Louisville Wins MAC 7s
Louisville Wins MAC 7s
Louisville defeated Bowling Green in the final of the Mid American Conference 7s over the weekend.
Many of the knockout games were close, with Louisville edging Pitt 20-14 in the semis. Bowling Green won one of the rare lopsided games, taking their semi 40-7 over Ohio University.
In the final, the two teams changed ends at halftime still tied 0-0. Two tries in the second half saw Cardinals hold off the Falcons 10-0—Aaron Stevenson and Jake Summers got the tries that made the difference.
Ohio, meanwhile, got into the semis by beating Western Michigan and also IUPUI in pool play. Yes they lost 40-7 to Bowling Green and lost by the same margin to Pitt in the 3rd-4th game, but this was a still a very strong showing by OU.
Pitt also secured an impressive finish.
In the consolation bracket, IUPUI got by Dayton 17-10 in the 5th-place semi and WMU win a close one 14-7 over Cincinnati. UC beat Dayton for 7th 19-10, and WMU beat IUPUI 25-5 for 5th.
So of the eight placement games (semis and finals), three were decided by a try or less, and two more were decided by two unconverted tries or less.
Freshman Matt Kramer showed well for Louisville and imposed his will physically. Summers was effective on the outside and scored tix tries on the day.
CRC Bound?
Louisville will not move on to NCR's CRC. This decision was made due mostly to injuries—the Cardinals just barely got through the tournament with a full lineup intact and know they will struggle with their depth in DC. They picked up an injury late in the tournament, too.
So the big from the MAC will go to Bowling Green or Pitt, although it's possible it might be both.
