Atlantis Rugby takes silver in Portugal!

Atlantis Rugby took silver at the 2026 Lisbon Junior 7s Tournament

Over this past weekend, Atlantis Rugby had our first High School Girls international tour since earning silver at the Paris World Games in 2017. This year’s team participated in Lisbon Junior 7s in Portugal and was able to match the 2017 side with a second place finish in our 14 team division.

As one of the first teams to arrive in Portugal the players were given an opportunity to train for high performance while also experiencing the sites and culture of our host nation. Team-building excursions for this trip included surf lessons and touring Estadio da Luz which is the home of Benfica.

On the first day of competition we went 3-0 in pool play with the following results:

50-0 Win over SG RK03/ ST. PAULI (Germany)

36-0 Win over AGRÁRIA + LOUSÃ LITOCAR (Portugal)

31-7 Win over Eastern Ontario (Canada)

In the quarterfinals we were matched up against Belbarians (Belgium) and came away with a 26-24 victory to earn a spot in the semi-finals. Our semi-final opponent was UR7s (England) and a 33-12 victory saw Atlantis earn a spot in the Championship match against Valencia (Spain).

Valencia was simply too strong and came away with a 32-5 win to take the title. They only gave up two tries throughout the entire tournament and our match against them was actually their closest scoreline of the weekend. It seems likely that we’ll be seeing some of those players again on the international circuit.

Overall, our record for the weekend was 5-1 with 180 points scored and 75 allowed for a +105 scoreline. We also had not only the rare opportunity to play in such an outstanding tournament overseas, but to do so with 6 matches against opponents from 6 different non-US countries.

We would like to take this opportunity to once again thank all of the parents, home clubs, coaches, referees, admins, and volunteers that work with these players on a daily basis to help them grow and develop so that they can take advantage of these opportunities and everything else that rugby can provide them. Thank you!

The team included:

Mack Aluise – Doylestown Girls Rugby Club in Pennsylvania

Jeni Bradford – Summit Girls Rugby in Colorado

Giselle Long – Westside Revenge in Indiana

Anna Petzinger – Eagle Lady Mustangs in Idaho

Avery Russer – Summit Girls Rugby in Colorado

Hailey Russer – Summit Girls Rugby in Colorado

Kaliyah Schimpf – Monarch HS Rugby in Colorado

Galia Vilchis – Woodlands Rugby Club in Texas

Hiilei Vuta – Puna Chiefs in Hawaii

Kanani Watts – Eagle Lady Mustangs in Idaho

Hannah Webb – Summit Girls rugby in Colorado

Kaiya Wrigley – Culpeper Rugby Club in Virginia

The staff included:

Kate Flanagan – Head Coach

Karl Barth – Assistant

Josie Ziluca – Assistant

Alie Ramage – Manager

Last but not least, Kaliyah Schimpf was named MVP for this tour, congratulations!