With the CRAA National qualifier on the line, the Fairfield women took the field this past Saturday knowing that they needed to win in order to keep their season alive. Kate McGarvey '02 spoke to the team before kickoff to express how proud Fairfield Women's Rugby Alumni are of the team and how they have 28 years of support and legacy behind them. Thank you again Kate for your inspiring, encouraging words and for your continued generosity. You are a shining, positive example for our young women!
In unseasonably warm and humid weather, the Fairfield team struggled to settle in, requiring a bit more time than usual to get settled. With much back and forth with many strong runs by both team's backline, it was a struggle to command the ball, with each team getting momentum, only to lose it due to unforced errors and penalties, to allow the opponent to kick it out of their respective 22. Tremendous defensive work by Fairfield to stop the CU back runs, and covering the switches. Fairfield also had several opportunities to move the ball out wide, but struggled to adjust to the faster tackles that were coming up.
Finally at the 31st minute, Columbia ran it out wide to draw first blood (5-0). Fairfield then woke up and played with more energy and alertness. A key penalty by Columbia by our 22 gave the Lady Ruggers the momentum to punch up the field in repeated pick and go's until a desperate penalty by Columbia gave us a quick pass to Captain Kieran McAllister '23 to touch it down between the posts, giving herself an easy conversion to make it 7-5 in the half.
After an emotional pep talk by President Ashley Mooney '23, the Lady Ruggers decided that they were not going to end their season on Saturday. Urgency to the ball and consolidation at the breakdowns were sped up, as CU's structure started to break down. The speedier rate to play forced CU to make more errors, which we capitalized on, and the forwards began to draw in defenders until we created an overload and gap that Outside Center Emily Raia '24 dashed through to score another try within the first 4 minutes of the second half (14 - 5).
The quick try gave new life to the team, and reserve Hannah Bershefsky '25 led the second half charge with hard crashes and dominant rucking. An unfortunate cherry-pick at the 51st minute gave CU an easy try to bring the score to 14 - 12. Shaking off the error, the team refocused and kept their structure and went back on the attack. At this point CU was starting to commit too many penalties, giving us advantage, which we used to move the ball, which further exhausted Columbia. An excellent crash and drive by Ashley O'Connor '25, put CU on their back feet, allowing for a clean string of passes out to Raia '24 again, for another try, giving us more breathing space at 19 - 12.
CU's restart kick went directly to O'Connor '25, who decided to repeat her earlier crash performance, twisting out of a tackle, making a breakaway to return the kick back for another quick try (26 - 12). Fairfield continued on the attack, while CU fought hard to stop another drive across the try line, holding up the ball in goal. The resulting goal-line drop out went to Emily Raia '24, who juked her way back down the touchline to make it a hat trick. Mc Allister '23 delivered a phenomenal conversion to get us to 33 - 12. With the CU team almost out of battery, Fairfield worked to bring the ball out wide as much as possible. With good hands and deep passes from McAllister '23, Nicole Hegarty '23 took a gap to get a breakaway to lock up the match at 40 - 12, with McAllister '23 making 5 out of 6 conversions.
