The Fairfield Women enjoyed a picture-perfect "Fall in Upstate New York" bus ride up to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, for our penultimate regular season match. With RPI's record similar to our own, we were expecting an even match, mentally preparing for the physicality that RPI would bring.
Having learned from our last match against Columbia, Fairfield came out of the gate with focus and discipline. They played a structured game with great patience. Observing that our backs had superior speed over RPI's backline, we increased our usage of kicking to take field space to push them back. We struck first at 6 minutes, with a breakaway try by Emily Raia '24. Unfortunately - the lead did not last for long, with RPI answering back with a quick pass to their wing off a scrum at our 22-meter line (5-5).
A yellow card on RPI gave us an opportunity to score again, with a key tackle-turnover by captain Cassie Pierce '23, getting rookie wing Laura Garofalo '26 the ball to run it up the side to give us a 10-5 lead. An offsides penalty in front of the posts allowed captain Kieran McAllister '23 to kick for a 13-5 lead.
A solid cycle of tackling, rucking and defensive work gave us key counter-rucking turnovers, and with strong carries from scrumhalf Brigid Muller '25 and Raia '24, the Lady Ruggers worked up the field, for another try (Raia '24) at the 35- minute mark. Determined not to allow another quick response from RPI, Raia '24 caught the restart-kick, evaded 5 tackle attempts and ran it all the way back, giving us a comfortable 25-5 lead. However, an offsides yellow card against FU gave RPI momentum to drive in a forwards-try at the very end of the half, leaving us to a 25-10 lead.
The second half started off a bit rockier, as we had a few too many unlucky dropped passes, and RPI switched to a more forward-heavy game to score another try off a forward drive. RPI was able to score again 5 minutes later with an inadvertent dummy to bring them within a try to equalize (25-20).
With higher stakes and fatigue setting in, the next 15 minutes were a steady back and forth littered with penalties on both sides. The teams played an evenly-matched game, attempting to move the ball to look for gaps, only to find solid defensive play and tackling to stop the gain. The forwards held strong on scrums. A key tackle by Alyssa Bruno '24 forced a penalty against RPI, which resulted in a captain-to-captain play where Pearce '23 ran the ball up 20 meters and offloaded it to McAllister '23 who ran it in to lock in the win at 32-20.
Kudos to Veronica McAdams '25, Forwards B.O.P., who played a tremendous defensive game, leading by example with her fierce open play and contributions to the scrum. Congrats also to the Backs B.O.P., Garofalo '26, who played in her first game and stepped up to the challenge with solid defensive tackling, carries and her first try!
We look to take our collective match experience as we head into our last regular season match against Vassar, who is also 4-0. The winner of this match will determine the top seed in the conference championship. We hope to see many alums, parents and supporters next week at Rugby Fest.
