Atlantis is not a national team and we can't find players everywhere, but it's my goal to be geographically distributed throughout the 50 states, as much as we are capable of doing that effectively.  Sometimes it makes sense to stay in one area - e.g. the Atlantis Boys Open team - AKA Atlantis DC - focused on one geographical area, practiced several times, and won a championship.  In the case of the Girls U-19 and HS teams, having Karl Barth, a former national age-group coach, and Billy Nicholas, formerly of NY, now of Lindenwood, MO, has allowed us to reach out to a wide variety of geographical areas: our 12 players represented six states including Hawaii and Vermont.  Having one day of practice makes it difficult for a squad constructed like that, but we got some really great play from them over the course of the tourney.  - Emil

First Name	Last Name	Atlantis	Club	Age	Ht	Wt	Position		Birthplace	Residence
		#		yr	in	lbs	7s	15s
Dana	Alimena	969	Doylestown (PA)	18	68	150	1	6,7	Doylestown PA	Pennsylvania
Nika	Paogofie-Buyten	1090	Kealakehe HS (HI)	16	70	170	1	8,14,1	Kailua-Kona, HI	Hawaii
Maryjane	Pasioles	1091	Sacramento Amazons	16	64	120	4	4	Sacramento, CA	California
Johanna	Pasutin	1092	Fullerton Lady Lions	18	68	145	1,2,3	6,7,4,5	Anaheim, CA	California
Kaleina	Paula	1093	Chaparral HS (CO)	16	66	150	1,2,3	2,8	Aurora, CO	Colorado
Neariah	Persinger	1014	Broken Arrow (OK)	18	67	143	6,7	10 to 15	Roseau, Dominica	Oklahoma
Sophia	Pyrz	1094	Doylestown (PA)	18	63	130	2,4	10 to 15	Doylestown, PA	Pennsylvania
Meg	Rose	1095	Summit HS (CO)	17	66	150	1,2,3	12,13,14	Vail, CO	Colorado
Kianna	Saffings	1096	Dixon HS (CA)	18	66	168	1,6	10-13,15	CA	California
Caitria	Sands	1097	Essex HS (VT)	17	65	132	6,7	12,13,14	Burlington, VT	Vermont
Mele	Tausinga	977	Sacramento Amazons	16	67	189	1,6	10,12,13,8	Sacramento, CA	California

will fix above table

--- when arrived? which day practiced, played, etc. --



1. Atlantis v Washington Loggers (38-0, 19-0 halftime)  -Pool A

Atlantis Scoring: Persinger (2T), Paogofie-Buyten (2T), Pyrz (T), Alimena (T), Tausinga (4C)

The Atlantis team got off to a dream start when Mele Tausinga (Sacramento, CA) hung a huge kick-off up for Nene Persinger (Broken Arrow, OK) who fielded it cleanly and ran it for the opening score (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDrDkx1J718&feature=youtu.be&list=PLGab-yPW4EnaXof43bHyAjPdHWH_zefzm).

The girls in Teal (on Black) continued to click as Persinger took a Sophie Pyrz pass down the touch line for her second score. The following restart produced our third score: Tausinga's kick put the Loggers under pressure from Coco Saffings (Dixon, CO) and Meg Rose (Silverthorne, CO) who turned the ball over before Saffings' offload put Nika Paogofie-Buyten in for the try.

The second half saw more of the same as a great tackle poach by Pyrz and pass to Paogofie-Buyten gave Nika a second try.  The Doylestown, Pennsylvania duo of Pyrz and Dana Alimena tallied the final tries of the game. Alimena's finished a great team try and support that saw Kaleina Paula (Parker, CO) beat two Loggers before being tackled short of the goal-line; Dana picked and scored.


2. Atlantis v Notre Dame Hounds (Saskatchewan) (7-29, 7-12 halftime)  -Pool A

Atlantis Scoring: Sands (T), Tausinga (C)

The second game for Atlantis resulted in the low point of the day as the girls came out flat and despite of some sub par play on offense and a missed tackle that gave Athol Murray College of Notre Dame Hounds (Wilcox, Saskatchewan) an easy early 7-0 lead, the ladies of Atlantis fought back and after a heads up play by Tausinga, Pyrz and Persinger committed the Hounds defenders for Catie Sands (Essex, VT) to cruise in for the try.

Tausinga's conversion leveled the scores, but on the restart the Atlantis girls got sucked in and the Hounds punished them when they swung it wide and scored down the sideline from deep in their own end, for a 12-7 halftime lead.

The second half started poorly for Atlantis as they fell out of their defensive pattern and fell off some tackles. The Saskatchewan girls took full advantage of the Atlantians' mistakes and put the game away early in the second stanza with a quick try and then another, a gift from a lineout mistake on the goal-line. The Hounds added one more late in the game against a dejected Atlantis squad.


3. Atlantis v USA High School All-Americans Blue (7-24, 7-7 halftime)  -Pool A

Atlantis Scoring: Pyrz (T), Tausinga (C)

The game started poorly for the girls as APEX and Davenport University's standout Ashlee Byrge almost took an early opportunity down the left touch before All-American Nia Tolliver used a huge fend and some nifty foot work to free herself and race 50 yards for the opening score. Soon after, the Atlantis girls put themselves under pressure and the All-American defense forced a scrum deep in the Atlantis end.  We stole the scrum and a powerful run by Saffings gave Persinger a chance to run. Although the cover caught her at midfield, the resulting breakdown infraction gave the girls a chance to spin wide and Pyrz outraced the sweeper for the score. The Tausinga conversion tied the game.

