Life University Athletics

HOUSTON, TX. — Fresh off a historical XVs season that saw the women's program earn their first ever XVs National Championship, the Life University women's rugby team traveled for a chance to defend their 7s Championship from a year ago as a contingent of 14 selected players traveled to Houston for a chance to compete at the top of 7s in the national championship tournament. 

Coming into the tournament the Running Eagles were named the one seed, which added increased pressure, and this showed in game one as Dartmouth came out of the block firing which put the Running Eagles on the back foot and tested the team early. A Matilda Kocaj try was the team's only points as Dartmouth controlled the first match to a 22-5 win.

After a disappointing first game, the Running Eagles left nothing to chance in game two, storming back with vengeance against Princeton to a dominant 34-5 finish. Finding their rhythm early and often in the second game of the day, Adrionna Duncan scored first before another Kocaj try took a convincing 17-5 lead into the break. In the second half, a huge individual performance from Kate Buzby fueled the offense with a second half hat-trick in the second half alone.  After comfortably winning game two, the Running Eagles looked back on track.

Friday afternoon the women faced a talented Central Washington team with AJ Haughy starting the game with a try in the 4th minute before a prolonged weather delay shortly after halftime sat both teams out for nearly an hour.

Resuming the contest trailing 7-5, a rejuvenated Life U team was able to squeeze out a last-second try to claim the lead and win the contest with no time remaining, 10-7. The final try was carried in by Leila Opeti, busting through CWU's final line of defense to win the contest.

Friday evening the Running Eagles faced Davenport in a must-win game to reach the semifinals. In what proved to be the tournament's most back-and-forth contest of the weekend, both teams traded chances and tries throughout the entire match. Beginning just seconds into the first half, Duncan delivered the game's first try of the match breaking the line with pace on the sidelines to score just 21 seconds into the game. The Running Eagles quickly got back on the attack minutes later as Haughey charged down the middle and scored at the 3-minute mark.

Davenport refused to go down without a fight though, scoring 12 unanswered to send the game to halftime all knotted at 12 apiece. In the second half, the talented Davenport side exploded out of the break with two more tries before Life U's Azhinaye Burner and Leila Opeti scored in quick succession to give Life U a marginal 24-19 lead in the 12th minute of play.

The next Davenport possession was perfect, scoring a try and converting a tough angled kick to win the game as time expired 26-24.

After the loss, the Running Eagles then dropped into the 5th place match where they fell to Sacred Harbor 17-14.

Head coach Ryszard Chadwick shared his thought on the weekend and year as a whole, stating, "After our historic and very close victory in 15s, clinching the first 15s national championship in our program's history, the dedication and hard work that each student-athlete poured into the season was truly monumental. We faced challenges head-on, grew as a team, and achieved something extraordinary together.

Transitioning into the 7s season (10 days), we admittedly found ourselves not as prepared as we would have liked. The shift brought its own set of challenges, one we met with our best effort but didn't yield the results we aimed for.

However, this should not overshadow the monumental achievement and the journey this team has embarked upon this year. Every week has been a learning experience, cementing a foundation of resilience and commitment. We're proud of the growth we've made and are looking forward to continuing to build on them looking ahead at 2024/25 season."