Fairfield Women’s Soccer defeated Quinnipiac in a Thursday semifinal on Lessing Field.
Fairfield Women’s Soccer will travel to Monmouth this Sunday, Nov. 10 to play for the 2019 MAAC Championship. Kickoff from the Jersey Shore is set for 4 p.m. and all of the action will air live on ESPN+. The Stags will be challenging the top-seeded Hawks in search of the seventh MAAC Championship in program history and the program’s first since 2008.
Fairfield is the second-seeded team in the tournament following a 10-5-3 regular season and reached Sunday’s final with a 1-0 victory over Quinnipiac on Lessing Field on Thursday evening. Gabby Diodati ’21 supplied the offense with Aytana Muschajew ’22 making four saves to preserve the shutout win and deliver the first postseason victory as a Stag for second-year Head Coach David Barrett, the 2019 MAAC Coach of the Year.
"Our mental toughness has grown; we just battle a lot more," Coach Barrett said. "The character of the team came through. They were selfless to put the needs of the team first. They start to see success and I think that definitely helps. I think the message has some merit because we're seeing some of that success when we get on to the field. It was a combination of a lot of things that we have been working towards."
The winner of Sunday’s MAAC Championship will earn the Conference’s automatic bid to the 2019 NCAA Championship. The complete field for the national tournament will be announced Monday at 4:30 p.m. on NCAA.com.