“Back to back” is a descriptor with which Wayne State College is familiar. The NSCRO women’s team won back-to-back 15s titles from 2012-13, and then won the first-ever NSCRO 7s championship last spring. This past weekend in West Point, N.Y., the Wildcats retained its 7s title, beating Mount St. Mary’s 22-17 in the final, and saw Caitlin Hollinger repeat as championship MVP.

In 2014, Wayne State surrendered one try during the 7s championship, but those feats were tougher to replicate in 2015. Despite returning seven players from last year’s team (including captain Alesha Rosberg, the glue that keeps the team moving in the same direction; playmaker and line-breaker Jasmine Kovacs; and scrumhalf Kelcey Stutzman, the epitome of stout defense), the team lost some key defensive players. Sevens had also gripped fellow Midwest small colleges (read more), and teams like Simpson College, a first-season program, were handing Wayne State some losses while the Wildcats sorted out their lineup.

The roster fluctuated, as starters Katie Kirkpatrick and Leanna Rosberg suffered season-ending injuries, and Hollinger – a varsity soccer crossover who picked up the game in March 2014 – relocated to Omaha and wasn’t able to commit 100% of the time. That meant the younger classes had to fill in, and they did. Sam Warneke, whom Hollinger recruited for fall 2014, became one of the team’s best finishers and added a lot of pace out wide. Kelsa Mills graduated from the bench and warranted “most improved player of the year,” while freshman Shelbi Brown slid into hooker and outperformed everyone’s expectations.

Wayne State looked good heading into the 7s championship, but so did the rest of the field.

“This year the tournament was a lot more competitive,” Hollinger confirmed. “In pool play, Endicott was the toughest opponent. They had incredible team defense – the best in the NSCRO tournament. As soon as the ball was out, they were down our throats. Sam was hit pretty hard in the second half of the game and had to come out due to muscle spasms in her ribcage. She was benched until the championship game. We played flat against them, but ended up shutting them out and winning. I was surprised that Endicott was not the third place team for the tournament.”

The Wildcats beat Endicott (Mass.) 27-0, William & Mary (Va.) 46-0, and Ohio Wesleyan 34-0 to end pool play. Wayne State faced familiar foe Simpson College out of Iowa in the semifinals.

”We’d played Simpson a lot throughout the spring season and were confident that we’d beat them by at least 15,” Hollinger said. “Our game plan was to get three to four tries ahead, and then run the clock to save our legs for the championship game. Simpson still played hard, and gave it their all.”

That left Mount St. Mary's for the final. The EPRU champion had been posting similar figures throughout the tournament.

“Everyone on our team was nervous for the game,” Hollinger remembered. “We had watched film on St. Mary's and knew they were just as strong as us offensively. … I knew we would get scored on, and so I told the starters to be prepared to strike back and give the other team hell.”

But Mount St. Mary scored first, slipping a tackle and going 60 meters for the opening try. Wayne State struggled until Warneke dotted down, and then Hollinger finished off a series of pop passes for the go-ahead score, 12-5.

The Maryland side restored the tie after breaking weak off a scrum for a long run, and solid rucking eventually put the try over, 12-all. The Wildcats' game-winning points came after a quick-tap penalty that allowed Brown to score (19-12). The Nebraska team added some cushion when a forward pass and offisides penalty allowed the Wildcats to stay in scoring position and score (22-12).

But the final remained interesting until the closing seconds of play. Mount St. Mary took another half-gap for a 60-meter try, 22-17, with 30 seconds left. From the restart, Hollinger kicked the ball to touch thinking there was no time left. Six seconds remained, and now Mount St. Mary had the lineout. The ball worked from sideline to sideline until an overload emerged, but a game-saving tackle from Warneke forced a knock-on and final whistle.

Before taking the pitch for the championship game, the incomparable coach Darrin Barner encouraged his players to fully immerse themselves in what would become a once-in-a-lifetime experience, that what happened on the field that day would resonate 50 years into the future. As the team rushed the field at game's end, embracing each other and Barner, the coach's words seemed prophetic.

Hollinger, a senior, had not taken the tournament for granted.

“I’m not going to lie, the All-Tournament Team and MVP were on my mind throughout the entire tournament,” confessed Hollinger, who graduates this Saturday. “I had to be more of a leader this year. My role is to be the playmaker. I read the field and called plays that I believed would give us the best scoring opportunity. I’m very offensively minded. I also am one of our biggest communicators on the field.”

As Hollinger accepted her MVP award on behalf of the team, she recalled a quote that was posted inside West Point’s Anderson Rugby Complex: Being perfect is about being able to look your friends in the eye and know that you didn’t let them down because you told them the truth. And that truth is you did everything you could. There wasn’t one more thing you could've done.

“As the tournament went on, that quote kept running through my mind,” Hollinger said. “To give it my all, and I felt I did.”