FAIRFIELD, Conn. – With an NCAA tournament berth on the line, Head Coach Jackie Kane and the Fairfield University field hockey team will look to finish what they started back in August. The Stags will play Monmouth University on Sunday for the 2017 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) championship, a goal that has been on the top of the team's wish list since it started camp more than nine weeks ago.

                Fairfield and Monmouth will meet at So Sweet A Cat Field on the Monmouth campus beginning at 12 pm. The match will be shown on ESPN3.

                These two team represent the conference's last two tournament champions with Fairfield collecting the title in 2015 with a win over Quinnipiac, and Monmouth winning the tournament over the Stags last November. Fairfield advanced to its third straight conference title game, making everyone since it migrated from America East to the MAAC for the 2015 season.

                The Stags earned the right to play for the title on Sunday after beating second-seeded LIU-Brooklyn by a 6-0 count. Senior Hannah Pike scored three goals in the game, including the team's first two that set the tone for the day. Jamie Appelberg, Andrea Soler, and Danielle Profita also scored in the game, helping Fairfield obtain a season-high for goals by surpassing a 4-0 win over Siena College a week earlier. Goalkeeper Caitlin Gilligan made one save to record her fourth shutout in her last five starts.

                Top-seeded Monmouth advanced to the championship game following its 2-0 win over fourth-seeded Rider University. The two teams played to a scoreless tie in the first half before Monmouth's Meg Donahue broke through when she converted a penalty stroke just 90 seconds into the second half. Rachel Konowal doubled the deficit with her goal in the 47^th minute that seemingly put the game out of reach. Goalkeeper Christen Piersanti made one save to earn the clean sheet for the Hawks.

                Fairfield and Monmouth will meet for the 18^th time in a series that began in 1998 with the Stags holding an 11-6 edge. The two teams have met in the MAAC tournament twice with the games being split. This year, Fairfield won the regular-season meeting at University Field by a 3-1 count at a time when the Hawks were ranked 25^th in the nation. The victory started a run that turned around Fairfield's season, winning six of its last eight games since that meeting with the Hawks.

                With its win against LIU-Brooklyn, Head Coach Jackie Kane owns a 4-1 record in MAAC tournament play, going 2-0 in 2015, 1-1 in 2016, and 1-0 in this year's event. The Stags will be trying for their third NCAA tournament in school history on Sunday, advancing after winning the Patriot League title in 2001 and the MAAC championship in 2015.