While much of the attention goes to Fairfield’s Division I sports, there are many other teams at Fairfield that are competing at a high level. The club sports teams at Fairfield have been regularly successful and impressive. Here’s a look at the past seasons from four of our Fairfield club teams.
Sailing:
This is going to be a historic season for Fairfield sailing. Since it’s beginning, Fairfield has been sailing on a joint team with Sacred Heart, under Sacred Heart’s team name.
“What’s exciting is that coming this spring we will be officially splitting from Sacred Heart and will be racing under the Fairfield University name,” said Eric Sowell ‘14 of the club sailing team.
This past season, the Stags were competitive, racing at Yale and Providence, and “on a 37-foot high performance sailboat at Larchmont Yacht Club in the Storm Trysail Intercollegiate Offshore Regatta,” said Sowell.
Sowell is optimistic about the team’s future, saying, “We are a small up-and-coming team going up against a lot of the top teams in the country, but I think we held our own. As a team we’re definitely moving in the right direction, and having fun along the way.”
Men’s Ice Hockey:
Men’s ice hockey finished their last season with a winning record, going 9-2-2 throughout the season. According to Alexander Russoniello ‘14, this was “the best start to a season Fairfield hockey has ever had.”
Russoniello also that in a strong season, the highlight for the team was a comeback shootout win against SUNY Maritime in November.
Ice hockey has been a consistently strong club sport at Fairfield, and much of it comes from the strong play of new players coming to the team. Russoniello stated that it was much of the same, saying that the stand out player for the season was “Vin Rella [‘17, who] is leading the team in scoring [and] playing fantastically, especially in his first year on the team.”
The men’s ice hockey team will continue play into this season.
Baseball:
Club baseball had a standout season, ending it with a 13-1 overall record and a 12-0 regular season record. Their outstanding regular season play earned them a bye in their postseason tournament. Their good play continued throughout the tournament, until they eventually fell 4-2 to University of New Hampshire.
Statistically, several players stood out this season: “Star centerfielder Brian DelDebbio ‘14, shortstop James Ursini ‘16, Catcher Ryan ‘Boomer’ Saunders ‘16 and [I] led the offense to mercying nearly half the games played,” said Joseph Dunn ‘14.
Dunn also said that several freshmen stepped up big during the season: “Freshmen phenom pitchers Nick Ferry and Tim Knightly did a terrific job, allowing only one earned run all regular season.”
Tennis:
The co-ed club tennis team is preparing for their spring season and coming off of a strong last season. Captain Andrew Rosales ‘14 sees the upcoming season as a chance for the team to do things they haven’t done in previous seasons.
“We have the opportunity to go and play at Harvard for sectionals in March, which isn’t something we’ve really gotten to do before,” said Rosales.
Reflecting on the past season, Rosales said that there were many good performances and the team itself grew with the leadership of key players.
Against their cross-town rivals, Sacred Heart, “We won three times against Sacred Heart this past season. We did lose to them in a tournament against Tufts and Bryant,” said Rosales.
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