FAIRFIELD STAGS 3 - 0 (0-0 MAAC)
Last year 28-5 (19-1), 3-0 MAAC Tournament; 0-1 NCAAT (Lost to Kansas St. 41-85)
Massey 95 (UNC 29), NET 57 (Nolan) (UNC 20), Torvik 44 (UNC 14)
The second game in UNC’s visit to Sin City is with the Fairfield Stags, members of the Mid-Atlantic Conference. Carolina has never played them. Massey gives UNC the nod by 20 points; Nolan and Torvik are more conservative and favor the Heels by 5 and 7 respectively.
Fairfield is 3-0 on the season, having opened at Villanova (Big East), home with Lehigh (Patriot), and in the WBCA Challenge opener, South Florida (American). Though not P4 they are all considered to be quality programs.
Fairfield University is a private Jesuit university in Fairfield, Connecticut. It was founded by the Jesuits in 1942. The university has about 5,000 full-time undergraduate students and 1,200 graduate students. It offers a full range of degrees – BA, MA. PhD - through its five schools and colleges. They have 20 sports; 9 men’s (but not football) and 11 women’s. It should be noted in passing that Fairfield has always been seen as a “rich white kids” school. Only 1% of the student population is black.
Carolina has rarely played teams from MAAC, but is 6-0 in the ones they have played. The most recent was in 2015, a 64-52 win over Iona.
It is interesting that Fairfield has adopted the team nickname – “Stags” – for their women’s’ programs. A “stag” is of course an adult (antlers required) male red deer. The name can have other meanings, including some unfortunate ones like “stag film”. At least they did not go with Lady Stags.
Last season, and actually over the last two seasons, Fairfield has been the power in MAAC: 59-7 overall and 39-1 in conference. Last year the Stags had road wins against Arkansas (81-67) and Wake Forest (72-65). As conference champion, they had automatic bids to the NCAA. There, reality set in with a 56-89 loss to Indiana in 2024 and a 41-85 loss to Kansas State in 2025.
The Stags did return two of their top three scorers (and note that the stats given here are for the first 3 games). They are Meghan Anderson, a 6-1 junior W (23.3 ppg/5.3 rpg) and 5-6 junior G Kaety L’Amoreaux (20.3/6.0). In the season opener with the Big East’s Villanova (a 75-63 win) Anderson had 35 points and 30 in game two with Lehigh (88-60 win). Her running mate L’Amoreaux had 17 and 16, respectively. In game 3, an 80-72 win over South Florida, the Bulls were able to hold Anderson to 5 points but had no answer for L’Amoreaux who had 28 points and was a perfect 10-10 from the FT line.
Speaking of running mates, Fairfield has the interesting idea of calling wing players “Road Runner” instead of “guard” or “forward”. Don’t think I have ever seen that anywhere else.
The remaining starting spots in games 1 & 2 were held by Cyanne Coe, a 6-0 sophomore W (Road Runner in Fairfield-speak), Jillian Huerter, a 6-0 junior W, and Lauren Beach, a 6-1GS F. For game 3, Coe was replaced by Sydni Scott.
The top rotation would involve Scott, a 5-8 senior G, Coe, Christina Pham, a 5-7 freshman G (who had 17 points off the bench in game 3, primarily on the strength of 5 of 9 threes), and Milou Van Vliet, a 6-0 freshman W.
Against Lehigh, apparently the Stags felt comfortable with their lead, so the bench was cleared. This group included Julia Karpell, a 5-11 sophomore G, Keyarah Gregory, a 5-3 redshirt freshman PG, Janelle Brown, a 5-6 GS PG, Selen Yusan, a 6-1 freshman W from Turkey, and Jalyn Sackrider, a 6-3 GS C/F. Brown had 9 points in the S. Florida game.
Sackrider played for Evergreen State College (Alt-Ed) in Olympia WA, where she started 94 of 96 games and held a bunch of records and awards. ESC’s motto is Omnia Extares (translation “Let it all hang out”) and the mascot is the Geoduck (a big clam). I’d bet Jalyn, who holds the ESC record for blocks and for good measure the discus throw, is a fun date.
The head coach of this program is Carly Thibault-DuDonis, in year #4 with an overall record of 77-22 (77.8%). Her first year was a break-even 15-15 but the last two were exceptional: 31-2 in 2024 and 28-5 in 2025 including as noted two trips to the NCAA. Even more impressive is a conference record of 39-1. These stats got her a COY Award. Thibault-DuDonis was rumored to have a multi-million dollar offer to coach the Wisconsin Badgers, but the Stags put the kibosh on that with an offer of their own including a contract extension to 2031. As a point of interest, her father is Coach Mike Thibault, who had several stops in the WNBA.
Carolina, #11 (AP) and #8 (Coaches), took their first loss of the season to UCLA Thursday, 78-60. The Heels held their own with the favored Bruins for 20 minutes, down just a point at halftime 34-35. A poor 3rd quarter (23-12 Bruins) killed UNC’s chances. Overall UCLA shot 52.5% for the game (UNC 34.8%) and dominated the boards 46-30.
Fairfield (3-0) is not someone to sleep on. They are used to winning and have successfully challenged P4 teams in the past. At the moment they are averaging 81 points per game. Losing to UCLA by 18 was bad; losing to Fairfield by any score will be much worse.
Game time is 6 PM EST Saturday 15th. There will be video from ESPN+ and audio from On Demand with Matt Krause.
