Alev Kelter
Alev Kelter of Eagle River bulldozed her way to three conversions in the bronze-medal match on her way to leading the HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series tournament in scoring and helping the U.S. women’s team secure a medal in Kitakyushu, Japan.
Team USA rallied to beat France 36-12 in the third-place match to cap a 5-1 showing and secure a medal for the third time in four tournament stops. The U.S. is the only country to finish top-four in all four tournaments.
This marks the first season in which the U.S. has reached three podiums, and the timing couldn’t be better. With two tournaments remaining, the U.S. is in third place in the overall standings with 64 points, just two back from Canada and eight ahead of Australia.
The top four teams at the end of the season will automatically qualify for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
Kelter, of Chugiak High fame, was the tournament’s top scorer with 53 points and was named to the HSBC Dream Team.
Seven exceptional players make up your @HSBC_Sport Dream Team for the HSBC Kitakyushu Sevens #HSBC7s#Kitakyushu7s pic.twitter.com/w0lrkRWWRl
— World Rugby Sevens (@WorldRugby7s) April 21, 2019
The 2016 Olympian piled up three double-figure scoring performance with 18 points in a 43-7 win over England, 11 points in a 31-5 win over Fiji and 11 points in a 26-19 win over New Zealand.
Since joining Team USA in 2014, Kelter has racked up 576 career points – 226 points more than any other American woman – to rank No. 6 in the HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series history.