SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – The first of six Men’s Division I automatic qualifying tournaments played in California was held Saturday, Oct. 12, in San Luis Obispo. With so many high-quality college rugby clubs coming out of the Golden State, each is surely to provide fireworks and the West Coast Collegiate 7s did not disappoint. After a stretch of rigorous pool play, the Cup semi-finals pitted Bay Area rivals Cal against Saint Mary’s College and UCLA versus Cal Poly. Cal was forced to grind out a seven-point victory against SMC, while UCLA had fewer difficulties with Cal Poly and won 27-10. Being on the scholastic quarter system, UCLA’s student athletes had only returned to campus just a few weeks prior to the West Coast Collegiate 7s tournament. With minimal amount of time to train with his players, Bruins’ head coach Scott Stewart was more concerned with learning about his 2013 sevens club than necessarily winning an automatic berth to the College 7s National Championship. “It was the first tournament of the year,” said Stewart. “We really wanted to just see where we were in terms of our progression this year with the goal of playing our best rugby at the end of the month at the PAC 7s.” UCLA may have caught the historically dominant Golden Bears off guard in the Cup finals by jumping out to a 17-0 halftime lead. UCLA kept applying pressure on both sides of the ball and built a 24-7 advantage. The resilient Cal side fought back with 12 unanswered points, but the comeback fell short and the Bruins won 24-19. By winning the West Coast Collegiate 7s title, the Bruins received an invitation to the 2013 USA Rugby College 7s National Championship. Even with their spot at Nationals in their pocket, coach Stewart will not deviate from his team’s aggressive mindset going into their conference tournament. “I think we have to try to put our very best team on the field in the PAC,” he said. “It’s very competitive; there are some excellent teams involved and we want to win it.” Prior to the PAC 7s kickoff Nov. 2, both the Bears and Bruins may have the opportunity to square off against one another as both schools will participate in Saint Mary’s ‘Battle in the Bay’ sevens tournament on San Francisco’s Treasure Island Oct. 26-27.