It was a competitive and up-and-down pool play for the Men’s DII competition at the USA Rugby Collegiate 7s National Championships, with three ties, and only one pool where the standard split of results happened.
That pool was Pool A, where Wisconsin-Whitewater cruised past Texas-San Antonio on Friday and UNC-Wilmington and Coast Guard on Sunday. Alec Truethardt was a scoring demon once more.
Perhaps the surprise in that pool was lightly-regarded Texas-San Antonio, which rebounded from an opening loss to UWW on Friday to beat Coast Guard and, on their final game of the day, UNC-Wilmington in a 19-0 shutout.
Minnesota-Duluth and Principia continued their winning ways on Saturday and met up for the pool #1 spot in Round 3, with Duluth getting three tries from trace Bolstad in a 29-5 win.
Lindenwood-Belleville tied their opening game on Friday, and needed a big game against 2-0 St. Louis University in the final game of Saturday. The Lynx unleashed their best game so far, hammering SLU 35-0 to win the pool.
UMass-Lowell lost 14-7 to SLU earlier in the day to essentially sink their chances of the cup round.
And in Pool D, it was all Salisbury, albeit in close games. The Sharks fell behind 14-7 to Salve Regina but got two tries from Jordan Bakouche to lead 21-14. Salve scored late through Joseph Goff (no relation), but the conversion was no good and Salisbury held on 21-19.
It was a similar story for Salisbury against The Citadel, as they had to come back to win once more.
Salve entered the final game of the day at 1-1, but aware that The Citadel was 1-2 and Rowan (their opponents) 0-2, and so even a loss by 12 would see them through. In the end Rowan scored late to tie it 12-12, but Salve had salvaged their spot in the quarters.
Standings are below QF matchup list.
Cup Quarterfinals:
Wisconsin-Whitewater v Salve Regina
Salisbury v Principia
Lindenwood-Belleville v Texas San Antonio
Minnesota-Duluth v Saint Louis University
Bowl Quarterfinals:
UMass-Lowell v Coast Guard
Tulane v Rowan
UNC-W v Niagara
Citadel v Wisconsin Eau Claire
| Pool A | W | L | T | PF | PA | Pd | Pts |
| Wisconsin-Whitewater | 3 | 0 | 0 | 109 | 22 | 87 | 9 |
| Texas San Antonio | 2 | 1 | 0 | 43 | 45 | -2 | 7 |
| UNC-W | 1 | 2 | 0 | 22 | 53 | -31 | 5 |
| Coast Guard | 0 | 3 | 0 | 29 | 83 | -54 | 3 |
| Pool B | W | L | T | PF | PA | Pd | Pts |
| Minnesota-Duluth | 3 | 0 | 0 | 86 | 17 | 69 | 9 |
| Principia | 2 | 1 | 0 | 62 | 39 | 23 | 7 |
| Tulane | 0 | 2 | 1 | 32 | 76 | -44 | 4 |
| Niagara | 0 | 2 | 1 | 24 | 72 | -48 | 4 |
| Pool C | W | L | T | PF | PA | Pd | Pts |
| Lindenwood-Belleville | 2 | 0 | 1 | 64 | 12 | 52 | 8 |
| SLU | 2 | 1 | 0 | 40 | 54 | -14 | 7 |
| UMass-Lowell | 1 | 1 | 1 | 38 | 38 | 0 | 6 |
| Wisconsin-Eau Claire | 0 | 3 | 0 | 24 | 62 | -38 | 3 |
| Pool D | W | L | T | PF | PA | Pd | Pts |
| Salisbury | 3 | 0 | 0 | 58 | 45 | 13 | 9 |
| Salve Regina | 1 | 1 | 1 | 53 | 43 | 10 | 6 |
| Citdal | 1 | 2 | 0 | 46 | 49 | -3 | 5 |
| Rowan | 0 | 2 | 1 | 33 | 53 | -20 | 4 |
