TUCSON, Az. – Notre Dame College men's rugby closed out their successful 2019 spring season at the USA Rugby D1A College National Championships. The Falcons defeated the University of Minnesota, University of Utah and Grand Canyon University on May 24. The next day, their season came to an end as Notre Dame fell to Davenport University and the University of Arizona.

Throughout the spring portion of the regular season, NDC won two tournaments and finished second in two others, qualifying as one of the top-16 teams in the nation.

"It was very tough to keep the players focused after school let out in early May," said Head Coach Jason Fox. "But the team did a great job in preparing for a week long trip to Arizona."

The team left for Arizona on the evening of May 20 in an attempt to acclimate to the weather.

"We had some very good training sessions leading up to competition and coach Luke Matthews did a great job keeping the team focused," Fox said.

It really showed during the first day of the tournament as the Falcons were able to breeze through their pool play on May 24 by beating Minnesota, 22-10, Utah, 32-5, and a strong Grand Canyon squad, 32-10, to finish the day undefeated and as the top seed in Pool C.

Liam Tipton-Fletcher led the way in scoring with two hat tricks in consecutive games for a total of six tries. Strong play by captain Andrew Guerra, along with great direction by Christian Olsen and great running by Matthew Smith would lead the team into the quarterfinals the next day.

NDC would start May 25 against a very strong Davenport team. The kickoff time was 10:40 a.m. in Arizona, but the thermometer read 90 degrees.

"We looked a bit sluggish during parts of the game and I believe it was due to the extreme heat, which we were not ready for, along with playing hard the first day," Fox added. "I am not taking anything away from Davenport, as they are an outstanding team that ended up finishing third in the tourney. However, we made some mistakes that I believe were due to lack of fitness through the second day."

Davenport was able to stop the high-powered Falcons offense and take advantage of some fortunate bounces to win, 22-5.

"That is how the game of 7s is sometimes" Fox added. "You have to be very good, with some good breaks coming your way, to win all the way through."

The second game of the day stacked the Falcons against host Arizona to see who would play in the plate final. The Falcons jumped out to a 15-14 lead in the first half, on scores by Tarik James and two more by Tipton-Fletcher. Great support play off the bench by Patrick O'Shea and Sean Woods would not be enough as the Wildcats were able to outpace a tired Falcons team, 26-22. The Falcons would finish with a 7^th place finish in the National Tournament.

"It was disappointing in the fact that we really thought we could contend for the title, however, I am very proud of what these athletes did and how they handled themselves staying three extra weeks after school to go to this competition," Fox said.

Tipton-Fletcher was a scoring machine leading the tournament in tries and Guerra was one of the best players, and was recognized by making the All-Tournament team.

"Everyone played as a team, down to the end, and we are very excited about what next year will bring, as we are returning many of the players from this year," Fox explained.