Poughkeepsie, NY - The Vassar Women's Rugby team lost to Tri-State Conference opponents Columbia University when their fight back in the second half fell short at home.

Vassar College Women 20 v 28 Columbia University Women
Tries: Asia Baker (2), Sophia Bailey (1), Danny White (1).

At the half the score was 14-0 to Columbia and their back division had found gaps a plenty. Vassar had begun the game well enough, going through phases and looking like it would only be a matter of time before there was a score. But as Columbia got more of the ball they looked dangerous. Vassar runners were often cautious rather than dynamic and even though yards were made there didn't seem to be any spark or determination.

The Vassar scrum managed to put Columbia under some pressure but the Lions managed to get the ball away and run their attack. The Vassar lineout functioned quite well and again it seemed like the tries would come. But the Columbia players were prepared to tackle and they kept thwarting Vassar attacks. Too often players ran straight into an opponent and lost the collision.

The Vassar backs had a poor outing and the issue of getting set up to defend was at the heart of it. It didn't help that the attack also stuttered.

Vassar pressed early in the second half only to let Columbia break out from inside their own 22 and it was 21-5 to the visitors after 50 minutes once Asia Baker had opened the VC account. A second try made it 21-10 and the home crowd was thinking of a comeback. But handling errors and poor tactical decisions hurt the team's efforts and it finished 28-20.

Team: 15 Nadya LaMarr 14 Danny White 13 Sabine Weil 12 Jude Robinson 11 Leah Dourmashkin 10 Zoe Lynch 9 Sophia Bailey 1 Julie Geller 2 Katie Canavan 3 Andie Authers 4 Grace Skakel 5 Julia Wolff 6 Mette McKinney 7 Annie Adams 8 Lauren Showalter. Subs: Sam Tang for Katie Canavan, Asia Baker for Andie Authers, Maddie Sumrow for Nadya LaMarr.

Next: Saturday October 14, 2023 versus Fairfield University at Vassar Farm - kick-off 1:00 pm