OPENING DRAW
Fairfield University Women's Lacrosse makes its eighth consecutive appearance in the MAAC Championship Game when the second-seeded Stags challenge fourth-seeded Iona on Sunday, May 4. The game from Mount St. Mary's Waldron Family Stadium will air live on ESPNU with Mike Corey and Courtney Martinez Connor calling the action.

THE SEMI STORY
Fairfield reached the MAAC Championship Game with a 16-12 victory over third-seeded Siena on Friday, May 2. Earlier in the day, Iona punched its ticket to the finals with an 11-10 victory over top seed and tournament host Mount St. Mary's.

ANNUAL OCCURRENCES
Fairfield is competing in the MAAC Championship Game for the eighth consecutive season (excluding the canceled 2020 season). In total, the Stags have reached the conference final on 16 occasions, posting an 8-7 record in their 15 prior outings.

In addition, the Stags are vying for a seventh consecutive NCAA postseason berth. That run includes the first-ever at-large bid in both Fairfield and MAAC Women's Lacrosse history in 2024.

A 2025 NCAA appearance would be the ninth overall bid for the Stags to the national tournament since 2009.

MAAC REGULAR SEASON CHAMPIONS
The Stags went 7-1 in the MAAC regular season to earn a share of the program's 16th MAAC Regular Season Championship. Mount St. Mary's earned the top seed and hosting duties as a result of a 10-7 win over the Stags on April 5 in Emmitsburg.

WE'VE GOT A FIRST TIMER OVER HERE
As a result of the MAAC's unbalanced schedule, Sunday's game marks the first time that the Stags will challenge an opponent in the conference tournament that they did not play during the regular season.

The most recent meeting between Fairfield and Iona was a 16-6 win for the Stags in New Rochelle on March 27, 2024.

TWENTY QUESTIONS
In the April victories over Canisius and Manhattan, Fairfield scored 20 goals in back-to-back games for the first time since the 2008 team dropped 20+ in consecutive wins over Iona, Holy Cross and Niagara. That season is also the last time the Stags reached 20 goals in three MAAC games, doing so against Iona, Niagara and Siena.

60-POINT PAIRS
Amanda Kozak and Grace Slater have posted 65 and 61 points, respectively. They are the fifth pair of teammates in program history to reach the 60-point mark in the same season.

2025: Amanda Kozak (65) and Grace Slater (61)
2024: Elizabeth Talluto (83) and Libby Rowe (65)
2023: Olivia Doody (69), Elizabeth Talluto (65), Libby Rowe (64) and Ellie Grefenstette (63)
2009: Kristen Coleman (88), Rebecca White (77) and Erin Rigby (63)
2008: Kristen Coleman (90) and Erin Rigby (62)

MAKE IT, TAKE IT
Brynn Donnelly has shattered Fairfield's single-season record with 137 draw controls and counting. She owns two of the three 100+ draw seasons in program history, having eclipsed the mark in both of her campaigns as the Stags' primary draw specialist. Donnelly set a new Fairfield single-season record with 13 draw controls in the April 16 win over Sacred Heart, then surpassed that mark with 18 in the April 19 win at Marist.

On the season, the All-MAAC First Team selection leads the conference and ranks 16th nationally with 8.06 draw controls per game. Donnelly is nine draw controls shy of the Fairfield career record of 271 established by Erin Mammele from 2016-19.

POLL POSITIONS
Fairfield Women's Lacrosse may see an end to its streak of seven consecutive seasons challenging a nationally ranked opponent. However, that is not due to lack of trying, as the Stags met three opponents that appear in this week's IWLCA poll (#19 Army, #22 Denver, #23 Drexel) but were unranked at the time of their meeting with the Stags. In addition, UConn made multiple appearances on the national ledger this season but was unranked when the Huskies hosted Fairfield in February.

The Stags defeated ranked opponents in back-to-back games last spring, knocking off #24 UConn and #23 UAlbany for the program's first-ever wins over IWLCA nationally ranked foes.

HEAD COACH LAURA FIELD
The 2023 and 2024 MAAC Coach of the Year, Laura Field is in her 10th campaign leading the Stags and her 17th overall with the program. Field has been at the helm for five MAAC Championships (2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023) and six NCAA postseason appearances (2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024) and was also on staff as an assistant for her predecessor, Mike Waldvogel, for the 2009 and 2015 MAAC Championship seasons.

Field is the winningest coach in Fairfield Women's Lacrosse history with a 117-55 record. She was also the interim head coach at Yale University in 2008, leading the Bulldogs to an 11-5 mark - a win total that would not be reached again at Yale until 2022 - to round out her career tally at 128-60 in 11 years as a Division I head coach.