Alev Kelter was born to play rugby. A standout flag football player in high school, she went on to become an All-Big-Ten soccer player and NCAA Frozen Four all-tournament selection at Wisconsin.
After 10 years on the rugby field, Eagle River’s Alev Kelter is still one of the best players in the world.
Just ask Fiji and France, two teams Kelter outscored by herself in the medal round over the weekend to help Team USA advance to the finals and take home a silver medal at the World Rugby Sevens Series stop in Hong Kong.
New Zealand beat the Americans 36-7 in Sunday’s gold-medal match after holding Team USA’s leading scorer without a point, signaling Kelter’s immeasurable value.
When she’s in a groove, the team dances to a winning beat. That was the case earlier Sunday when she carried Team USA to a pair of victories – first scoring 13 points in a 33-7 win over Fiji and then scoring seven points in a 19-5 victory over France.
Team USA finished the four-day tournament with a 4-2 record, beating Spain, Japan, Fiji and France while losing to Canada and New Zealand.
At 33, Kelter has no signs of slowing down. She leads the team with 105 points in 32 matches this season, holding a 35-point advantage over 27-year-old Ilona Maher, a fellow former Olympian. Thirty-five points is equilivent to seven tries or 17.5 conversions. That’s an entire season’s worth of production for some players. For Kelter, though, it’s another day at the office.
Quick hands by Kris Thomas 🤝 connect with Alev Kelter for the finish #HKGSVNS pic.twitter.com/3UXWggAdBf
— USA Rugby (@USARugby) April 5, 2024
In her 10 years in the World Rugby Sevens Series, she has racked up 99 points or more six times including a league-high 171 points in 2020. She was fourth with 168 points in 2018 and seventh with 149 points in 2019 when Kelter established herself among the greatest players in the world.
The Chugiak High graduate represents rugby royalty, a veteran of two Olympics and three World Cups while winning a Pan Am Games silver medal. She also owns 236 caps with the national team in the World Rugby Sevens Series.
Her 975 points rank fifth all-time and No. 1 among Americans.
With two more stops on the tour, she should get to 1,000 by the end of the season. Team USA sits in fourth place with 82 points, six back of France and way behind frontrunners Australia and New Zealand, which are tied atop the standings with 106 points.
Kelter was born to play rugby. A standout flag football and soccer player in high school, she went on to University of Wisconsin where she was an All-Big-Ten soccer player and led the hockey team to the NCAA Frozen Four as an all-tournament selection.
From pucks to rucks, Kelter went from crashing the net to crashing into the end zone. She’s one of only two Century Club players in World Rugby Sevens Series history with 100 career tries and 100 career conversions.