I had a sports psychologist professor in university who specialized in sports aggression. I wonder what he would say about the BYU ladies’ soccer game against the University of New Mexico on Nov. 5, 2009.

I played a lot of high school sports and college basketball. I’ve seen a lot of aggressive play, but nothing I experienced comes close to what happened during this soccer game.  

BYU’s Carly Payne had a slugfest with NM’s Elizabeth Lambert. During the game Lambert moved in close behind Payne. Payne did not take kindly to Lambert being on her back so she gave Lambert a subtle no-look, reverse Bruce Lee elbow punch. Lambert responded with a Karate blow to the back.  

During another play while Payne was chasing the ball, Lambert came in from behind with a “You’re going down, sucker!” slide check.

During another play Lambert delivered a Kung Fu sideways punch to Payne’s face. Nasty.

And just to prove that Lambert was taking on all comers, she took down BYU’s Cassidy Shumway by yanking on her pony tail.

I know what my sports psychology professor would say. He would invoke the Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis, which is that people get aggressive when they are frustrated from reaching a goal (BYU was winning during all this). Then he would say, “Where was the referee?!” The ref made no calls during these rough plays. Fortunately the league did not miss the rough play. It suspended Lambert indefinitely. Hopefully she will learn her lesson and return a better player.

Now that you’ve seen the still shots, watch the full video.