With a veteran core and three straight conference titles, Fairfield enters the 2026-27 season with another NCAA Tournament run in sight.
For Fairfield University women’s basketball, the standard has changed.
A few years ago, winning a conference championship and reaching the NCAA Tournament represented a major step forward. Now, under head coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis, those accomplishments have become expectations.
The Stags enter the 2026-27 season as the three-time defending conference champions and three-time NCAA Tournament participants. They have won 87 games over the last three seasons, including a remarkable 58-2 regular-season record against conference opponents. Fairfield has also appeared in the Associated Press Top 25 during two of those championship runs.
Yet for all of that success, there is still one piece missing.
Fairfield has not won an NCAA Tournament game during the Thibault-DuDonis era. The Stags fell to Indiana in the first round in 2024, Kansas State in 2025 and Notre Dame in 2026. That history makes the 2026-27 season particularly intriguing: Fairfield returns much of its core, adds three experienced transfers and enters its final season before moving to the Coastal Athletic Association in 2027.
The season also marks the beginning of a new chapter for the conference. The former Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference is now operating under the Metro name, and Fairfield will compete in the league for one final season before leaving for the CAA on July 1, 2027.
The Stags were unanimously selected as the Metro’s preseason favorite, receiving all 13 first-place votes. Graduate guard Kaety L’Amoreaux was also voted preseason Player of the Year. Six Fairfield players earned preseason All-Metro recognition, a reflection of just how much experience and talent the roster brings into the season.
The schedule will give Fairfield opportunities to prove that talent against teams from outside its conference.
The Stags open the regular season at home with the America East-Metro Challenge, hosting Binghamton on Nov. 6 and defending America East champion Vermont on Nov. 8. Binghamton won 20 games last season and reached the WNIT, while Vermont went 27-8, won its second consecutive America East Tournament and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.
Those games will be followed by a stretch that includes several high-level opponents. Fairfield is scheduled to travel to Seton Hall on Nov. 13 before returning home to face Villanova on Nov. 15. The Stags then travel west to Oregon on Nov. 19 and Oregon State on Nov. 21, giving them two opportunities against Pac-12 competition in November.
The nonconference schedule is designed to test Fairfield before conference play begins. Oregon reached the 2026 NCAA Tournament, making the trip to Eugene another opportunity for the Stags to face postseason-caliber competition.
After the nonconference portion, Fairfield begins its final Metro campaign on Dec. 19 at Manhattan. The Stags will play 20 conference games, split evenly between 10 home games and 10 road games. The home schedule includes Merrimack, Rider, Iona, Siena, Mount St. Mary’s, Quinnipiac, Sacred Heart, Marist, Canisius and Niagara, while road trips include Manhattan, Siena, Merrimack, Canisius, Rider, Mount St. Mary’s, Saint Peter’s, Quinnipiac, Iona and Sacred Heart.
The conference schedule is significant beyond the standings. Fairfield has dominated Metro competition during the current championship run, but the Stags will have to navigate a league that includes several teams capable of creating problems. Quinnipiac finished 27-7 last season and went 19-1 in conference play, while Merrimack finished 19-13 and 15-5 in the league.
For Fairfield, however, the biggest story may be the players returning to lead the way. At the center of everything is L’Amoreaux.
The 5-foot-6 graduate guard is coming off a breakout senior season in which she was named Metro Player of the Year after averaging 17.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 2.1 steals per game. She led the conference in scoring and finished second in assists while making 74 three-pointers. She also recorded the first triple-double in Fairfield program history.
L’Amoreaux has developed into more than just a scorer. Her ability to create offense, handle the ball, shoot from the perimeter and make plays defensively gives Fairfield a primary option who can influence nearly every part of a game.
Her backcourt partner and fellow preseason first-team selection, Meghan Andersen, gives the Stags another major offensive weapon.
Andersen, a 6-foot-1 senior listed as a “Road Runner,” averaged 16.1 points and 4.7 rebounds last season. She led Fairfield with 88 made three-pointers, the second-most in a single season in program history, and became the first Stag to score 40 points in a game when she erupted for 40 against Marist.
Together, L’Amoreaux and Andersen give Fairfield a combination of shot creation, shooting and size that makes the Stags difficult to defend. They are also part of a roster that was among the most prolific three-point shooting teams in Division I last season. Fairfield made 11.3 threes per game while shooting 36.9 percent from behind the arc.
Jillian Huerter adds another perimeter threat. The graduate guard was the 2026 conference tournament MVP after averaging 13.6 points during the championship run and shooting 58 percent from three in the tournament. She also finished last season with personal bests in points and assists and made at least one three-pointer in each of Fairfield’s final 14 games.
