A wild fight broke out seemingly out of nowhere during Sunday’s women’s soccer match between Rutgers and UMass, with punches thrown on both sides.
Rutgers senior Gia Girman committed a hard foul against a UMass opponent during the 55th minute of the game. UMass seemingly wanted to take the resulting free kick quickly to catch Rutgers out of position, and senior Ashley Lamond came over to try to get the ball, which was still near Girman’s feet.
Girman did not move immediately, and things quickly got heated. It was not clear who threw the first punch, but both Girman and Lamond took huge swings at each other that certainly seemed to connect at times.

Crazy scenes today in Amherst, as a fight broke out between in a game between Rutgers and UMass, with multiple punches being thrown. Gia Girman of Rutgers and Ashley Lamond from UMass were both sent off as a result.
UMass went on to win 1-0.#CollegeSoccer #NCAASoccer pic.twitter.com/nvmhU4WStb
— College Soccer News (@ncaasoccernews) August 25, 2024
Unsurprisingly, both Girman and Lamond were given red cards, leaving both teams with ten players for the remainder of the match.
Full-on soccer fights are pretty rare, at least as long as overly passionate fans aren’t involved. This one looks to have been serious business.
Whatever the case, UMass walked away the happier of the two teams, as they went on to a 1-0 win.