Sunday, June 5, 2011
Posted: 12:14 p.m.Updated: 6:21 p.m.
By Joe McIntyre
For CSNPhilly.com
The Penn State mens' rugby team's hopes of reaching the semifinals will have to wait another year.
After going 2-1 in Saturdays opening day of the USA Sevens Collegiate Rugby Championships at PPL Park and earning a spot in the quarterfinals, the Nittany Lions fell just short against Dartmouth on Sunday, 12-7.
The Lions went down 7-0 early on a score from Dartmouths Tanner Scott, but tied the match before the half when Mike Erickson intercepted the ball and took it to the tryzone untouched.
Following an early second half scrum, Dartmouths Chris Downer came out with the ball and ran it in for the score that sealed the Lions fate.
Obviously disappointing, Penn State coach Don Ferrell said. It was a good rugby match. We had a couple opportunities, and in sevens if you make a mistake, you dont have a lot of time to make up for it.
The Lions had their chances against the Big Green. With no time remaining on the clock, the Lions held the ball in the scoring end of the pitch, but Dartmouth found the loose ball and punted it out of bounds to signal the final whistle.
Though they didnt advance as far as they would have liked, the Lions can build on this years performance and use it as a stepping stone for more successful tournaments in the future.
Our goal was to make the semifinal, and we came a couple seconds short, Ferrell said. I thought we had a good tournament. After last year, the experience, the guys were really looking forward to it, to proving that they belong here, and I think they did that.
Temple was also still playing on Sunday, but considering they lost all three matches on Saturday, the Owls were forced to settle for the Challenger quarterfinals.
And though they scored twice as many points on Sunday as they did in three matches on Saturday, the Owls fell once again, this time to North Carolina, 19-10.
After scoring the first 10 points of the match to go ahead early, the Owls gave up the lead with no time on the first half clock and never scored again.
This year (2011) marked the Owls first-ever appearance at the Collegiate Rugby Championships.
Championship Results
In the womens' final, it was a rematch of this years Division I college championship, and just as the previous matchup figured, Army defeated Penn State, 14-5.
After going 1-2 on Saturday, LSU easily disposed of Notre Dame in the challenger final, 24-0. The Tigers went up early on two quick scores and kept up the offensive pressure and didnt give the Irish much to hold onto.
In the bronze medal final between Central Washington and Utah, Central Washington scored with no time on the game clock to cut the deficit to 12-10, but missed the extra points conversion that would have tied the match, giving Utah the win.
And in the tournament championship game between Dartmouth and Army, it was the Big Green who cruised to a 32-10 win, earning the Pete Dawkins Trophy as champions of the USA Sevens Collegiate Rugby Championships. Army made the match somewhat competitive late, but the Big Green were too much to handle as they improved upon their 2010 showing where they lost in the championship quarterfinals.
Returning to PPL Park
With the success of the 2011 USA Sevens Collegiate Rugby Championships at PPL Park, USA Sevens, NBC and Global Spectrum, operators of PPL Park, announced Sunday afternoon that the 2012 Championships would return to PPL Park.
We are building a truly national event in the Collegiate Rugby Championship and cant imagine better hosts than the Philadelphia region and PPL Park, Jonathan First, president of USA Sevens, said in a statement. Well see you in Chester, PA in 2012.