CHULA VISTA, CA. - USA Rugby has announced the names of 24 athletes who will train full-time as part of the Women's Eagles Sevens Residency Program at the U.S. Olympic Training Site in Chula Vista, CA. Players will be available for selection for the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2019 and PanAm Games 2019 with the potential to also compete in developmental Falcons tours.

The roster includes 19 players who have made appearances on the Sevens Series circuit with five who still seek their national team debut. Of those five are Kasey McCravey, Kate Herran, Kristi Kirshe, Nikki Kenyon and Eti Haungatau. Haungatau is the youngest player in residency at only 18 years old while McCravey and Kirshe will look to make their debut at Sydney Sevens 2019.

The Women's Sevens Residency Program will be fully-integrated with the Women's National Team 15s where all resident-athletes can also be selected for the Women's Eagles. While decisions will be made on an individual basis, both programs will work hand-in-hand to provide athletes with multiple opportunities to compete and excel at the international level.

During the course of the year, resident athletes will engage in a full-time training program led by Women's Sevens Head Coach Chris Brown, aimed at growing rugby knowledge, building core skills and preparing for tournaments through the season.

High performance (HP) training camps take place at various points within the residency program's regular regimen where non-resident athletes are also invited to the Olympic Training Site. Camps will be themed in one of three groups: wider pool players, Next Generation players as part of the Hawk Eye program or Talent Transfer prospects which include crossover athletes from other sports. HP camps serve as an intense period of preparation where national team coaches and staff are evaluating players for selection to the residency program and/or upcoming competition.

General Manager for Women's High Performance Emilie Bydwell said: "We are very excited about our 2018-2019 season residency group, the competition within the squad for World Series selection now has a significant impact on our ability to improve and compete for the program's first ever top four finish.

"The pathway programs -- whether that be age grades, national club competition and National Development Academies -- are producing an increasingly higher quality of player and athlete. This is directly complemented by the programs' continuing initiative to identify top tier athletes to transfer into rugby. We will be using the rest of this season and the summer to finalize our squad for the Olympic year and create the platform for a medal performance in Tokyo."

The Women's Eagles Sevens will next compete in the third round of the HSBC World Rugby Women's Sevens Series at HSBC Sydney Sevens Jan 31-Feb 3. Currently sitting in third-place, the team will need to conclude the season in the Top 4 in order to automatically qualify for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. Sydney Sevens may be streamed live on facebook.com/worldrugby7s.

 

USA Women's Sevens 2019 Resident-Athletes

Player Name	Former Club/School	HSBC Tournaments
Meya Bizer	San Diego Surfers	2
Ashlee Byrge	San Diego Surfers	1
Kayla Canett	Penn State University	3
Lauren Doyle	Eastern Illinois University	23
Cheta Emba	Harvard University	10
Nana Fa'avesi	Sacramento Amazons	18
Jordan Gray	Brigham Young University (BYU)	6
Abby Gustaitis	Scion Rugby	6
Eti Haungatau	SacPal Rugby (HS)	0
Nicole Heavirland	Army West Point	15
Kate Herren	U.S. Marine Corps	0
Alev Kelter	unattached	28
Nikki Kenyon	Life West Gladiatrix	0
Kristi Kirshe	Boston Rugby	0
Natalie Kosko	Lindenwood University	2
Ilona Maher	Quinnipiac University	3
Kasey McCravey	Army West Point	0
Kiki Morgan	Scion Rugby	2
Alena Olsen	San Diego Surfers	2
Hope Rogers	San Diego Surfers	3
Stephanie Rovetti	San Diego Surfers	2
Naya Tapper	University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill	13
Kris Thomas	University of Central Florida	18
Lauren Thunen	Santa Barbara Rugby	1

 

USA Women's Sevens Staff

General Manager, Women's High Performance | Emilie Bydwell

Head Coach | Chris Brown

Strength & Conditioning Coach | Matt Long

Head of Physical Performance | Dave Gardner

Athletic Trainer | Nicole Titmas

Team Manager | Liz Strohecker

 

HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2019 Schedule

Colorado, USA

Oct 21-22, 2018

Second-place (Silver medal)

 

Dubai, UAE

November 29-30, 2018

Fourth place

 

Sydney, Australia

February 1-3, 2019

View Roster | WATCH on facebook.com/worldrugby7s

 

Kitakyushu, Japan

April 20-21, 2019

 

Langford, Canada

May 11-12, 2019

 

Biarritz, France

June 15-16, 2019