Sparta, Mich. – The Aquinas College women's rugby team hosted its inaugural tournament, the Nelson Sevens, on Saturday and finished runner-up after a 48-7 loss to Davenport in the championship game at Sparta Sports Park.
The Saints finished the day with a 3-1 record, which included going a perfect 2-0 in pool play.
Aquinas 28, Bowling Green (A) 12
The Saints opened the tournament with a hard-fought win over Bowling Green.
Jayana Williams, Jeanette Aldana and Aaliyah Morin each had one try in the victory, while Lillian Stough had three successful conversions.
Aquinas 35, Northern Michigan 0
AQ put forth a resounding performance in blanking Northern Michigan in its second match of the day.
A balanced attack helped the Saints to the decisive win as five different girls, Stough, Jillian Paetz, Lucy Hanley, Nadia Perez and Taniya West each had one try.
Stough also recorded five successful conversions.
Aquinas 35, Bowling Green (B) 0
Riley Vertz was a major factor in the Saints' third win of the tournament as she led the way with two tries.
Kayla Herrer, Aldana and Morin also had one each as AQ moved into the title game.
Stough had another perfect conversion rate with five.
Davenport 48, Aquinas 7
The young Saints struggled to keep up with the more experienced Panthers and suffered their only loss after falling behind early.
AQ trailed 24-0 at the half and couldn't make up the deficit.
The lone bright spot was a try from Williams in the second half and a successful conversion by Stough.
Coach's Comments
Head Coach Dani Harris: "DU is a great team that we want to keep playing and it's a team that keeps teaching us and growing us. They have a lot of seniors and experience, and we are all freshmen with one sophomore. It was rough in the beginning, but they started learning, growing and adjusting. That's what I wanted to see and I'm extremely happy with how they played today. This was our first tournament ever at Aquinas and even though there was snow, and it was cold, I'm really proud."
Up Next
The Saints have the week off before returning to play next Sunday (April 5) at the Wolverine Sevens in Ann Arbor.
NOTE:Dean Holzwarth, serving as the Senior AQSaints Athletics Reporter & Content Specialist for AQSaints.com, brings decades of journalistic precision and storytelling flair to the Saints' media efforts. Previously, he covered high school sports for ten years at Grand Rapids–based WOOD-TV, following a 16-year tenure in sports reporting with the Grand Rapids Press and MLive. His deep experience in capturing the heartbeat of local athletics now fuels his engaging coverage of Aquinas College sports.
