Team USA is heading to the bronze-medal round after losing to New Zealand in the women’s Rugby Sevens semi-final match in Paris.
The American team won three matches over the last two days to get to the semi-final game. Their only previous loss at the Olympics was to Team France, who beat Ireland today and will play China later this evening for 5th or 6th place.
It was a solid start for the American team with Alev Kelter scoring within the first three minutes to earn an early 5-0 lead. A failed conversion kept the score the same for the next two minutes, until a try and successful conversion by New Zealand brought the score to 5-7 through the end of the half.
The second half began much slower for the Americans as New Zealand found their way across the USA goal-line less than a minute in, leading the game 5-12.
The American team made three replacements, removing starter BYU Alum Steph Rovetti for teammate Alena Olsen. However, fresh players were not enough to salvage the game, with New Zealand scoring two more tries over the next four minutes.
Team USA’s Kristi Kirshe scored once more in the last minutes of the game with a successful conversion from Olsen, leaving the final score 12-24.
All rugby sevens matches are held at the Stade de France, which is the home of the France national football team (Les Bleus) and the national rugby union team.
Team USA will play in the bronze-medal match against Australia later today at 11:00 a.m. MDT. The gold-medal match between New Zealand and Canada will begin at 11:45 a.m. MDT.
