Club 7s Nationals – 2025 Recap

Another summer of sevens gone and another National Championship in the books. This past weekend in Madison, Wisconsin, 32 rugby teams took center stage after a season of triumph and heartbreak in their respective regions. 16 automatically qualified as the highest seeds from their region while 16 more qualified At-Large after a strong showing through the qualification rounds. 

A weekend disrupted by lightning delays and rain, these teams battled it out to prove who is the best of the best, and in the end only two would claim the title of USA Rugby 7s National Champions.

Let’s dig into some of the highs and lows below.

Let’s talk about the success story of the season, the Chicago Lions. The Lions women finished second in the Midwest behind Chicago North Shore after falling short in the National Final last year to Scion. The Lions tore through Pool D, scoring an average of 42 points while only allowing 6. Yikes. The train kept running into the quarters where they faced the Washington Athletic Club. In years’ past we’d expect this as a semifinal or higher, but WAC faltered in pool play, dropping a crucial match to the Berkeley All Blues 33-17. Therefore these two powerhouses went at it in the quarter. Well, Chicago went at it for sure. They wiped WAC off the map 33-7. Then the semifinal. Who else but Scion? Scion had allowed one measly try against them all tournament, in the quarterfinal against Life West. It didn’t start great for Chicago, Scion scored almost immediately, taking the lead. However the Lions got a lucky break in the fourth minute as a probable try-scoring opportunity was disrupted, giving the Lions the auto seven and punishing Scion with a yellow to boot. This didn’t faze Scion however, as they made the most of their player down by scoring another try, kind of the opposite result than we expected. The second half was when the Lions locked in; two unanswered scores, including a last minute buzzer-beater put the Lions up 17-10 at the final whistle, Scion knocked out and their place in the final confirmed. 

In the final, familiar foes awaited. That’s right, Chicago North Shore also found their way through the playoffs to the final showdown. Now remember, thrice Chicago North Shore had battled the Lions in the Midwest, and twice North Shore ended up on top. So why would this time be any different? Fourteen minutes of thrilling rugby ensued; the Lions took an early lead with two tries, but North Shore steadily pushed back, finding the try zone once, twice, and finally pulling into the lead. It was all slipping away from the Lions, until Sereana Vulaono (Final MVP) made the final move, diving over to tie the game 15-15. In a deadlock reminiscent of the Eagles over Australia in the Olympic Bronze, Ashley Cowdrey sent over the conversion, the final whistle blew, and it was over. When everything was on the line, it was the Lions who had the final say. National Champion has a better ring to it than Midwest Champion anyway.

Our second highlight to cover has to be NOVA and their fight to finish on top. Look, when NOVA came into this tournament ranked first, there was a fair amount of doubt. The haters said they only got that seed because NAV was out. Sure, they dominated the Mid-Atlantic, but how good was the Mid-Atlantic? I mean really? Set in the pool of death with ninth ranked Old Blue and shocking 16th ranked Life West, it looked like we were about to see what NOVA was made of. They won the first one 17-7, nothing impressive. Then, they lost 22-12 against Old Blue, already the haters were talking. They looked better by the time they faced the Austin Huns, but still got into some penalty trouble, drawing a yellow card for a dangerous tackle. It was enough to make it out of pool play, albeit as the second-ranked team from Pool A.

That’s when they drew Belmont Shore for the quarterfinals. It had to be the end of the road for NOVA. Until it wasn’t. NOVA held strong on defense as ten minutes went by without either team scoring. Owen Sheehy broke the stalemate, scoring and converting to send NOVA into a 7-0 lead. At the last minute all hell broke loose as NOVA sacrificed two men to the bin, playing five on seven to hold off Belmont’s brutal attack. The defense stood strong as the full-time whistle went and NOVA was through to the semis. 

