FAIRFIELD, Conn. – The Fairfield University field hockey team will travel to Rider on Friday for its second Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game at 7:00 pm. Then the team will return home on Sunday for their final non-conference game against Columbia at 1:00 pm.
Fairfield (4-6, 0-1 MAAC) vs. Rider (8-4, 0-0 MAAC): The Stags are 4-14 all-time against the Broncs. The last matchup between the two sides was on October 25, 2007 when Rider won 2-0. The last win for Fairfield against Rider came on September 6, 2000.
A Look at the Broncs: Rider is 8-4 this season and Friday's contest will be their first MAAC game of the year. The team is lead offensively by two forwards in sophomore Allison Baligian and junior Carlie Spaeder. Both players are tied for the team lead with 19 points this season; Baligian leads the team with nine goals while Spaeder is second with seven. Senior goalkeeper Joelle Prettyman has appeared in all 12 games for the Broncs, earning 10 starts. She posts a 1.76 goals against average, ranking her 22nd in the country in that statistic.
Fairfield vs. Columbia (6-5): The Stags are 4-8 all-time against the Lions. Last season on September 14, Columbia defeated Fairfield 2-1 in overtime.
A Look at the Lions: Columbia is 6-5 on the season and is coming off a 5-0 win over MAAC opponent Bryant. They will face off against Penn on Friday night before traveling to Fairfield on Sunday. The Lions are balanced on offense with four players recording at least 12 points on the season. Senior midfielder Christina Freibott leads the team in all three major categories with 17 points, five goals, and seven assists. Senior goalkeeper Kimberly Pianucci has made 10 starts this season and posts a 3.17 goals against average and 46 saves.
Last Time Out: The Stags hosted their first conference game as part of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference on Saturday afternoon against defending champion Monmouth University. It took almost 23 minutes to see the first points of the game, which came from Monmouth. Fairfield had a number of scoring chances in the first, including a shot by Julie de Paeuw that went just wide of cage off a Ruth Smalbraak penalty corner. Fairfield totaled five shots in the first, but they went into halftime trailing 1-0. The Stags tied the game at 1-1 in the 56th minute. Smalbraak notched her second career goal when she collected a bouncing ball in front of the cage and batted it in to an empty net. Monmouth answered just about 10 minutes later to take a one goal lead. Fairfield was unable to battle back to even the score and fell 2-1.
Closing out the Non-Conference: Sunday's game will be the final non-conference game for Fairfield this season. Heading into the Sunday they have a non-conference record of 4-5, with three of those victories coming away from home. The Stags played against two teams that are currently ranked in the top 25 of the NFHCA Coaches Poll, No. 14 Michigan and No. 15 Delaware.
National Notice: Caitlin Bennett finds her name among the nation's best, ranked 25th with 5.44 saves per game. Bennett has started nine games this season and has made 49 saves to go along with a 2.77 goals against average.
Looking Ahead: After the weekend, the Stags continue their play at home when they host Bryant on Friday, October 23 and Siena on Sunday, October 25.
