HOPEWELL, N.J. – Fairfield University Women's Basketball Head Coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis was one of ten coaches named to the Kathy Delaney-Smith Mid-Major Coach of the Year Watch List, presented by Her Hoops Stats. This is the second-straight season Coach Carly has been added to the Watch List after finishing as a finalist for the award last season.
 
"I've said this many times before but it remains to be true that these types of recognitions are only because of the people around me," Coach Carly said. "I get to work with the best staff I could possibly ask for, in addition to a team full of amazing young women who take pride in representing Fairfield and each other every single day. Sometimes 'family' is tossed around too much, but I do feel like we are a family working hard together and for each other. It's an honor to be recognized with some of the best coaches in the country on the list and I look forward to continuing our pursuit of another MAAC championship."
 
Coach Carly has led the Stags to a first-place standing in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) with a perfect 7-0 league mark. Under her leadership, the Stags have now won 30-straight games against conference opponents a streak that spans over 670 calendar days.
 
This season, Coach Carly has had to help the Stags deal with unforeseen injuries with five different rotation players missing at least one game this year.
 
Despite those injuries, Coach Carly and the Stags have built a 13-3 overall record which includes the program's first-ever win over a SEC team at Arkansas and also a victory at ACC Wake Forest, which was also her 50th career win.
 
Fairfield's seven road wins are tied for the third-most in the country after tallying the most away victories in Division I last year.
 
The Stags' offense is once again on top of the conference, leading the MAAC in five different categories including: points per game (75.1), field goal percentage (.476), assists per game (18.4), 3-pointers per game (8.9), and assist-turnover ratio (1.28). Fairfield is coming off one of their best offensive road trips in program history, tallying 90+ points in back-to-back games for the first time since 1995.
 
Fairfield also leads the MAAC in scoring defense allowing only 54.4 points per game, ranking 12th in the country.
 
In just her third season, Coach Carly ranks 23rd among all Division I head coaches with a .747 winning percentage. She was also named the MAAC, ECAC, and All-Met Coach of the Year, as well as the Kay Yow National Coach of the Year for last season's historic team.
 
Coach Carly and the Stags will be back in action on Thursday morning in front of a sold-out crowd in the annual Kids' Day Out against Manhattan at 11am at Leo D. Mahoney Arena.