FAIRFIELD, Conn. -- The Fairfield University field hockey team plays its first home game of the season when it hosts Bryant University for a Monday morning match at University Field. Game time is slated for 11:00 am.

About The Series

• The Stags and the Bulldogs will meet for the seventh straight season and the 10th time overall. Fairfield collected a 2-1 win over Bryant in Smithfield, R.I., erasing a 1-0 deficit by scoring a goal in the second and fourth quarters. The two teams have played two overtime matches in this series with both coming during the 2016 campaign. Bryant won the regular-season meeting by a 2-1 count before the Stags posted a 3-2 decision in extra time during the conference tournament.

About Fairfield

• Fairfield split its season-opening road trip with a 4-0 win over Hofstra and a 3-0 defeat to seventh-ranked Iowa in Albany. The Stags trailed by a 2-0 count midway through the second quarter and kept the Hawkeyes scoreless for nearly 40 minutes before yielding the final goal in the closing minute of the match.
• Payton Rahn is off to another strong start in the Fairfield goal, making 11 saves in her first two starts with a 1.50 goals against average and a shutout to her credit. She held her own against the nationally-ranked Iowa offense, making seven saves after opening the year with four stops in the Hofstra game.
• The Stags will look to build upon their recent success in home openers, winning five of their last six openers at University Field. Fairfield won their first game at home from 2017-20 before falling to Monmouth in 2021. Last year, the Stags started the home slate with a 1-0 victory over Holy Cross courtesy of a third-quarter goal by Alex Senior.

About Bryant

• The Bulldogs won their first two games of the 2023 campaign before falling to Providence College last Friday by a 1-0 count. Monday's match ends a four-game season-opening road trip that sent Bryant to Missouri for games against Lindenwood and Saint Louis as well as to Providence.
• Bryant scored five goals over its first two games with a pair of Bulldogs accounting for four of those goals. Zoe Bates and Brittany Gouws each have two goals to date, posting one goal in those contests. Olivia Clarke has the other Bryant goal which came in the season opener against Lindenwood.
• The Bulldogs earned a shootout win against Saint Louis by connecting on three of the shootout attempts to Saint Louis' two shootout goals. Goalkeeper Dieneke Hes made three saves in that shootout to help her team earn the win. She has 15 saves to her credit through the first three games and owns a 1.20 goals against average with a .789 save percentage.

 
Up Next

• The Stags will begin a three-game road trip with a game at La Salle University on September 8. The road swing also includes a stop at Yale University on September 15 and at Lafayette on September 17.