The men’s rugby team traveled to Las Vegas two weeks ago, where they tied for seventh place at the USA Sevens.

The club, whose 15s team is ranked 21st in the nation, placed 7th out of 32 teams.

“The trip went well. I felt the competition at the tournament was better this year, and we ended up at the same spot we did last year,”  head coach Daniel Yarusso said.

The tournament lasted three days, with the winner getting invited to the Collegiate Rugby Championship in June. On the first day, the Seawolves beat Brown and Longwood Universities. The next day, they lost to UCLA but beat Stanford University. The final day, they lost to Davenport in the quarterfinals.

“We were all disappointed we lost to Davenport in the quarters,” Yarusso said.  “We felt we did not play to our potential.”

The Las Vegas Invitational was a 7s tournament, rather than the usual games of 15s that the team plays. This means that, instead of a 15 vs. 15 game with 40-minute halves, each team has seven players on the field and there are seven-minute halves.

The Stony Brook team brought 15 representatives.

The trip to Vegas was funded partially by the school and partially by the players, with the school giving a grant for rooms and vans and the players paying for their plane tickets.

“[It was] overall a great experience and [we’re] looking forward to our playoff run this spring,” Yarusso said.