The Fairfield University women's soccer team continues its season opening road trip with games at Hofstra University and the University of Massachusetts this weekend. The Stags play the Pride Friday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. and will travel to Amherst on Sunday, for a 1 p.m. game.
Fairfield enters the weekend at 0-1, after falling 1-0 at #4 Boston College on Sunday. Hofstra marks the second consecutive 2010 NCAA Tournament participant for the Stags, as the Pride knocked off Connecticut in the opening round, while BC advanced to the final four.
Fairfield will be playing Hofstra for the fifth-time in program history and has just one win in the series. That victory came in the program's second varsity season, 1993, 3-0 at home. The Pride won the first-ever meeting, 2-1, in overtime in 1992 and again 4-2 in 1994. The two sides last met at the 2006 UConn Classic, a 3-0 victory for Hofstra.
Friday afternoon's game is the season opener for Hofstra, which won a program-record 19 games a season ago. The Pride received eight votes in the NSCAA poll this week, keeping them just outside the top-25, where a year ago they climbed as high as 18th. Hofstra is led by senior forward Laura Green who had 19 points a year ago and her 15 career assists has in her striking distance of the school record. Hofstra will have livestats for the game, which will also air on Fios 1 on a tape delay basis, with Ralph Bednarczyk, Sal Rosamilia and Eva Zaccaria, having the call.
Sunday's meeting with the Minutewomen marks the sixth in that series, with Fairfield holding a 2-3-0 record. UMass dropped the Stags 4-0 on Lessing Field last season, snapping a two-game series win streak for the Stags. Fairfield's first win came at home in 2004, 2-1, and the Stags won again the following season, 1-0, in Amherst. The first meetings of the series were played at Agawam High School in 1996 and 1997 and were both won by the Minutewomen.
UMass began its season on Tuesday with a 2-1 win over New Hampshire, and the game with the Stags will be the team's home opener. Julie Morrissey netted the first goal of the season, 17:32 into the first-half, and Jen Houtmann boomed home the game-winner in the 85th minute, just moments before UNH tallied its lone goal of the game. Stephanie Gordon made nine saves in net for the Minutewomen to earn the win. Both video and livestats will be available for the game through the UMass athletic website.
