Cal Rugby Sweeps West Coast Collegiate 7s Tournament

Both Bears sides go unbeaten in San Luis Obispo over the weekend

Cal sent two rugby sides to the West Coast Collegiate 7s at Cal Poly over the weekend and the two sides combined to go 8-0 in their first competition of the fall.

"As I said in the preview, we were ready for some competition lessons and I think we now have a host of things to work on and improve," Cal head coach Jack Clark said. "This said, Tom [Billups, associate head coach] and I are really proud of the boys. To a man, they worked hard and had a real competitive spirit. It's only one tournament, but it's a good start and importantly, we can build from this point forward."

Starting out with two pools of four teams each, Cal's squads combined to go 6-0 to claim the top seed in their respective pools, defeating Long Beach State, Fresno State, UCLA, Arizona, Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara.

Then, in the first semifinal, the Bears took down Arizona 19-12 before the other Cal side defeated UCLA 27-21 in the following semifinal match.

As a result, both Cal teams were scheduled to face each other in the Cup Final, so the final match was not contested.

This is the fifth time that Cal has won this tournament, previously taking home the title in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.

All 29 players who traveled to San Luis Obispo received playing time on Saturday and collectively, Cal outscored its opponents 179-93 thanks to 29 tries from 17 different players. Junior Max Clark led the Bears with five scores on the day.

Freshman Kealan O’Connell was one of 10 underclassmen to make their 7s debut for Cal. He collected three tries and started in three of his team's four games.

Cal will now turn its focus to the PAC Rugby 7s Championship, an eight-team tournament which it will host at Witter Rugby Field November 6-7.

Scoring Timelines:

Cal 21, Long Beach State 12

2:00 Will Shankland 5, Jon Puckett 2
6:00 Long Beach State 5, Long Beach State 2
7:00 Nate Salter 5, Jack Casey 2
9:00 Cal Penalty Try 7
11:00 LBSU 5

Cal 19, Fresno State 12

3:00 Max Clark 5, Alex Brundage 2
5:00 Fresno State 5, Fresno State 2
7:00 Fresno State 5
Halftime Score: Cal 7, Fresno State 12
9:00 Cal Liebowitz 5
14:00 Nick Bloom 5, Sam Walsh 2

Cal 19, UCLA 12

7:00 Mack Fell 5, Kealan O’Connell 2
7:00 Nate Salter 5, Kealan O’Connell 2
Halftime Score: Cal 14, UCLA 0
10:00 UCLA 5, UCLA 2
11:00 Nate Salter 5
14:00 UCLA 5


Cal 19, Arizona 7

4:00 Arizona 5, Arizona 2
6:00 Kevin Saunders 5, Henry Poon 2
9:00 Sam Walsh 5, Alex Brundage 2
11:00 Alex Brundage 5


Cal 19, Cal Poly 17

1:00 Kealan O’Connell 5
3:00 Kealan O’Connell 5, Nate Salter 2
5:00 Cal Poly 5, Caly Poly 2
7:00 Cal Poly 5
8:00 Jack Casey 5, Jack Casey 2
11:00 Cal Poly 5

Cal 36, UC Santa Barbara 0

2:00 Max Clark 5, Max Clark 2
3:00 Max Schumacher 5
7:00 Nathan Zylstra 5
8:00 Jake Broekhuizen 5, Max Schumacher 2
12:00 Max Clark 5, Max Schumacher 2
14:00 Cal Liebowitz 5

Cal 19, Arizona 12 (Semifinal)

3:00 Jack Casey 5, Nate Salter 2
5:00 Arizona 5, Arizona 2
7:00 Jafer Snipes 5
9:00 Kealan O’Connell 5, Nate Salter 2
10:00 Arizona 5

Cal 27, UCLA 21 (Semifinal)

1:00 Nathan Zylstra 5
3:00 UCLA 5, UCLA 2
4:00 Max Clark 5
7:00 Max Clark 5, Sam Walsh 2
8:00 UCLA 5, UCLA 2
10:00 Seth Purdey 5
12:00 Miles Beaubelle 5
14:00 UCLA 5, UCLA 2

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Cover photo by Guy Warren Photography

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Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

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