Volunteers Repeat as Southeastern Champions
Tennessee wins 2011 SCRC Olympic 7s Tournament

September 24, 2011 (Knoxville, TN) Tennessee defeated Florida in the final of the 2011 Southeastern Collegiate Rugby Conference Olympic Sevens Championship and thereby earned a spot in the national tournament in December.

Pool Play
11 Southeastern Conference Schools participated in the event meaning Tennessee, as the host team and defending champion, had the opportunity to place a second team in the Varsity Division. Tennessee's Varsity team had two well earned victories in their pool while Tennessee II suffered two very close defeats in Pool D.

Pool A: Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi State
Pool B: LSU, South Carolina, Auburn
Pool C: Georgia, Arkansas, Mississippi
Pool D: Florida, Alabama, Tennessee II

Playoff Bracket
The Volunteers squared off with Auburn in the quarterfinals. The Tigers had used their size and strength to finish second in the very competitive Pool B. Auburn was a hard charging team but Tennessee found ways to keep the ball away from them and earned a decisive 34-0 victory. The win set up a semifinal showdown with LSU who topped Mississippi State 12-5 in their quarterfinal match up. LSU is a well polished sevens team that the Vols knew well having squared off against them in last year's final. In this year's edition, the Volunteers were able to stay organized on defense and eventually capitalize on Tiger mistakes. The solid 36-0 victory set up the showdown with Florida for the Southeastern Championship.

Tennessee II was relegated to the consolation bracket and promptly won two games to claim the consolation bracket championship. After a solid victory over Ole Miss, the Volunteers came from behind to score on the final play of the game and defeat South Carolina 22-21.

Championship Final
Tennessee faced a very sizeable and physical team from the University of Florida in the final. The Vols fell behind 0-7 and were down 7-14 at the half with a player in the bin. The Volunteers had allowed the bigger Gators to dictate the pace and style of game in the first half. Tennessee didn't panic but rather focused on the past six weeks of committed sevens training to turn things around in the second half. The Volunteers ran across three tries to win 26-14 and claim the 2011 SCRC Championship.

2011 USA Rugby National Championship
The Volunteers have now automatically qualified for the inaugural collegiate sevens national championship tournament to be held on December 16 & 17. The location for the championship event has not been released.