Life University Athletics

METAIRIE, La. --- The women's rugby team put together a great showing at the CRC May Madness 7's tournament this weekend, taking second place in a 14-team field at Major League Rugby team Nola Gold's home field, The Shrine on Airline.
 
The Running Eagles entered the tournament as one of the two No. 1 seeds in the tournament placed on the opposite side of the bracket of rival Lindenwood. As many expected when the brackets were released, the teams met in a championship for the second time this season. After what was an exciting, physical game, Life U came up just short on the attack in the final moments in what was a 10-7 loss to finish the tournament as the runner up.
 
On the first day of competition, the Running Eagles blew through all their competition, defeating eight-seed Allegheny College 45-0, before one upping that with a 46-0 victory in the quarterfinals over four-seed Iowa State. In both games, Life U jumped out to early leads as the opposition could not contain a Running Eagle attack which seemed capable of breaking away from any place on the field to dot down a try.
 
Life U kept its trend from the first day going in its afternoon, semifinals meeting with three-seed Wayne State, expanding its win by yet another point with a 47-0 romp to advance to the championship game. The squad again kept their opponents bottled up on the other side of the field while making the most out of their possessions.
 
The finals saw a departure from the previous matches as it had two very evenly matched teams that know each other well. Lindenwood scored the first two tried, but in the second half a long, breakaway try was scored by Adrionna Duncan to cut the deficit to 10-7. In the final two minutes of play, Life U was on the attack in Lion territory, but failed to score to take its only loss of the tournament.
 
Head coach Rosalind Chou was happy to make it back to the tournament this year and extremely pleased with the performance her team showed. "We are so grateful for the opportunity to attend the CRC again after missing 7s last year due to the pandemic," said Chou. She continued, "We finished the tournament on a high note with an incredibly gutsy performance in a final that came down to the wire. The team had such a special year, and we got to play a lot of great rugby." Chou finished by adding, "We want to thank all the graduating seniors for all they've given to the program over the years. We would not be here without you."
 
With the conclusion of the CRC 7's tournament, the 2020-21 season comes to a close as the team prepares for next year. Looking forward to next year, Chou said, "We are a very young squad, so I look forward to improving on this year with some new, exciting additions to the squad next year!"