The Fairfield University women's soccer team plays twice this week, travelling to Harvard University on Tuesday, for a non-conference game, and then returning home on Saturday to host Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) foe, Iona College. The Stags are 3-3-3 on the year and 1-1-0 in conference play.
A video webstream of Saturday's game will be available for $7.95. Livestats will also be offered free of charge. Livestats will also be available, weather permitting, from Harvard on Tuesday. For livestats and directions to Ohiri Field, visit Harvard's athletic website.
The Stags have played nine games through October 2 and have touched net five times, while allowing opponents to score a combined five goals. The Stags are leading the league in goals-against average, at 0.52, and the 0.56 goals per game by their opponents is also best in the league. On the offensive side, Fairfield is ninth in the league with its 0.56 goals scored per game, but one of five teams averaging less than 0.75 goals per game entering the week.
Kelly Boudreau has played all 870 minutes in net for the Stags this year and is the conference leader in GAA at 0.52 and save percentage, .889. She has stopped 40 shots this season, 4.44 per game, and now has 353 career saves. That numbers if fourth in program history and is 35 shy of Anne Lyons school record.
Rookie Ashley Small tallied her first collegiate goal, the game-winner, against Siena on Friday night. She fired in a shot off a pass from Nikki Stanton with five minutes to play before halftime. The goal came approximately 15 minutes after the resumption of play that followed a nearly two-hour delay weather delay that stopped play 25 minutes into the first-half.
The assist was Stanton's team-leading third of the season. She ranks third in the league at 0.33 assists per game through games of October 2.
The Stags and Crimson are meeting for the eighth time with Fairfield looking for its first series victory, at 0-5-2. Harvard defeated Fairfield 3-1 in the 2010 season finale, played on Lessing Field. The first-ever meeting of the two sides came in 1994 when the Stags tied the Crimson 2-2 in a tournament hosted at Harvard. The Stags lost three straight meetings before again playing Harvard to a draw, 0-0, at home in 2008. The Crimson have outscored Fairfield 7-2 in the last two meetings of the series. Harvard is 1-0 this season at Ohiri Field, defeating Connecticut on September 11.
Harvard, coming off a 2-1 win over Yale, is 5-1 on the season and 2-0 in Ivy League play, and has a three-game win streak to its credit entering Tuesday's game. The Crimson offense is paced by Melanie Baskind, who is currently seventh in career points at Harvard with 71. The senior leads the team in all three offensive categories with 16 points coming on five goals and six assists. The Crimson has utilized four different goalkeepers this season, with the group combining for a 1.76 GAA and 37 saves. During its current win streak Harvard is outscoring foes 8-2 and has outscored its opponents 21-18 on the year.
Iona is coming of a 2-1 overtime win over defending MAAC Champion Siena on Sunday, to improve to 2-8-2 on the season and 1-1-0 in league play. The Gaels, who do not play until coming to Fairfield on Saturday, have been outscored 21-10 this season, allowing 10 goals in each half, as well as an overtime goal. Melissa Frederick has touched net three times and is tied atop the team point's leader board with Nicole Paulucci. Paulucci scored both Iona goals in Sunday's wins, the first of her career, and has also handed out two assists. Trista Rivera has started 10 of 12 games for the Gaels, playing 943 minutes and posting a 1.72 GAA and a .772 save percentage.
Fairfield is 14-23 all-time against Iona and is 3-3-1 against the Gaels under the direction of Jim O'Brien. The two sides have played extra time in five meetings in the series, with four of those overtime affairs in the last six outings. The two teams played to a 0-0 tie at Iona last season, stopping a two-game Fairfield win streak that included a 2-0 win on Lessing Field in 2009. Iona last scored a goal in the series in a 1-1 tie in 2007, and the Stags have blanked Iona in five of the last six meetings. Iona's last win in the series came on Lessing Field in 2005, 3-0, during the regular season.
