Home News Meet The 12 Starters...

Meet The 12 Starters On The U.S. Women’s Olympic Rugby Sevens Team

By Todd Kortemeier | June 17, 2021, 1:17 p.m. (ET)

The U.S. women’s Olympic rugby sevens team ended the Olympic Games Rio 2016 with a win — just not the one they were hoping for.

An almost totally new team of 12 starters announced Thursday by USA Rugby will try to improve on that fifth-place finish from Rio and earn the first Olympic rugby sevens medal for Team USA. Only Lauren Doyle and Alev Kelter return from the Rio squad, and the U.S. will also have a new head coach in Chris Brown, hired in October 2018. Under Brown, the U.S. had its best season ever in 2018-19, winning five events in the World Rugby Sevens Series and finishing the year ranked second in the world. The team finished fifth in the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season.

“As a team, we have a great deal of strike power across the park,” Brown said in a news release. “But looking at the increasing progress and competitiveness of the women’s game, we won’t be anywhere near winning a gold medal if we play as individuals as opposed to working as a group. That said, we have enough big match experience from the last three years to fully trust and believe that when we focus on the task at hand, play with discipline and fight as a collective, we are extremely hard to handle and we will be exactly where we need to complete our mission.”

Here's a closer look at the 12 starters hoping to make an impact in Tokyo.

Kayla Canett-Oca

Kayla Canett-Oca during the Women's Gold Medal Match at Rugby Field of Complejo Deportivo Villa Maria del Triunfo on July 28,2019 in Lima, Peru.

The 23-year-old halfback/fly half started playing rugby in high school, where she was a three-time national champion. Canett-Oca made her international debut at the Dubai Sevens in 2016, and in 2017 won a national championship at Penn State. Canett-Oca also has experience in 15-a-side rugby union, earning a selection to the 2017 World Cup team.

Lauren Doyle

Lauren Doyle poses at the Olympic Training Center on July 21, 2016 in Chula Vista, California.

One of two returning Olympians on the team, the 30-year-old flyhalf/wing was a multi-sport athlete in high school and played rugby and ran track at Eastern Illinois. Doyle made her international debut at the 2012 Dubai Sevens and has gone on to make 30 total World Series appearances, second-most of anyone else on the Olympic team. Doyle was on the silver medal-winning team at the 2015 Pan American Games.

Cheta Emba

Cheta Emba during the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series - Dubai at The Sevens Stadium on December 7, 2019 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

A soccer goalkeeper at Harvard, Emba began playing rugby as a way to cross-train but ended up playing both. Emba, who will turn 28 in Tokyo, made the U.S. rugby union team for the 2015 Super Series her senior year at Harvard, then made her debut with the Eagles Sevens in Dubai in 2016. A prop, Emba won a silver medal at the 2019 Pan American games.

Abby Gustaitis

Abby Gustaitis poses during the AON Women's University Sevens Launch at Sydney University on August 22, 2018 in Sydney, Australia.

The U.S. co-captain, Gustaitis was a high school basketball player before picking up rugby at the University of Maryland. The prop/hooker made her World Series debut in Dubai in 2017, helping the U.S. win a silver medal. Gustaitis, 30, has been U.S. co-captain since the 2019-20 season.

Nicole Heavirland

Nicole Heavirland makes a break during the womens pool match in the 2017 HSBC Sydney Sevens at Allianz Stadium on February 3, 2017 in Sydney, Australia.

A 26-year-old hooker/scrumhalf, Heavirland originally played basketball while attending Army West Point before joining the rugby team. A U.S. Military Academy All-American, Heavirland played her first World Series season in 2015-16 and was named as a reserve for the U.S. Olympic Team. Heavirland has previously served as team captain.

Alev Kelter

Alev Kelter kicks the ball during the match against Fiji at Fifth Third Bank Stadium on April 9, 2016 in Kennesaw, Georgia.

There was a time when the 30-year-old U.S. center/prop maybe thought she’d be making her Olympic debut in the opposite time of year. An elite hockey player who captained the U.S. women’s under-18 national team to a gold medal at the 2009 world championships, Kelter eventually found her way to rugby. She made her World Series debut at the 2014 Guangzhou Sevens and in 2016 made the U.S. Olympic Team. Kelter has routinely ranked among the top U.S. scorers in her time with the national team and her 33 World Series appearances are most on the team.

Kristi Kirshe

Kristi Kirshe in action at the 2020 HSBC Sevens at FMG Stadium Waikato on January 25, 2020 in Hamilton, New Zealand.

A 26-year-old center/wing, Kirshe was the all-time and single-season goals leader for the Williams College women’s soccer team. She tried rugby at a friend’s suggestion shortly after graduating and made her national team debut in 2019. She has made eight career World Series appearances.

Ilona Maher

Ilona Maher in action at the 2020 HSBC Sevens at FMG Stadium Waikato on January 25, 2020 in Hamilton, New Zealand.

A letter-winner in basketball, field hockey and soccer at Qunnipiac, the 24-year-old Maher ended up playing rugby full time and winning three National Intercollegiate Rugby Association titles. The center/prop debuted at the 2018 Paris Sevens and was chosen to compete on the Rugby World Cup Sevens team the same year that placed fourth.

Jordan Matyas

Jordan Gray-Matyas runs the ball during the 2019 Sydney HSBC Sevens at Spotless Stadium on February 01, 2019 in Sydney, Australia.

The lone foreign-born player on the roster, Matyas played rugby at Centennial High School in Calgary, Alberta, and played stateside at BYU. The prop, who turns 28 on July 2, played with the U.S. 15s at the 2015 Super Series and made her World Series debut at the 2017 Japan Sevens. She’s since spent time with both sides.

Ariana Ramsey

Ariana Ramsey carries the ball during rugby women´s Semifinal match at Rugby Field of Complejo Deportivo Villa Maria del Triunfo on Day 2 of Lima 2019 Pan American Games on July 28, 2019 in Lima, Peru.

Ramsey has yet to make a World Series appearance, the only member of the Olympic team yet to do so, but shined at the 2019 Pan American Games where she helped the U.S. to the silver medal. A 21-year-old wing, Ramsey currently attends Dartmouth College.

Naya Tapper

Naya Tapper poses during the Team USA Tokyo 2020 Olympic shoot on November 23, 2019 in West Hollywood, California.

A high school track athlete turned rugby player at UNC, Tapper made her World Series debut at the 2016 Sao Paulo Sevens. The wing, who turns 27 on August 3, has also played with the 15s but has made 21 career World Series appearances.

Kristen Thomas

Kristen Thomas makes a break at the HSBC Women's Rugby Sevens Kitakyushu Pool match at Mikuni World Stadium Kitakyushu on April 21, 2018 in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, Japan.

A U.S. co-captain at hooker/center, Thomas began playing rugby at the University of Central Florida after running track and playing basketball in high school. Thomas, who turns 28 on July 2, debuted in sevens at the 2015 Sao Paulo Sevens and has now made 26 career appearances, third-most on the Olympic team.

Todd Kortemeier

Todd Kortemeier is a sportswriter, editor and children’s book author from Minneapolis. He is a contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.