Fairfield looks to continue their playoff push on Saturday afternoon at noon against Vassar University in Poughkeepsie, New York. They look to win the championship of the Tri-State Rugby Conference.
The Stags are 6-1-1 so far this season and have already qualified for the National Collegiate Rugby Nationals by making it to the Tri-State Championship. “It has us going into nationals in two weeks knowing that we deserve to be here and make it far,” junior front row Hailey Fales said.
Vassar will not be an easy match for Fairfield, who beat them 58-5 earlier in the season. They aren’t worried about this, though, coming off a 152-0 win against Fordham for their last regular season game of the season.
The Stags most recently beat Marist 39-12 in their semifinal matchup. “That first half was some of the best rugby I’ve seen every single one of the players on this team play.” Fales said.
Vassar is 8-0 on the season so far, winning their Semifinal matchup against the 4th seed Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 74-7. The Brewers have been unstoppable this season, not allowing more than 15 points all season.
Fairfield isn’t letting this get to them, mentioning the slogan “All Gas No Brakes,” said sophomore back row Grace Eberl, which is communicated by their head coach Eric Anahory, who is a huge New York Giants fan, suspiciously using a New York Jets slogan, the team jokingly pointed out.
This slogan is very similar to their game plan for their game against Vassar. “We have very quick and speedy backs… Which is a big advantage for us.” Fales said. Fales also mentioned that Vassar is a bigger team, meaning Fairfield won’t be able to push their way through the middle.
They also brought up their rallying cry during the game, “Cheers to the forwards which rallies everyone on the field,” said sophomore fly-half/center Jillian Koppy which they use as a way to get everyone back on track and focused on the task at hand during the game.
Fairfield didn’t need this rallying cry for their game against Marist though, scoring 24 unanswered points. Then, after a Fairfield mistake led to a Marist player running almost half of the field for a try made the score 24-7
The Stags didn’t let this deter them, though, proceeding to score 15 more points until allowing a last-minute score from Marist, which then ended the game. Senior back rows Ava Hiel and Tatiana Stanton, along with junior back row/center Jacqueline O’Connor, were some of the players who scored for Fairfield.
This result was especially beneficial for Fairfield because they tied Marist 26-26 in their second game of the season. This showed them that they’ve improved throughout the season and have become a better team since playing Vassar the first time.
