CHEERS:
to men’s basketball earning NIT bid …
Fairfield played in its first post-season basketball game since losing to North Carolina in the opening round of the ’97 NCAA Tournament. The Stags, however, fell to 1-8 in career postseason games when they lost to Boston College 90-78 on March 18 in front of a record-crowd of 6,585 at the Arena at Harbor Yard.
BOOS:
to the disbanding of football and hockey …
The university announced on Feb. 6 that the football and hockey programs would no longer exist after this year. Approximately $570,000 will now be saved by the university by these cuts, which affected 85 student athletes and 10 coaches.
CHEERS:
to Nick Delfico playing in every collegiate game …
Delfico played in his school-record 117th collegiate game on March 18 against Boston College. The milestone game broke A.J. Wynder’s record from the mid-’80’s. Delfico, Fairfield’s version of an iron-man, played in every single game during his four years in a Fairfield uniform.
BOOS:
to zero conference tournament titles …
After winning conference tournament titles in women’s volleyball, field hockey and men’s lacrosse last season, the Stags have no conference tournament titles this year to date.
CHEERS:
to Rishawd Watson becoming Fairfield’s all-time leading rusher …
Watson broke Adam Ferreri’s career rushing record when he ran for 91 yards against Canisius on Oct. 26. Watson broke the previous mark of 1,251 set in 2000.
BOOS:
to the hasty opening of Lessing Field …
The $1.3 million spent on the brand new Lessing Field wasn’t enough to prevent a sod deficiency that resulted in just three games being played on the field the entire year.
CHEERS:
to Schrene Isidora and Tom Werney coming back for fifth years …
After suffering season-ending injuries, women’s basketball star Schrene Isidora and men’s lacrosse scoring machine Tom Werney, will return for fifth seasons next year after medically red-shirting their senior seasons.
BOOS:
to three fall sports upset early in MAAC Tournaments …
Men’s soccer, women’s soccer and women’s volleyball all lost to lower-seeded teams in the conference tournaments.
CHEERS:
to Tim O’Toole receiving a contract extension offer from the athletic department …
The fifth year Fairfield head coach, and former Stag himself, was offered a contract extension by the athletic administration. O’Toole led the Stags to a 19-12 record this year, including a trip to the MAAC Championship game and NIT berth.
BOOS:
to O’Toole yet to accept the offer …
O’Toole cited that the contract extension was a distraction during the season and was going to wait until after the recruiting process was over to finalize his decision. No decision has been announced at this time.
CHEERS:
to scholarly athletes …
Congratulations to the 211 student-athletes recognized by the athletic department for receiving a 3.0 or better during the fall semester. Even more noteworthy, congratulations to all those who were named to the All-MAAC Academic team for their respective sports.
to Deng Gai makes up his mind …
Gai told The Mirror on Tuesday that he will in fact return to Fairfield next year.
to women’s lacrosse over-achieving during the regular season …
A fourth head coach in four years and a heavily depleted roster seemed to doom the women’s lacrosse season before it even began this year. However, the Stags proved their critics wrong by winning the MAAC regular season title for the third straight year and finished with a perfect 6-0 record in the conference. Guess they were the real deal after all. No, maybe not …
BOOS:
to women’s lacrosse bowing out early in MAAC Tournament …
For the second straight year, the top-seeded women’s lacrosse team was upset in the MAAC Tournament. Last year the Stags lost in the championship game to Lemoyne after beating Lemoyne during the regular season. Likewise this year, Fairfield defeated Marist in the regular season, only to lose to the Red Foxes in the tournament – this time in the opening round.
CHEERS:
to the softball team – Fairfield’s last chance at winning a conference tournament title this year …
The softball team hosts the MAAC Tournament in Stratford this weekend, and hold Fairfield’s last hope of winning a conference tournament title this year. Last year, the top-seeded Stags were knocked out by the heavily-underdog Golden Griffins from Canisius. Fairfield needed to just win one game from Canisius to claim the title, instead the Golden Griffins captured both games.
to the construction of the new football field … wait, we don’t have a team anymore …
The athletic department’s plan of constructing an astro-grass field, costing approximately $1 million, seems to be still going as scheduled despite the university’s drop of its football program. The astro-grass, which is a mixture of real grass and Astroturf, will instead be likely used by Prep and intramurals.
BOOS:
to the women’s basketball team staying at the Arena at Harbor Yard …
Although the women’s basketball team averaged 2,675 people per game this season, which ranked them 61st in the nation for attendance near the end of the season, the team only averaged a measly 768 fans in its four games that were not doubleheader games with the men’s team.
CHEERS:
to all the cooperative coaches in the athletic department.
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