ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — The three-peat is complete.
For the third time in as many years, Fairfield women’s basketball is walking away from the MAAC Championships with a trophy and ticket to March Madness in hand after grinding out a 51-44 win over in-state rival Quinnipiac on Monday night.
“I am so proud of the grit of this team,” said head coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis. “I love that we were able to rely on our defense night in and night out, especially in the last month of the season and certainly tonight. There’s so much grit and togetherness, connectedness that we saw today… it was a rock fight and I love that we showed up and answered every call.”
The Stags received a stern test from the Bobcats, who entered the tournament as the top seed after the two teams split their pair of regular-season meetings. The third-ranked scoring defense in the country was on full display from the opening tip for the Bobcats, who smothered the Stags’ offense to the tune of just 10 points and zero made threes in the first quarter.
Fairfield responded in kind with its own defensive dominance, limiting the Bobcats to just nine points of their own on 18% shooting in the opening frame. It wasn’t until almost four minutes into the second quarter that the Stags found some offensive rhythm, thanks once again to the play of Jillian Huerter.
After scoring a career-high 19 points in the Stags’ semifinal win over Merrimack, the junior guard buried the team’s first two 3-pointers of the game on consecutive possessions to spark an 8-0 run and a 20-13 lead. In the end, Huerter accounted for four of Fairfield’s six makes from downtown in the game, scoring a team-high 16 points to earn championship MVP.
“It was a little bit surreal, but I couldn’t do it without my teammates,” Huerter said of receiving the honor. “They helped me a lot by finding me when I was open and getting me the ball. This was a team win and it’s just a lot of fun to get the win, get the championship with my team.”
Huerter’s burst helped the Stags carry a 25-19 advantage into halftime, after which they maintained a similar buffer until late in the fourth quarter.
That’s when Bobcats forward Anna Foley caught fire, scoring on three straight possessions and assisting on a Jackie Grisdale layup on a fourth to cut the lead to three. But the Stags’ defense rose to the occasion one last time, getting a key stop to set up free throws from junior guard Kaety L’Amoreaux and senior guard Sydni Scott that iced the game.
“I trust [the players] to make the right plays at the right moments,” Thibault-DuDonis added. “They’re really good at playing in flow. I trust them in those moments and they’ve built up that trust together.”
In addition to Huerter’s standout night, sophomore road runner Cyanne Coe tallied a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds and junior road runner Meghan Andersen contributed nine points, three rebounds, two steals and two blocks.
All three were named to the MAAC All-Tournament Team.
The win represents another milestone in an unprecedented run of success for the Stags. After going 15-15 in Thibault-DuDonis’s debut season at the helm in 2022-23, the team has posted a combined record of 87-11 since, had two separate stints in the AP Top 25 and now claimed three straight conference championships.
They’ve done it by building year over year with a supportive community and a core of players that continues to stick together in an era of the sport where that is increasingly hard to find.
“[The program] is in an unbelievable place,” Thibault-DuDonis said. “I literally love waking up and coming – I don’t even know if I can call it work – coming to Fairfield every single day because I love the people that I’m surrounded by.”
“I’ve loved how much our student-athletes have poured into the kids that come to our games and at camp, and there’s so much camaraderie and so many people behind you,” she continued. “So our women play for more than themselves. It’s a unique place in that community and family and showing up for one another still matters.”
Now, the next step for the program is finding success in the NCAA Tournament, the one area where the Stags have notably fallen short the last two seasons.
But while the recent first-round losses to Indiana in 2024 and Kansas State in 2025 were disappointing, the players believe the unique bond of this year’s team has them better prepared than ever to add a new first-time achievement to what has become a long list.
“Our grit, our willingness to get into the gym and put up as many shots, whatever we need to work on, we ask for it, and we do our best to take as many opportunities as we get,” Andersen said. “Everybody wants to keep their season going, us especially. I think this team, the grit that we have, the motivation, the friendship, the connections… this year especially, I’m just so grateful to be where I am right now with them.”
For all their accomplishments, the Stags continue to stress that there is still more work to be done. But the work already finished has put them in truly rarified air, and they’ve shown no signs of coming down.
The Stags now await the reveal of their NCAA Tournament First Round opponent this Sunday, March 15. The Selection Show kicks off at 8 p.m. and will air live on ESPN.
