The step up in competition was clear, but Meredith Pyke wasn’t disappointed at all in her club’s performance at the Collegiate Rugby Championship National 7s this past weekend.

The Bonnies dropped their two matches on Saturday, but posted two convincing wins Sunday to capture the Shield Bracket of the Premier Cup tournament.

“I’m very proud of how the girls rose to the challenge,” said Pyke, the Bonnies third-year coach. “This is our third time at CRC Nationals, but the first time in the Premier Cup so we keep raising the bar. We faced two established NCAA rugby schools (Saturday) and as a program in just its third year of building up to this level, I think we put up a great fight.”

SBU fell to New Haven, 29-10, and Mount St. Mary’s, 24-14, on Saturday, but bounced back the next day to beat Norwich, 32-10, and Frostburg, 24-5, to win one of the consolation brackets for teams eliminated from title contention on Saturday.

“The biggest difference for the girls now is learning how to be contenders in this more competitive space, which will take time and more exposure to higher-level competition,” Pyke said. “I think it would have been easy to hang our heads after day one but the team rallied, learned from its mistakes, and brought energy into the second day to win the shield. The Bonnies are on the rise and I think we proved it this weekend.”

Elizabeth Lyons and Natalie Lamar were the leading scorers in the tournament for SBU, each scoring four tries. Alice Robinson (three) and Makenna Ramsey (two) also scored multiple tries.

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