Facing off against Mystic River, NOVA looked good. They had their groove and they were sticking to it. Mystic scored first, through Devin Rivet, but NOVA bit back, first through John Taylor, then through Thomas Capriotti. Owen Sheehy added a final one at the end of the match, but the win was already secured and NOVA found themselves in the 7s National Championship for the first time since 1999.

NOVA faced the Chicago Lions, who were having their own dream run to the final after taking down both the St Louis Bombers and New York Old Blue in the knockout rounds. The Lions were title winners back in 2021, far more recently than NOVA who won it all in 1996. The first half was all Chicago, the Lions scoring twice through Christian Artuso and Jacob Hidalgo, both converted. NOVA found their footing in the second half (a pun on words there because it was disgustingly wet and no one had footing) when they scored out of the gates after the kickoff. John LeFevre was unable to add the extra two on that try, and the one he scored himself about two minutes later. Now it was 14-10 to the Lions; both teams had scored twice, but the Lions made the bonus kicks, which gave them the edge. In true finisher fashion, it was Sheehy yet again who had the final say. He blew by the defenders in his final run down the touchline, to score for NOVA and cement the final score, 15-14. Almost 30 years since NOVA last lifted the cup, but it’s headed back to Virginia, NOVA Rugby 7s Nationals Champions yet again.

Another highlight of the tournament was the excellent performance by the teams in the Northeast region. Three Northeast teams made the trip to Madison: Old Blue New York, Mystic River, and Boston. Their starting seeds were relatively low, based on last year’s final results. Old Blue and Boston women were ranked 9th, while Mystic were ranked 11th. Now 9th is a mixed bag, you have to win all three matches on Day 2 in order to finish 9th (win the Bowl Final), so a poor Day 1 could leave you in the Bowl quarterfinals with nothing else to play for but 9th. Hence why I always say pool play is important.

However all three Northeast teams hit the mark on Day 1, making their way into the Cup knockouts. Old Blue went 3-0, topping Pool A, including a defeat of eventual Champions NOVA. Boston went 2-1, dropping a big one to Scion but blanking Atlanta 2.0 38-0. It was their gritty 17-15 win over the Dallas Harlequins that secured their place in the Cup rounds, payback for the single conversion kick loss to the Harlequins last year that put them in the Bowl. Mystic River shocked Pool C as they took down the two top dogs, the Denver Barbarians and the Chicago Lions to finish 2-1. Their only loss was a 12-5 battle against Eagle Rock, who finished at the bottom of the pool.

It was in the quarterfinals that the Northeast really started to turn some heads. Old Blue defeated the Detroit Tradesmen 19-7 and Mystic took down Beltway Elite 24-0 in order to make the semis. Both teams would eventually fall in the semifinals, but qualify for the bronze final. In an epic rematch of every Northeast qualifier final, Old Blue took on Mystic River for one final 7s match. Old Blue had the last say, dominating in a 33-0 masterclass, but the success was shared by both teams. Going from 9th and 11th to 3rd and 4th in the nation is quite a feat to be proud of. 

Boston women dropped their quarter to Chicago North Shore 17-0 but reeled it back in for the Plate semifinal, where they defeated the San Diego Surfers 14-12. In the Plate Final, they faced last years’ bronze medalists, the Washington Athletic Club. Despite a try from Katie Lohaus in the tenth minute, Boston fell 10-5, claiming 6th in the nation, a step up from last year’s 9th. 

Next up, perhaps the unluckiest team of the weekend, the Oregon Sharks. The Sharks were ranked 7th entering the weekend and placed in Pool B (the pool of death – at least I got this one right) with Chicago North Shore, Phoenix, and Life West. They did well in pool play, kicking their day off with a 17-10 win over Phoenix and following it up with a 14-10 defeat of Life West. Undefeated heading into the final game of the day, one could assume Cup quarterfinals were a given. Well, one would be wrong. Chicago North Shore blanked the Sharks 26-0 in the final pool play match of the day; no biggie, it’s just one loss. Except that Chicago North Shore and Life West also went 2-1 on the day.

