USA Women’s Sevens Glendale Preview

The HSBC USA Women’s Sevens will take place from October 5-6, 2019 at Infinity Park in Glendale, Colorado. The USA Women’s Sevens will open the World Rugby Sevens Series for the 2019-2020 season. All matches will be broadcast LIVE on NBC Sports Gold. Tickets are available at usawomens7sglendale.com.

Last season the USA Women’s Eagles Sevens teams collected medals in five of six tournaments, including their first-ever gold at the season finale in Biarritz. The group reached the semifinals at every event, were one of only four teams to qualify for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and reached a world No. 2 ranking.

The USA women then followed the 2018-2019 season with a silver medal at the Pan American Games in Lima.

Head Coach Chris Brown has named the squad for the season opener in Glendale.

Fane Haungatau will make her debut in the World Series event after spending last season dedicated to development while also debuting with the Women’s Eagles in XVs. She was explosive against the Barbarians in April and went on to earn her first cap in XVs against England during the Super Series in June.

Coach Brown named a new Co-Captain in Abby Gustaitis who will join Lauren Doyle in leading the group.

Ilona Maher, Naya Tapper, and Kristi Kirshe will also be back for the new season and plan on lighting up the pitch with more tries.

The full group owns 136 cumulative tournament appearances.

The USA Women will open against Brazil on Saturday, Oct 5 at 10:59 AM MT. Brazil competed in the Langford stop as an invitational team last season and finished last. Ireland will be up next who finished eighth overall but had after promising runs in the Glendale (6th) and Sydney (4th) stops of the Series. Pool play will conclude against France who missed out on Olympic qualification last season with a fifth-place finish behind Australia.

Chris Brown said that “We’ve spent the past couple months revisiting a number of cultural aspects within the group while prioritizing getting our on-field foundation set for the season ahead.

“Although this preseason has been pretty short, with a full season behind us, we’re pleased to see ourselves clicking as a unit more quickly and effectively. We feel we are in a solid position to continue the progression seen last season and we are excited about attacking the mission we have for the 2020 World Series and the Olympics.”

Squad

USA: 1 Cheata Emba (12) 2 Ilona Mayer (7) 3 Abby Gustaitis (Co-captain, 8) 4 Nicole Heavirland (19) 5 Alev Kelter (29) 6 Lauren Doyle (Co-Captain, 25) 7 Naya Tapper (17) 8 Jordan Matyas (10) 9 Stephanie Rovetti 10 Fane Haungatau (Debut) 11 Kasey McCravey (2) 12 Kristi Kirshe (4)

*Not available for selection: Lilly Durbin, Joanne Fa’avesi, Alena Olsen, Kris Thomas