FAIRFIELD, Conn. – The Fairfield University men's soccer team returns to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championship this weekend, hosting Niagara University on Sunday. The Stags and Purple Eagles meet in the first round of the tournament at Lessing Field at 1 pm.
The Stags return to the MAAC postseason for the first time since the 2022 campaign, earning the fourth-seed with its 5-1-4 conference record. Fairfield ended the regular season with an eight-game unbeaten streak that saw the team post a 4-0-4 record which all came against MAAC opponents.
The MAAC Championship field includes Sacred Heart University, Siena College, Iona University, Niagara University, and Quinnipiac University. Fairfield posted a 2-1-2 record against those five teams during the regular season, defeating Niagara and Quinnipiac, tying Sacred Heart and Iona, and suffering its only conference loss to Siena.
Fairfield finished the regular season with a 2-2 tie with top-seeded Sacred Heart, ending a run of three straight shutouts by the Stags. The goalkeeping combo of
Evan Chomow and
Viktor Nikolov has put together a string of 376 minutes without yielding a goal until the Pioneers scored in the 67
th minute of last Wednesday's match.
Chomow remains the MAAC leader in save percentage with is .823 mark which consists of 63 saves in his 13 appearances. He also places third among the MAAC goalkeepers with his 1.03 goals against average. Nikolov has also put up impressive numbers over his four appearances this year, sporting a 0.90 goals against average with a .727 save percentage.
With back line fully engaged down the stretch, the Stags offense ramped up to score six goals over the final three regular-season matches. Five different Fairfield student-athletes scored over the last three games, namely
William Pierce,
Pipeloore Olanrewaju,
Cameron Gerber,
Cole Dougherty, and
Sean Albritton. Albritton tallied both goals against Sacred Heart to improve his season total to seven goals, the most since Jonathan Filipe's 10 goals during the 2021 season.
Cameron Gerber and
Alex Vaz are also double-digit scorers this year with 12 and 10 points, respectively. Gerber has eight assists to his credit in 2025 which is tops in the MAAC, averaging .50 assists per game. Vaz is second among his teammates with five goals which includes one game winner.
Niagara will return to Lessing Field for the second time this season, falling to the Stags by a 2-0 count in the conference opener for both teams back in mid-September. Since that setback, the Purple Eagles have posted a 6-3-1 mark to end the regular season, giving them an 8-6-1 overall record.
Reon Tezuka paces the Niagara offense with six goals and two assists for 14 points, netting four game winners in the process. He scored a goal in four consecutive matches dating from October 11-25 which featured game winners against Iona and Saint Peter's. Juan Cardona and Niklas Kneller are next in line with nine points each, both recording three goals and three assists. Goalkeeper Grant Wyles has earned most of the minutes for the Purple Eagles, sporting a 1.62 goals against average along with his .753 save percentage off 64 stops.
The winner of this match will advance to the MAAC Championship semifinals on Thursday, November 13.