The “typical” pool spread will finish with the teams at 3-0, 2-1, 1-2, and 0-3. The top two make it in and the bottom two are left out. But sometimes (as in this case) the top three will all trade wins/losses against each other and three will finish 2-1 while the bottom finishes 0-3. Then it turns to point differential to determine who advances. That’s where Oregon’s final pool play match let them down. While Life West and Chicago North Shore went into the Cup knockouts, Oregon was left in the Bowl.

As mentioned, the rain cancelled the Bowl quarterfinals, so Oregon played directly in the Bowl semi against Philadelphia, a match they won 19-0, and then in the Bowl Final, a match they won 21-19. So in summary, the Sharks lost a single match over the course of the entire weekend and finished 9th. No fault of any organization, just how the cookie crumbles.

For fun – who else finished with this same record of one loss? NOVA (1st), Scion (3rd), Old Blue (3rd), and Belmont Shore (5th). Meanwhile teams with objectively worse records (two losses overall): Lions M (2nd), North Shore (2nd), Berkeley (4th), etc. Tough day at the office.

NorCal didn’t have any automatic qualification seeds for this tournament, so all three NorCal based teams had to qualify At-Large. Both Life West men and women entered this competition ranked suspiciously low, 16th for the men and 15th for the women. These low rankings are primarily what led me to name each of their pools the “pool of death”. When you’re a top seed you expect the lower seeds to be worse than you, increasing your chances of getting out of pool play. However, Life West threw a wrench in that plan for more than one team. The women finished 2-1, defeating Pool B leaders Chicago North Shore and Phoenix to qualify for the Cup quarterfinals. Life West men may not have made it out to quarterfinals but they sure gave it a go, they lost by 12 to NOVA and a single point to Old Blue. They did defeat the eighth-ranked Austin Huns to finish Day 1 1-2. 

The Berkeley All Blues entered the competition at 11th, not bad, but not representative of how they played. Berkeley went 3-0 in pool play, including a resounding defeat of WAC, who managed to score a few at the end to make it look better than it was. Day 2 continued to see the rankings surge as Berkeley defeated the San Diego Surfers in the quarters to qualify for semifinals. They lost a tight one against Chicago North Shore, and ended up in the bronze facing Scion. They put in a good battle, but just missed the bar in that one as well, finishing 4th, quite a way up from 11th.

Life West men went straight to the Bowl semis after the Bowl quarterfinals were cancelled due to rain. There they defeated the Dallas Harlequins 10-5, putting them in the Bowl final against the Denver Barbarians. Denver was too strong in the end, but Life West still pulled out a 10th place finish, six places higher than their initial ranking. 

Life West women had an unlucky start to the morning, losing both the Cup quarter and the Plate semi. They pulled it together and had a fantastic performance over the San Diego Surfers in the 7th place match, winning 35-0. Life West women finish 7th, an eight-place leap from their initial 15th. Not a bad showing for a bunch of At-Large teams.

The Red River region sent four teams to Nationals, two men and two women. The Austin Huns and Dallas Harlequins women started in 8th, the Dallas Harlequins men and HEB in 12th. How did those teams finish though? Opposite.

The Austin Huns and Dallas Harlequins women both went 0-3 on opening day, relegating them out of knockouts. Since the Bowl quarterfinals were cancelled and both teams ended at the bottom of the pool, they qualified for the Shield semifinals. Only one match to make it count, and neither did. The Lady Quins lost out by a single conversion in their match against Phoenixville White Horse, while the Huns lost in OT against Eagle Rock 17-12. With no 15th place Wooden Spoon match, we can’t say how either team would have finished overall, but it’s certainly not how they anticipated the weekend going when they started 8th.

