As a product of Fairfield University’s COVID-19 surveillance testing, a percentage of students living on campus at the University are selected at random each week to be tested for the virus. The University also made it a huge priority to make sure there is constant testing for the sports teams as well. This is done to ensure the safety of their athletes, staff and other schools who may come in contact with teams during competition.
Fairfield University provides the campus community with a dashboard that indicates the results regarding the surveillance testing, diagnostics and other contact tracing testing. Now, with students repopulating the campus, there has been a significant push to have all students be tested in order to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.
Surveillance testing was done during the week of Jan. 18, and tests from that day revealed that there were several positive cases on both the men’s and women’s basketball teams, within Tier 1 personnel.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association stated, “The Tier 1 includes the student athletes, coaches, staff and administration.”
Both teams had games scheduled for the upcoming weeks. However, both the men’s and women’s basketball programs had to come to a pause due to the cases. The program had to be paused for about 10 days, taking the necessary precautions. This has pushed back the scheduling of games.
The men’s team had a scheduled series with Monmouth University for the weekend of Jan. 29. It is now scheduled to Feb. 19 and 20.
The women’s team had a scheduled series against St. Peter’s University on Jan. 23 and a series contest hosted by Iona College. The Fairfield versus St. Peter’s series is now scheduled for Feb. 12 and 13. The Stags will then be traveling to New Rochelle, NY to face the Iona Gaels. They will be participating in a series contest on Feb. 17 and 24.
The new schedule is located on the Fairfield University Athletics official website. You can also keep up with announcements and scheduling on the official website for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
Fairfield University has been doing very well when it comes to dealing with COVID-19. They have not taken any situation lightly, which is clearly seen by the precautions that were made regarding athletics.
Keep up with the women and men’s basketball games on ESPN3 or ESPN+, sports streaming services. There are specific streaming services for each game which is provided on the Fairfield Stags website, located within the teams’ schedules.
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