GREER, S.C. - The Lander Men's Rugby team went 3-2 on Saturday at the first round of the SRC 7s Tournament on a chilly and rainy day in the upstate of South Carolina, finishing 2nd in their pool and would be Plate Runners-Up in a 16-team field. On the day, the Bearcats would outscore opponents 115-27.

The first match was against Wingate. Lander was in the try zone within seconds with a Tomas Mussi try and conversion. After Mussi's first try came three from Ethan Richardson and one from Hayden Bullwinkle in the first half alone. All four tries were converted by Mussi and Lander was up 35-0 at the halfway point. The second half was very similar to the first with converted from freshmen Brad McCaslan and Carey Cortes, as well as Ethan Syswerda. All the tries were converted by Mussi resulting in a 56-0 Lander victory.

The next match had Lander up against Western Carolina. The first half was a bit of a slow start for both teams with Lander leading 7-0 at the half from a Mussi converted try. The second half would see the Catamounts tie the score with a converted try and then the Bearcats would answer with four converted and unanswered tries by Mussi, who scored two, Bulwinkle, and Laureano Petris to give Lander a 35-7 win

In the third match, Lander would face off against Eastern Carolina, both coming into the match 2-0 on the day. The Pirates were able to capitalize on some Lander confusion following a penalty to ECU to take the lead. Despite two linebreaks by Lander, both were thwarted by infractions and the Bearcats were down 5-0 at the half. In the second half, Lander was able to break the line more than once and shut out the Pirates, but they were unable to get in the try zone. The Bearcats would suffer their first defeat of the day 5-0 to the eventual tournament runners-up.

The fourth match was the tournament Plate Semi-final and would have Lander playing the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. The Seahawks finished last spring nationally ranked with a quarterfinal appearance at the Collegiate Rugby Championship. 

The match started with an unconverted try by Syswerda that was followed up by a try from Cortes and conversion by Mussi. Those would be the only scores in the first half to give Lander a 12-0 lead at halftime. In the second half there was some confusion by the Seahawks following penalties and both times Tomas Mussi was able to do a quick restart and score the Bearcats two tries in the second half. Lander was able to hold UNCW scoreless the rest of the match to come away with a 24-0 win.

The fifth and final match of the day had Lander up against Coastal Carolina for the Plate Championship. The fatigue after a long day proved to be problematic in the first half as Coastal was able to capitalize to take an early 7-0 lead. The second half had similar inconsistency in the Bearcats attack and a couple of gaps in the defense allowed Coastal Carolina to take the Shield with a 17-0 victory.

Coach Buck Billings had this to say about the day, "we did what we wanted to do on the day early in having consistency on attack and a stingy defense, typically if you outscore your opponent 91-12 in your first three matches you are doing pretty well, but unfortunately, we couldn't get the win against East Carolina. We were able to regroup and get things back on track against a perennial 7s power and bet UNCW. Unfortunately, things didn't go in our favor with mild injuries and a solid performance by Coastal was more than we could handle."

"We'll regroup and come back stronger for our next tournament; there were a lot of positives on the day and the guys didn't let the weather disrupt our gameplan or hurt morale."

Tomas Mussi led the scoring with 6 tries, 15 of 17 conversions, for 42 points on the day. The Bearcat of the day though was Ethan Syswerda with two tries and stellar defense all day.