Johnson, who popped a pass as she was driven into touch. There to catch it was debutant Kate Zachary, and Z was free to race in to score, barely two minutes after getting on the field for the first time. The former Benedictine College soccer player showed now soccer effusiveness when she scored, and calmly jogged back to midfield as if she scores international tries all the time.

That was it. 36-5. The Eagles improved in several areas - strength in contact and passing to name two - but might be a little concerned about the times they actually had to play defense.

But they also put everyone else on notice - they have speed, a lot of it.

USA 36

Tries: Folayan 3, Javelet, Thomas, Zachary

Convs: Baravilala 3

South Africa 5

Tries: Simmers