COLUMBIA, S.C. - The Lander Men's Rugby team got knocked out in semifinals of the Gamecock 7s tournament in Columbia, S.C. on Saturday. The Bearcats went 2-2 overall on the day and 2-1 in pool play, their only losses on the day coming to last season's 1-A Runner-Up, Queens.

The tournament started out with a matchup with in-state rival, Clemson. The score was tied 0-0 for the first five minutes before Hayden Bullwinkle intercepted a pass and fended off a Tiger defender for a Bearcat try, converted by Tomas Mussi. The half would end with Lander up 7-0. In the second half, Mussi fought his way into the try zone on a pick & go for an unconverted try. Lander would get another unconverted try by Laureano Petris to wrap up the scoring. Lander's defense would hold strong to preserve the 17-0 shutout.

The next matchup for Lander would be Queens University of Charlotte, the defending Div 1-A National Runner-up and recent National Champion. Both teams proved to have stingy defense as both teams would be held scoreless for the first seven minutes before Lander's Carey Cortes scored in the corner for an unconverted try. The Bearcats led the Royals 5-0 at the half. The second half started out on the same tone as the first with defense being prominent from both teams until Queens scored an unconverted try in the 3rd minute. Unfortunately, the Royals were able to scored three more unanswered converted tries to beat the Bearcats 26-5. 

In the last match of pool play, Lander would face South Carolina's second-side of their four-side program. The Bearcats waisted no time getting on the board when Ethan Syswerda touched down an offload from Eric Burkett over the goal line for a Mussi converted try. Next player in the try zone was Petris for a Mussi converted try. To close out the half Bullwinkle was able to kick a ball down the pitch, recover it one-handed, and out run the Gamecock defender to score under the post. Bullwinkle would add his own conversion to make it 21-0 at the half in favor of Lander. The second half was a little slow to start, but Petris was able to get a line break and race into the try zone for a Mussi converted try to put the game out of reach for good. 

After the conclusion of pool play, Lander found itself the fourth seed of a ten team field. This placed Lander in the semifinals for a rematch against Queens. 

Queens proved to be too strong early and were able to establish a 24-0 first half lead. In the second half, Lander appeared to be mounting a comeback when Ethan Richardson found the try zone for an unconverted try. Unfortunately, Queens would find the try zone for two unanswered tries and win the match 36-5. 

Head Coach Buck Billings had these things to say on the day, "I'm proud of how hard hard our men played today, this was a very good tournament with the best 7s teams from the SEC and Queens, one of the top D-1A teams in the country." 

"We had our chances to beat Queens in both matches and the scores truly didn't reflect how close we were with each other." 

"We are showing a lot of improvement with each tournament, but we still have a lot of room to grow and a couple of weeks till we play again at Wake Forest."

The Bearcat of the day was Hayden Bullwinkle.