University Park, PA - Over the weekend Penn State Men's Rugby travelled to Kennesaw, GA to compete in the USA Rugby Sevens Collegiate Championship. While the weekend didn't go perfectly to plan, the team rallied on Sunday to take home some hardware, winning the Bowl 26-5 over Clemson.
The team faced off against Arizona, Clemson and Lindenwood on Saturday in Pool play. The first match of the day against Arizona started off well, with Dalton Musselman sneaking a kick-off up the middle and regathering, his subsequent off-load however went forward and turned the ball over to Arizona. This seemed to be the story of the morning, the game was back and forth with both teams trading tries early on. In the second half Arizona jumped out to a 19-14 lead. With time winding down Penn State had an opportunity to level the scores. Going the length of the field and threatening Arizona's line only to lose the ball forward and end the match.
Rolling into the second match of the day the team was confident they could turn the morning around against a good Clemson team. Again, much like the first game of the day, the contest was very much back and forth. Playing most of the match down a player due to 2 yellow cards, Clemson was able to capitalize on the man advantage and edge out the Lions 26-24.
Match three was going to be an uphill battle against perennial power Lindenwood University who had defeated the other pool teams by a combined score of 89-5. Limping into the match with 9 players, 2 injuries and a 1 match suspension, the team battled hard but, in the end, Lindenwood was too much and defeated Penn State 52-0.
After a tough day 1 going 0-3, the Penn State Lions rebounded Sunday to go 3-0 and win the Bowl Championship in a bit of a "revenge" tour.
The Lions dispatched Indiana in the 1st game of the morning 19-14 in extra time, after falling to Indiana multiple times in the Big Ten Sevens Series this was a great victory for the team. Next up the team took on rival Navy. In another close match that could have gone either way, the Lions fought to a 26-21 win, setting up a rematch with pool play opponent Clemson.
Building off the confidence of the two wins in the morning, Penn State managed to dominate the final match of the day and defeat Clemson, 26-5, and winning the Bowl Championship.
