SAINT-DENIS, France — Ilona Maher created a try and almost scored another as the U.S. women’s rugby sevens team reached the Olympic semifinals for the first time with a 17-7 win over Britain on Monday.
Now for the tougher part: a semifinal against defending champion New Zealand.
The New Zealanders trounced China 55-5 in the quarterfinals and appear to be peaking at the right time.
So does 2016 gold medalist Australia, with Maddison Levi scoring three tries in a thumping 40-7 quarterfinal win over Ireland to increase her tournament tally to an Olympic record 11.
It was the second meeting of the day between those teams and quite a contrast after the Australians only narrowly won 19-14 to finish the group stage unbeaten.
The world sevens series champions will next take on a Canada lineup coming off a 19-14 win over host France.
France’s loss in the quarterfinals meant two of the three medal-winning women’s teams from the Tokyo Olympics didn’t make it back to the medal rounds.
France lost the Tokyo final to New Zealand, but were hopeful of making it a golden double for the hosts in Paris after the men’s team led by Antoine Dupont beat two-time champion Fiji to clinch the title on Saturday night.
The Fijian women took bronze in Tokyo but haven’t won a game in Paris, losing to Canada, China and New Zealand in the pool stage and to 28-22 Brazil.
The semifinals will be played Tuesday afternoon and the rugby sevens program concludes with a night final to crown the champion women’s team.
