Fairfield traveled to Columbia to play in NYC on a beautiful day ending the deluge from the
weekend.
The first 31 minutes was a forwards battle, with aggressive play in the middle. Columbia
provided strong defense, as did Fairfield to stop any deep runs. Columbia broke through in the
31st minute with an overload and ran in for their first try. The rest of the first half continued the
back and forth where turnovers on both sides at the breakdown.
The second half at 55th minutes, FU penalty kick failed to go to touch, which Columbia returned
in a series of clean phases, ultimately setting up a break in our defense which allowed Columbia
to exploit a break in the defensive line to go up 0-12. The momentum stayed with Columbia as
they continued to dominate the breakdowns, sucking in our defense until another overload out
wide created another try at the 66th minute to go up 0-19.
Fairfield got a surge after the third try against them to work together to take advantage of a
penalty resulted in a corner try by Julia Demetropoulos '25 to put the stags on the board.
Despite rallying around the try, our defensive broke down again, giving Columbia another
overload on the outside, allowing them a 4th try, to finish the match with a 5-24 win over. A
valiant effort for much of the match to a very strong team that held a strong back line, and
some lessons on defense of us to go back to this week as we look towards Marist.
Kudos to Serena Koshy '25 for her strong carries and Tia Stanton '26 for her defensive work to
earn BOP.

Match Report submitted by Jane Kim – Head Coach, Women's Rugby