FAIRFIELD, Conn. -- The Fairfield University field hockey team will play its third consecutive home game on Friday afternoon when Northeastern University comes to campus for a 4 pm match up. The Stags, ranked 23rd in the nation, have won seven straight games coming into the weekend which includes a 1-0 win over Columbia University and a 2-1 victory over Providence College last week.

The team has received support from across the roster with eight different student-athletes scoring at least one goal through the team's first eight contests. Junior Danielle Profita stands on top of the leaderboard with 10 points, a number comprised by three goals and four assists. After the forward, freshmen Page Lowry and Julianna Kratz hold down the next two positions with nine points and eight points, respectively. Lowery leads the team with four goals while Kratz is equal with Profita for the top spot with four assists. Emma Matlach, who missed the first few games of the season, put herself in the scoring stats with the game-winning goal against Providence. She converted a penalty stroke in the third quarter which pushed her team in front by a 2-1 count.

Goalkeeper Zoe Rosen made six saves in the fourth quarter and eight stops overall in the Providence win, one game from recording a 1-0 shutout against Columbia. For her efforts, the junior earned the NEC Defensive Player of the Week. Rosen places ninth in the nation for goals against average with a 1.01 mark and ranks ninth in the national statistics with her .805 save percentage (33 saves against eight goals allowed). The junior earned her second shutout of the season with her performance against Columbia last Friday.

Northeastern improved to 5-2 overall when it posted a 7-0 win over Merrimack on Wednesday afternoon, the team's first shutout since a 3-0 season-opening victory over Holy Cross. The Huskies started the campaign with three straight victories before dropping a pair of games against two nationally-ranked teams - #23 Boston University (5-4) and #19 Boston College (6-2). The team has returned to its winning ways with consecutive wins over Maine and Merrimack. The team is in the midst of a stretch of games that sends it away from its campus five times in six dates, a run that includes four nationally-ranked team.

Lauren Rowe leads the team in scoring with 28 points, registering 10 goals and eight assists in seven starts, including three goals in the team's decision over Merrimack. The freshman has posted a point in six of the team's seven games and added a goal in five of her seven appearances. Her three-goal performance against Merrimack marks her second hat trick of the season, also accomplishing the task against Dartmouth. Alli Meehan also boasts a double-digit scoring total for the season with her six goals and one assist accounting for her 13 points. Camille O'Conor and Kasidy Anderson also are in double digits with 12 total points each. Goalkeeper Julia Gluyas has started all six contests in goal and collected a 2.85 goals against average

Fairfield will begin conference play next week when it hosts Sacred Heart University on October 4. The match will also finish up the team's four-game home stand, their longest of the campaign.