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After losing 2 finals this season NOVA finally got on the board on Saturday with a convincing win at the Verve Energy 7s in Norfolk, VA. After the excitement of the Cape Fear 7s last weekend though it was a slight anti-climax with a small field making up the qualifier.

NOVA now leads the MARFU standings in the race for San Francisco due to previous leaders Schulykill River not attending having already qualified for the regional tournament to be held in 2 weeks time.

NOVA were led by their 2 overseas imports David Smith (England 7s & Elite ID) and Hamish Smales (Kooga Wailers). The pair are out there after UR7s were able to secure them a summer in the sun playing for NOVA. With Eric Devine, Ed Stockunas, Fred Wintermantel and PJ Komongnan working perfectly with the English lads NOVA went someway to show their strength in depth and make up for early season let downs.

In a real show of dominance NOVA won the final 45.0 against Charlotte but rather than celebrating the win NOVA manager Bill Gardner let his frustrations be known about traveling 3 hours to compete in such a small field.

“We are having too few teams trying to qualify for the territorial tournament, and that’s a shame,” said NOVA head man Bill Gardner. “There’s no sense of urgency. We need to change how it’s set up. We should prevent any other tournaments [in the territory] being held on a weekend when there’s a qualifier.”

In the larger and more competitive Open division it was Richmond who ran out winners with a 21.7 win over Severn River in the final.

Dayton University take spoils at Rock 'n' Roll 7s

In Ohio a similar situation was taking place on Saturday, with 3 tournaments taking place. With teams spread across the midwest region Dayton University took full advantage defeating Cincinatti in the final.

This is the 2nd week running a College side has taken a win after Life University winning the Cape Fear 7s. This goes a long way to show the strength of players and teams at University and Colleges nationwide in 2009. It is a really strong sign for American 7s that new teams are coming to challenge the old guard for titles across the country and that they are made up of young players who will be on the circuit for many years to come.

Dayton's win tok them up into a tie for 3rd place in the standings in the midwest with the Youngbloodz behind Milwaukee and Chicago Lions. With the top 8 teams in the standings qualifying for the regional tournament in Elkhart on July 25th there will be some nervous times over the next few weeks for Chicago Men, Chicago Griffins and Coralville Reefers as they are tied for 7th. With 1 of the sides set to miss out on the regional.