Last year 28-5 (19-1), 3-0 MAAC Tournament; 0-1 NCAAT (Lost to Kansas St. 41-85)
Massey 95 (UNC 29), NET 57 (Nolan) (UNC 20), Torvik 44 (UNC 14)
The second game in UNC’s visit to Sin City is with the Fairfield Stags, members of the Mid-Atlantic Conference. Carolina has never played them. Massey gives UNC the nod by 20 points; Nolan and Torvik are more conservative and favor the Heels by 5 and 7 respectively.
Fairfield is 3-0 on the season, having opened at Villanova (Big East), home with Lehigh (Patriot), and in the WBCA Challenge opener, South Florida (American). Though not P4 they are all considered to be quality programs.
Fairfield University is a private Jesuit university in Fairfield, Connecticut. It was founded by the Jesuits in 1942. The university has about 5,000 full-time undergraduate students and 1,200 graduate students. It offers a full range of degrees – BA, MA. PhD - through its five schools and colleges. They have 20 sports; 9 men’s (but not football) and 11 women’s. It should be noted in passing that Fairfield has always been seen as a “rich white kids” school. Only 1% of the student population is black.
Carolina has rarely played teams from MAAC, but is 6-0 in the ones they have played. The most recent was in 2015, a 64-52 win over Iona.
It is interesting that Fairfield has adopted the team nickname – “Stags” – for their women’s’ programs. A “stag” is of course an adult (antlers required) male red deer. The name can have other meanings, including some unfortunate ones like “stag film”. At least they did not go with Lady Stags.
Last season, and actually over the last two seasons, Fairfield has been the power in MAAC: 59-7 overall and 39-1 in conference. Last year the Stags had road wins against Arkansas (81-67) and Wake Forest (72-65). As conference champion, they had automatic bids to the NCAA. There, reality set in with a 56-89 loss to Indiana in 2024 and a 41-85 loss to Kansas State in 2025.
The Stags did return two of their top three scorers (and note that the stats given here are for the first 3 games). They are Meghan Anderson, a 6-1 junior W (23.3 ppg/5.3 rpg) and 5-6 junior G Kaety L’Amoreaux (20.3/6.0). In the season opener with the Big East’s Villanova (a 75-63 win) Anderson had 35 points and 30 in game two with Lehigh (88-60 win). Her running mate L’Amoreaux had 17 and 16, respectively. In game 3, an 80-72 win over South Florida, the Bulls were able to hold Anderson to 5 points but had no answer for L’Amoreaux who had 28 points and was a perfect 10-10 from the FT line.
Speaking of running mates, Fairfield has the interesting idea of calling wing players “Road Runner” instead of “guard” or “forward”. Don’t think I have ever seen that anywhere else.
The remaining starting spots in games 1 & 2 were held by Cyanne Coe, a 6-0 sophomore W (Road Runner in Fairfield-speak), Jillian Huerter, a 6-0 junior W, and Lauren Beach, a 6-1GS F. For game 3, Coe was replaced by Sydni Scott.
The top rotation would involve Scott, a 5-8 senior G, Coe, Christina Pham, a 5-7 freshman G (who had 17 points off the bench in game 3, primarily on the strength of 5 of 9 threes), and Milou Van Vliet, a 6-0 freshman W.
Against Lehigh, apparently the Stags felt comfortable with their lead, so the bench was cleared. This group included Julia Karpell, a 5-11 sophomore G, Keyarah Gregory, a 5-3 redshirt freshman PG, Janelle Brown, a 5-6 GS PG, Selen Yusan, a 6-1 freshman W from Turkey, and Jalyn Sackrider, a 6-3 GS C/F. Brown had 9 points in the S. Florida game.
Sackrider played for Evergreen State College (Alt-Ed) in Olympia WA, where she started 94 of 96 games and held a bunch of records and awards. ESC’s motto is Omnia Extares (translation “Let it all hang out”) and the mascot is the Geoduck (a big clam). I’d bet Jalyn, who holds the ESC record for blocks and for good measure the discus throw, is a fun date.
The head coach of this program is Carly Thibault-DuDonis, in year #4 with an overall record of 77-22 (77.8%). Her first year was a break-even 15-15 but the last two were exceptional: 31-2 in 2024 and 28-5 in 2025 including as noted two trips to the NCAA. Even more impressive is a conference record of 39-1. These stats got her a COY Award. Thibault-DuDonis was rumored to have a multi-million dollar offer to coach the Wisconsin Badgers, but the Stags put the kibosh on that with an offer of their own including a contract extension to 2031. As a point of interest, her father is Coach Mike Thibault, who had several stops in the WNBA.
Carolina, #11 (AP) and #8 (Coaches), took their first loss of the season to UCLA Thursday, 78-60. The Heels held their own with the favored Bruins for 20 minutes, down just a point at halftime 34-35. A poor 3rd quarter (23-12 Bruins) killed UNC’s chances. Overall UCLA shot 52.5% for the game (UNC 34.8%) and dominated the boards 46-30.
Fairfield (3-0) is not someone to sleep on. They are used to winning and have successfully challenged P4 teams in the past. At the moment they are averaging 81 points per game. Losing to UCLA by 18 was bad; losing to Fairfield by any score will be much worse.
Game time is 6 PM EST Saturday 15th. There will be video from ESPN+ and audio from On Demand with Matt Krause.
