BGSU rugby sevens team to play in national championships

Falcons play James Madison, Fordham on Friday in Colorado

The Bowling Green State University rugby team will play in the National Collegiate Sevens Championships in Glendale, Colorado, this weekend (May 19-21).  

Led by Chris Labadie, the Falcons defeated the University of Louisville 26-14 in the final match to earn its third straight trip in the sevens version of the game to the national finals. It is also the third straight year that BGSU has qualified for the sevens and fifteens sweet sixteen.

In the sevens version of the game, only sevens players from each team are on the field and each match consists of two seven-minute halves.  

The Falcons defeated Central Michigan University 29-5, Miami University 34-0 and the University of Dayton 14-0 to earn a berth in the four-team playoff of the tournament.

In the the semifinal, BGSU crushed longtime rival Western Michigan University 33-7. "Western has been nipping at our heals for the past four years in both sevens and fifteens," said Roger Mazzarella, BGSU rugby director. "Sevens is an easy game to lose control of, though. A couple of break runs and, bam, the score differential is insurmountable. They are a good team with a good coach and I have no doubt that the target on BGSU back just got a little bit bigger."

BGSU is in a pool with St. Mary's College, Fordham University and James Madison University. The Falcons play James Madison at 4:20 p.m. Friday, Fordham at 7:20 Friday evening and St. Mary’s at 11:20 a.m. Saturday. The top two finishers in each pool move on to the championship rounds Saturday and Sunday.

The matches will be televised on the Rugby Channel. A weekend subscription can be purchased for $4.99.

For more information, go to the USA Rugby College Sevens website.