The NOVA Rugby Club has decided to combine their two highly successful 7's tournaments (Ruggerama and Battlefield 7s) into one main event for this year.
The NOVA Women's Rugby Club is celebrating the 23rd Annual Ruggerama 7s Tournament in honor of Mardi Corrall, a former teammate who lost her life in a car accident just months before the first RUGGERAMA. Her name graces the tournament cup and, in her memory, and for the tenth successive year, we give a portion of the day’s proceeds to the National Association of Girls and Women in Sport. We appreciate the chance to give back to women’s athletics.
2009 Tournament Results
This past Saturday NOVA Rugby played host to the first MARFU Qualifier at the 8th annual Battlefield 7's tournament. Thirty-two teams came together to compete in three divisions with the top teams fighting for a spot in the MARFU Championships in July and a chance to go to Nationals in August. A cloudy and humid morning gave way to rain for most of the early part of the day. But by 2pm wet and sloppy conditions gave way to sunny skies and a fast paced exciting finish to the day.
Six teams competed in the top Premiere division as local rivals renewed acquaintances for this first qualifier. Hosts and tournament favorites NOVA Black looked confident and ready to go as they went 3-0 in pool play. While last years number two team Maryland Exiles struggled with a young team still trying to fine themselves. Upstarts Wilmington were looking to build on the success they showed early last year after developing some young talent over the last two summers. PAC and Washington always looking scrappy played hard but were not quite up to the task but are going to be tough throughout the rest of the summer. The big surprise of the day though was Schuylkill River. Going 2-1 in pool play with a lone loss to NOVA. They came back in the semi's and hammered PAC 42-12 to move on and face NOVA in the finals after the hosts squeaked by Wilmington 19-14. Schuylkill then went on to put on a clinic in team play and beat NOVA 28-5.
In the 10 team Women's division NOVA I ran all over their competition on their way to the finals. While the Maryland Exile Women played a very scrappy style to fight their way into the final match. Unfortunately for the young and upcoming Maryland team the experience on the NOVA team was just too much and the tournament hosts walked away with a 28-5 victory.
The Open bracket saw a mixture of competitive and social sides playing with half the teams looking to acquire points towards the MARFU Tier two championship. While the 16 teams varied in experience they all were competitive at some point and upsets were seen throughout the day. In the end though three of the four teams to make the semi-finals were teams looking for that end of season hardware. The lone exception being Team Fun comprised of players from the Norfolk area. Unfortunately Team Fun's run ended in the semi's with a 36-19 loss to Severn River White. On the other side Richmond Grey went down to Schuylkill II. In what was a precursor of what was to come Schuylkill won the Open with a 28-21 victory and a sweep of the Men's Divisions on the day.
Congratulations also go out to the tournament MVP's
Men's Premiere: Dan Wright - Schuylkill River
Men's Open: Ben Reilley - Schuylkill River
Women's: Dominique Bunai - MDX Women
NOVA would like to thank all the teams and supporters that came out and participated in this years tournament. Special thanks also go out to NOVA Pain and Rehab who supplied the trainers for this years tournament and continue to support rugby in the DC area. Also, Susan Martinko who came down from Pennsylvania as the MARFU rep and ended up being an invaluable help throughout the day. Thanks also go out to Ken Fraine and all the other referees who came out on Sat and did a great job covering all the games and helping to keep us on time.
We look forward to seeing everyone again next year and wish the best of luck to all the teams throughout the rest of the summer.
Ed Gafney
Battlefield 7's
Tournament Director
