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Maui Rugby girls have strong showing at Las Vegas Invite

Helava Maea of Maui makes a tackle during the Las Vegas Invitational last week. -- JANET VALDIVIA photo

The Maui Rugby Warriors sent three teams to the Las Vegas Invitational Rugby Sevens tournament last week, with the U18 girls making it to the Cup Championship quarterfinals in the open high school division.

This is the third consecutive year that Maui has sent three full teams to compete at the tournament. Overall, the Warriors finished 11-4 at the nation’s largest rugby sevens tournament.

The Maui U18 girls won their first match against Summit 1, 15-12. Then they defeated eventual Bowl runner-up USA South Blue 17-7 and eventual Bowl champion Notre Dame 24-10 to complete day one of the tournament and earn the No. 7 seed out of eight teams who moved on to the Cup Championship.

In the quarterfinals, Maui lost a close match with the Foothill Lions 12-10 — the Lions went on to win the Cup title. Maui closed the tournament with a 21-14 win over the Carson Colts.

The Maui U18 boys team won the Plate championship (fifth overall) in the boys high school open division. After losing their first match to the Ontario Jr. Blues 17-10, the Warriors then went on to post five consecutive wins over the Carroll Chargers 27-0, View Park Prep 27-7, Las Vegas Rugby Academy 29-0, Valley Avengers 29-0 and Kahu Rugby 24-5 in the Plate final.

Maui’s Sione Lolohea tries to elude a tackle. -- JANET VALDIVIA photo

The Maui U16 boys won one of their three matches, eventually losing to Los Altimos 19-10 in the Plate semifinals.

Up next, the Maui Warriors will enter the North American Sevens Rugby Invitational in Salt Lake City, Aug. 2-3.

The Maui girls team gathers with coach Siua Lolohea. -- JANET VALDIVIA photo

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