Cyanne Coe provides another dimension. The 6-foot junior is coming off a season in which she shot 64.2 percent from the field, breaking a 40-year Fairfield single-season record and leading the conference in field-goal percentage. Her combination of efficiency and interior scoring gives the Stags another way to attack when defenses take away their perimeter shooting.
Then there are the newcomers, who could make Fairfield more versatile than it was a year ago.
Lana McCarthy, a 6-foot-4 junior transfer from Purdue, brings size and interior physicality. McCarthy appeared in 56 games with 40 starts for the Boilermakers and shot 57.5 percent from the field last season. Fairfield had recruited her out of high school and now gets the chance to add a bigger presence around the basket.
Nia Green gives Fairfield another versatile piece. The 6-foot junior transfer from UNC Asheville averaged 15.2 points and 7.4 rebounds last season while leading the Bulldogs in both categories. She also averaged 1.2 blocks and shot 48.3 percent from the field. Thibault-DuDonis specifically highlighted Green’s ability to attack off the bounce, finish at the rim, shoot from the mid-range and disrupt opponents defensively.
Paige Kohler, meanwhile, arrives from Bowling Green after leading the Falcons with 14.9 points per game and finishing second on the team with 3.0 assists. She also averaged more than 34 minutes per game across her three seasons at Bowling Green and made 143 three-pointers over her final two seasons.
That trio gives Fairfield something it has continued to prioritize under Thibault-DuDonis: depth without sacrificing continuity.
The Stags’ roster also includes four freshmen – Addison Rhodes, Emma Rogers, Caterina Ravosa and Gabrielle Vaughn – who join a group of returning players that already understands the system. Vaughn, a 6-foot guard from Pennsylvania, was specifically recruited for her versatility and ability to defend multiple positions while fitting into Fairfield’s five-out system.
That five-out identity is an important part of understanding how Fairfield plays.
Rather than relying on a traditional post player to occupy the paint, the Stags have emphasized spacing, movement and versatility. Their roster is filled with players who can shoot, pass, attack closeouts and play multiple positions. The result is an offense capable of stretching defenses across the floor and creating driving lanes while maintaining multiple perimeter threats.
Last season, Fairfield averaged 75.0 points per game, shot 45.2 percent from the field and 36.9 percent from three. The Stags also averaged 17.2 assists against just 13.3 turnovers per game. Defensively, they averaged 9.5 steals and 3.2 blocks per game.
The three-point volume stands out most. Fairfield attempted 1,011 threes last season, making 373 of them. That combination of volume and efficiency means opponents cannot simply pack the paint and dare the Stags to beat them from outside.
At the same time, Fairfield’s style is not entirely dependent on jump shooting. Coe’s efficiency around the basket, Andersen’s ability to score inside and outside, L’Amoreaux’s ability to get downhill and Green’s attacking game give the Stags several ways to generate offense when the three-point shot is not falling.
The coaching staff is led by Thibault-DuDonis, who enters her fifth season as Fairfield’s head coach. Before arriving in Fairfield, she worked as an assistant at Mississippi State and Minnesota. Since taking over the Stags, she has built the program into one of the most successful mid-major teams in the country, compiling a 102-27 record through four seasons.
She is joined by associate head coach and recruiting coordinator Erika Brown, assistant coaches Blake DuDonis and Jasmine Jenkins, and Alex McKinnon, who serves as director of basketball operations and an assistant coach. Graduate assistant Dominic Lewis rounds out the coaching staff, while Tyler Nelson serves as director of NIL operations and player relations.
The continuity within that staff mirrors what has happened with the players.
Thibault-DuDonis has placed significant emphasis on retaining players and developing them over multiple seasons rather than constantly rebuilding through the transfer portal. That approach has helped Fairfield maintain its identity despite the broader changes taking place throughout college basketball.
Now, the Stags have attempted to combine that continuity with one of their deepest transfer classes yet. The result is a team with established stars, experienced transfers, multiple shooters, more size and a group of young players who could eventually expand the rotation. But the ultimate question remains whether all of that will translate to March.
Fairfield has already proven that it can dominate its conference. It has already proven that it can schedule and compete against teams from major conferences. It has already proven that it can reach the NCAA Tournament. The next challenge is winning there.
The 2026-27 season gives Fairfield one more opportunity to do that before entering a new conference and a new phase of the program. With L’Amoreaux leading a veteran core, Andersen continuing to develop into one of the conference’s premier two-way players, Huerter and Coe providing proven production, and McCarthy, Green and Kohler adding experience from other Division I programs, the Stags enter the year with one of the most complete rosters of the Thibault-DuDonis era.
The expectations are high because the program has earned them.
For one final season in the Metro, Fairfield will try to do what it has done for the past three years: win its conference, reach the NCAA Tournament and keep pushing the ceiling higher. This time, though, the goal is not simply to get there. It is to finally stay there.