Our lower ranked teams, the Dallas Harlequins men and HEB women both fared a bit better than expected. The Quins went 1-2 in Pool D, claiming a 19-12 win over Life U after a narrow defeat to Beltway Elite. HEB also went 1-2, their lone win 21-19 over Phoenixville. With the quarters cancelled, both teams went straight into the Bowl semifinals on Day 2. Here is where the Harlequins men faced a strong Life West side. A lone try wasn’t enough to make it to the next round however, and the Harlequins road stopped here at 11th/12th. HEB kicked Day 2 off with a bang, soaring to a 47-0 win over the Atlanta 2.0 Selects. This placed them in the Bowl final, where they lost by just two points to the Oregon Sharks 21-19, finishing 10th overall. So, HEB finished higher than they started and the Dallas Harlequin men maybe finished at or higher than they started. Is it the curse of the automatic seed? We’ll have to keep an eye out in the Red River next season to see if it strikes back.

Possibly the greatest highlight I get to cover this weekend. In the pool previews I said “however, I think Detroit’s fallen off a bit” after talking about their 5th place finish from last year. I am now happy to announce that I was wrong after Detroit finished 6th behind Belmont Shore after starting off ranked 15th. Well done Detroit. 

The Tradesmen had a mixed pool round, going 1-1-1. They lost the opener to Belmont 24-14, defeated Schuylkill River 26-10, and then they tied WAC 14-14. Since it’s pool play, the tie stands and it goes to point differential if required to determine who advances. Since Schuylkill finished 1-2 and WAC 0-2-1, we didn’t need to go to the tie breaker, the Tradesmen made it through. 

They faced Old Blue in the quarterfinals, the 3-0 team from Pool A. The Tradesmen scored first, holding the lead until halftime when Old Blue made it 7-5. The second half Old Blue ran in two more to keep the lead, and relegated Detroit to the Plate knockouts. There, Detroit had their shining moment of the tournament as they defeated fellow Midwest competitors the St Louis Bombers. It was a cracker of a game, with the Tradesmen scoring at the final whistle and sending over the conversion to win it all 19-17. 

Playing once again for 5th place, Detroit ran into the last team they wanted to see, Belmont Shore. The tournament ended how it started, with a tough loss to a very good Belmont side. However, it’s got to end on a high for Detroit. They started off ranked 15th, and finished 6th. They placed higher than the Bombers who won the Midwest and started 4th. And best of all, they proved me wrong.

Our final highlight from this past weekend was the women from the Washington Athletic Club finishing 5th and winning the Plate final, despite a rocky run. 

Coming into this, WAC had won back to back bronzes at the National Championship. There was a lot riding on being better and shooting higher this year. The first pool game went to plan, cleaning up over Philadelphia 40-5. The second pool match saw WAC taking on the Berkeley All Blues, a rematch of a qualifier game up in the PNW. Berkeley won that one, but still had to fight for an At-Large seed, entering them lower than WAC in the rankings. Not sure if that was the motivation behind Berkeley’s attack, but boy did the All Blues step on the gas. Berkeley scored an astonishing five unanswered tries in what looked to be a clean sweep. WAC eventually turned on with a little help from Nikki Kenyon, scoring three of their own in the closing minutes, but the damage was done. WAC managed to finish 2-1 after defeating the Colorado Grey Wolves later in the day, but now as the second seed, they’d have a harder time in the quarters.

Day 2 they met the Chicago Lions in the Cup quarterfinals. Now, if you read the first blurb, you would know that the Chicago Lions did pretty well in that game. WAC were on the back foot once again, no chance to defend their back to back bronze medals. It would have been easy to give up, but WAC aren’t quitters. They ran in 21 points in the plate semifinal over Life West and then gave it their everything in the Plate final to score at the death and secure 5th over Boston. It may not be the hardware they wanted, but persistence paid off for the women from Seattle, and they still got something to take home for the trophy case.

Below is a summary of all the winners from the past weekend. For more information and full scores please check out the Rugby Xplorer page.