The USA turned the game around with two quick tries to start the second half as they forced a scrum in the Atlantis half and went weak with Rosko (Atlantis #976) and Tolliver for the score as the ladies in Teal reacted too slowly.  Then off a turnover Central Washington's Ashley Rolsma raced down the left side for the try to seal the game. Davenport University's Ashlee Byrge just got the ball down despite a great cover tackle by Persinger to cap the scoring on the last play of the game.

The girls were very happy with the way they rebounded from the poor Notre Dame performance and despite the final score enjoyed the improved play and team development.


4. Atlantis v Edmonton Gold (26-0, 14-0 halftime)  -Cup Quarter Final

Atlantis Scoring: Persinger (3T), Tausinga (T, 3C)

Day 2 saw Atlantis draw Edmonton Gold in the Cup Quarterfinal and despite Edmonton enjoying more possession in the first half the girls played patient and opportunistic defense and scored two Persinger tries. On the first, flyhalf MaryJane Pasioles (Sacramento) dummied the switch and then stretched the defense before firing the ball wide to Persinger.  Nene stepped inside her defender and dotted down. The second came when Saffings made a break and offloaded to Persinger.  The ball went astray, but after some scrambling to keep it alive Persinger finally came up with it and raced down the right touch line for the score.

The second half started with a great team try (http://youtu.be/eK3vW_--rw8?list=PLGab-yPW4Ena2wHb9Woh5AYyee7NAI8GQ) as Tausinga took the kickoff and showed her trademark power sidestepping before moving the ball right through hands;  Pasioles switched back inside and beat three defenders before hitting Tausinga. Mele sent it wide to Persinger who outraced the cover defense.  Persinger almost got a fourth but a try saving high tackle stopped the chance and saw a yellow for the Gold. With Edmonton down a player Pasioles looked to put Johanna Pasutin (Fullerton, CA) away but a late hand knocked the ball away.  Shortly after that Tausinga added to her haul of conversions with a big dummy pass and step to score under the sticks. Her conversion capped the scoring, 26-0 Atlantis.


5. Atlantis v High School All-Americans Red (7-38, 7-17 halftime)  -Cup Semi Final

Atlantis Scoring: Persinger (T), Tausinga (C)

In the Cup Semi Final the team met the eventual winners, USA All-American Red, a team stacked with TEAM USA Junior Olympians and Atlanteans Kat Ramage (Atlantis #974), Tess Feury (#971), and Tiffany Person (#943); also Morgan Courtney (#1009), Diarr Lillie (#1012), Emily Roskopf (#1017),  APEX's Leti Hingano and Fina Toetu'u, Apau Mailau (TEAM USA); Fallbrook's Michelle Navarro (TEAM USA), and Lily Durban (USA WJAA). 

(It's always a mixed feeling when your alumni [in this case alumnae] come back to beat you.  It's great, of course for Atlantis to see 6 of its alumnae on the HS All American team, but we always go on the field desiring to score more points than the other team.  But it's ok if you play well and don't win.  Of course that's always OK, but especially in this situation.  If you look at the Atlanteans Karl mentions above, it was theoretically possible that at one time, 13 of the 14 players on the field could have been Atlantis or ex-Atlantis! That's a sign that we're fulfilling part of our mission - Emil)

The Atlantis girls fought hard but in the end there were just too many weapons to try and stop in Red and despite taking a 7-0 lead the USA wore the girls down and punished every mistake with points. Atlantis kept it close in the first half but the All-Americans poured it on at the end as Durban ran in 3 long tries.

6. Atlantis v Orem Stallions (7-12, 7-5 halftime)  -Plate Final

Atlantis Scoring: Persinger (T), Tausinga (C)

In the plate final the Stallions of Orem, Utah brought their physical style of play and both teams played good defense early in the game.  Orem took the lead but a Persinger try and Tausinga conversion gave the lead back to us. The girls looked to take control of the game when Tausinga floated a big wide pass to Persinger who had an easy run in under the posts but the referee trailing the play ruled it forward.  The game stayed close until late in the game when a few tired tackles were missed and a Stallion raced in to win the game and a disappointed Atlantis squad was left to rue missed opportunities.

--[Emil note - save the following paragraph for after the Open write up] --
Overall it was a great experience for the squad as both Elite and Open teams made the Cup Semi-Finals after 1 day of training together. The trip was beneficial from the standpoint of challenging matches, camaraderie on and off the pitch, and a whole lot of fun whether walking the strip, Chicken in the Hen House, getting lost in Circus Circus, watching the International matches, or just hanging out dancing and shooting videos (what happens in Vegas, stays on tour) in the Riviera hallways.

#	Last Name	First Name	T	C	Pts
I	Paogofie-Buyten	Nika	2	0	10
II	Rose	Meg			0
III	Tausinga	Melelea	1	11	27
IV	Pyrz	Sophie	2		10
V	Pasioles	Maryjane			0
VI	Saffings	Kiana			0
VII	Persinger (c)	Neariah	7		35
VIII	Pasutin	Johanna			0
IX	Alimena	Dana	1		5
X	Paula	Kaleina			0
XI	Sands	Catie	1		5
		Atlantis	14	11	92
		Opponents	17	9	103

Following the LVI tourney just about all the participants attended the USA Sevens tournament, a collection of 16 of the best national sevens teams in the world (one of the reasons for the LVI tournament is to get a few thousand rugby people in town to populate the USA Sevens tourney, and it's working). The USA Sevens is at Sam Boyd Stadium, adjacent to the Star Nursery Fields.  Here are a couple of pictures of our girls' team at the USA Sevens.