The USA rounded out a perfect pool play outing, defeating Cayman Islands 50-0 in the third round of the NACRA 7s Olympic qualifier. The Eagle women end day one with 169 unanswered points and take the top seed into tomorrow’s quarterfinals.

Although Cayman Islands proved to be the USA’s best competition of the day, the Eagles were too effective in stealing the ball in contact and working it across the field for quick attacks in space.

The scoreboard lit up shortly after kickoff, as the ball moved to Kristen Thomas, who cut back inside the last defender for an easy score. The wing nearly put Lauren Doyle away for the second try, but an errant pass saw the ball hit the deck. Quick to recover, Thomas scooped up the ball and sent it to Richelle Stephens, who moved the ball away from onrushing defenders into space. Kate Zachary saw the mismatch on the wing, turned the corner, and scored. Alev Kelter hit the second of her three conversions for the 14-0 lead.

Stephens then etched her name into the record books, becoming the Eagle 7s' youngest try-scorer. The flyhalf cleaned up a pass that rebounded off a Cayman Islands player’s leg and scampered the 10 meters into the try zone.

The half ended after a Kelter turnover moved to Stephens, who pinned her defenders and passed out to Thomas for the finish, 26-0.

In the second half, Hannah Lopez changed up the restart tactics and sent a long kick that trickled into Cayman Islands’s try zone. Thomas was there for the pressure, and instead of grounding the ball, the receiver attempted to kick it out. Instead, the ball was kicked right into Stephens’ midsection, and she simply fell to ground for the try.

Lopez kicked deep again, and Cayman Islands sent soft, dangerous passes across its tryline. Tackled in front of the posts, Joanne Fa’avesi proceeded to ruck off two large opponents, and Kelly Griffin was there for the quick offload and try. Griffin dotted down shortly afterward, as Carmen Farmer poached a ball, and Dana Meschisi quickly popped it to the captain running on (43-0).

The game ended with a fantastic team try. From another stolen ball, the players advanced upfield offloading out of contact. After a couple of iterations, Farmer used her long body to send a lengthy pass over the back of her tackler, hitting Griffin, who worked it down the line to an accelerating backline. Melissa Fowler ended up with the last pass and dotted down. Lopez added her second conversion for the 50-0 win.

Read about the Eagles' opener against Jamaica (here) and second-round win against Barbados (here).

USA 50
Tries: Thomas 2, Stephens 2, Griffin 2, Zachary, Fowler
Cons: Kelter 3, Lopez 2

Cayman Islands 0

Below are the day three point tallies:​