USA Women in Madrid. Does Pool Play Matter?
USA Women in Madrid. Does Pool Play Matter?
The goal for the USA women's national 7s team is to get into the top three.
They want to step onto the podium and make a statement in advance of Paris 2024.
Can they do it? Certainly. But despite being 4th overall in the SVNS World Series standings, the Eagles have only made the podium twice in seven tournaments, third in LA and 2nd in Hong Kong. They also finished 4th two other times, but in their latest event in Singapore, couldn't buy a performance and were 10th out of 12.
That didn't change much for this tournament. The teams have been seeded based on their standings and that means #1 is seeded with #4 and #5 and #8—New Zealand, USA, Canada, and Great Britain. Not an easy pool at all. That's OK, the other pool is Australia, France, Fiji, and Ireland. Not easy either.
But unlike the regular season in which pool play is almost irrelevant, this tournament makes pool play extremely relevant. The USA will have to make the top two in the pool to make the Cup Semifinals. Going 1-2 in a plucky way won't cut it.
"We have a challenging task ahead of us in our pool with Canada, Great Britain, and New Zealand," said USA Head Coach Emilie Bydwell." We are focused on taking things one game at a time, we must play the game we have in front of us and control our attention in the moment to maximize our ability to execute and play to our strengths. We have set the challenge out to ourselves to ensure that we use this competition to elevate together and deliver the right competition of collective determination and collective focus when it matters.”
The team that goes to Madrid is experienced, and some that have been battling injury are there ready to play. The lack of Cheta Emba is tough to take because she is a relatively unique talent for the Eagles. They do have some impressive finishers and there's some good overall pace with this USA squad.
| USA Women's Sevens Roster | 2024 Madrid SVNS | ||
| Player | Position | HSBC Tnmnts |
| 2. Ilona Maher | Center / Prop | 29 |
| 3. Kayla Canett | Flyhalf | 28 |
| 4. Nicole Heavirland | Hooker/Scrumhalf | 38 |
| 5. Alev Kelter | Center / Prop | 46 |
| 6. Alena Olsen | Scrumhalf | 23 |
| 10. Steph Rovetti | Scrumhalf/Flyhalf | 14 |
| 11. Kris Thomas | Hooker/Prop | 43 |
| 12. Kristi Kirshe | Prop/Hooker | 24 |
| 13. Sarah Levy | Hooker | 10 |
| 17. Spiff Sedrick | Center | 18 |
| 21. Ariana Ramsey | Wing | 6 |
| 22. Sammy Sullivan | Prop/Hooker | 13 |
| 23. Lauren Doyle (C) | Flyhalf | 45 |
