LAS VEGAS, Nev. – The Fairfield University Women's Basketball team will open play in the WBCA Challenge at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., when they take on the South Florida Bulls on Thursday at 6pm EST. Both the Stags and the Bulls will enter play with an unblemished 2-0 record with the Stags picking up wins over Villanova and Lehigh. Those victories have helped the Stags receive votes in both the Associated Press (AP) and USA Today Coaches Top-25 polls. The game will be broadcasted live on ESPNU.
 
Fairfield has been led by the nation's leading scorer in Road Runner Meghan Andersen who dropped 30 points in both contests last week including a career-high 35-point outburst at Villanova. In that victory, Andersen became the 35th Stag all-time to reach 1,000 career points and tied Fairfield's all-time leading scorer Gail Strumpf-Cheney as the second-fastest to reach the milestone in just 67 contests.
 
After averaging a nation's best 32.5 points per game, combined with a .605 field goal percentage and a .563 3-point shooting clip, Andersen was named not only the MAAC Player of the Week but also one of five selections as an Ann Meyers Drysdale National Player of the Week.
 
She became the second Stag ever to record back-to-back 30-point contests and the only Stag to have four separate 30-point scoring games.
 
As a team, the Stags are leading the MAAC in nearly every offensive category including: points per game (81.5), field goal percentage (.440), free throw percentage (.838), and 3-pointers per game (11.0). Fairfield connected on 14 three-pointers in their win over Lehigh, the 29th time they have reached double-digit trifectas under Head Coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis.
 
Saturday's win over the reigning Patriot League Champions Lehigh also marked Coach Carly's first win over an opponent from the Patriot League. Coach Carly and the Stags have now defeated teams from 13 different conferences including the: SEC, ACC, Big East, and Atlantic-10.
 
A couple of Fairfield milestones are in the works for the WBCA Challenge with Janelle Brown one assist away from 300 in her career and would become the 20th Stag to reach that mark. Kaety L'Amoraux is also one trifecta shy of 100 in her career and would become the 18th Fairfield player to reach triple digits.
 
South Florida enters play with wins over FIU and LIU to begin their season. The team is averaging 50.0 rebounds per game, ranking in the top-25 in the country. Edyn Battle is the team's leading scorer with a 20.0 points per game average.
 
The Stags will conclude their stay in Las Vegas with a contest against North Carolina who enters the week No. 11 in the AP Poll and No. 8 in the USA Today Coaches Poll. The Stags and the Tar Heels will face off on Saturday at 6pm EST.