By Joe Budzelek (@JBudzelek)
It’s getting harder to find new ways to describe what Carly Thibault-DuDonis has built at Fairfield.
For the third straight year, the Stags will enter the season as the unanimous preseason No. 1 in the Metro Conference, with all 13 coaches picking Fairfield to finish on top. The numbers behind that expectation are pretty remarkable: Fairfield has an overall record of 87-11 across the last three seasons, including a 57-3 mark in conference regular-season play. The Stags have also made three straight NCAA Tournaments for the first time in program history, and have also cracked the national polls at No. 25 in both 2024 and 2026.
This year’s roster might be Thibault-DuDonis’ deepest yet.
Six Stags were named to the preseason all-Metro teams, led by reigning conference Player of the Year and unanimous Preseason Player of the Year Kaety L’Amoreaux and former Player of the Year Meghan Andersen on the first team. Cyanne Coe and Jillian Huerter landed on the second team, while newcomers Lana McCarthy and Paige Kohler were selected to the third team. It marks the fourth straight season Fairfield has increased its number of preseason honorees, going from two in 2023-24 to four the following season, five last year and now a program-record six.
With Fairfield chasing a fourth straight conference championship and entering another season with expectations unlike anything the program has experienced before, there is plenty for Stags fans to get excited about. But what makes this Fairfield team different isn’t simply the number of familiar faces returning, it is the talent and experience the Stags have added around them, creating a group that has the potential to be deeper and more complete than any Fairfield team before it, starting with the players who are back.
Entering this season with a combined 2,823 total points scored, L’Amoreaux and Andersen will be the team’s veteran leaders and once again stir the straw in Fairfield’s free-flowing motion system that prioritizes spacing, ball-movement and skill.
Few guards impact the game in more ways than L’Amoreaux. Last season, the 5-foot-6 Endwell, New York native led the MAAC in scoring, field-goal percentage and free-throw percentage while earning a spot on the conference’s all-defensive Team. A true five-tool combo guard, L’Amoreaux improved her numbers for the second straight season in virtually every major offensive and defensive category.
Despite occasionally being the tallest player in Fairfield’s lineup, the 6-foot-1 Andersen has spent her career as the Stags’ most versatile and potent roadrunner in their five-out system, providing frontcourt size while still functioning as a perimeter threat with legitimate guard skills. Like L’Amoreaux, Andersen posted career highs last season in points, assists and three-pointers made. Her dip in two-point efficiency, meanwhile, could be mitigated by the Stags’ influx of frontcourt size, which should allow the Long Island native to operate more naturally as the more perimeter-oriented roadrunner. Fairfield could even deploy three frontcourt players at times this season, with Andersen effectively sliding into the three spot.
In addition to L’Amoreaux and Andersen, Jillian Huerter returns as the team’s third-leading scorer from last season and the reigning MAAC tournament most valuable player. Huerter averaged 13.7 points over Fairfield’s three tournament games while shooting 57.9 percent from 3-point range, scoring a career-high 19 points in the semifinal against Merrimack before adding 16 points on 4-for-6 shooting from deep in the championship game against Quinnipiac. Expect Huerter to remain the Stags’ most efficient floor spacer while also providing connective playmaking after averaging a career-high 2.5 assists per game last season. With more size throughout the lineup this year, the 6-foot Clifton Park, New York native should spend more time at the two, rather than frequently being asked to play as Fairfield’s biggest guard, and that may be the most intriguing part of Fairfield’s roster this season.
The Stags haven’t abandoned the spacing, shooting and five-out principles that have defined their rise under Thibault-DuDonis. They’ve simply given themselves more ways to play within them. For the first time during its current dynasty, Fairfield enters the season with legitimate size and athleticism throughout its frontcourt, opening up a new dimension for a system built on versatility and freedom.
Purdue transfer Lana McCarthy, a 6-foot-4 back-to-the-basket presence, gives Fairfield a dimension it hasn’t consistently had in recent years. After averaging 7.8 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.3 turnovers forced in just 17.1 minutes per game last season, McCarthy’s potential impact has already earned her a spot on the preseason All-Metro third team.
“One of the biggest differences that you’ll see this year is we have a really dynamic interior presence,” Thibault-DuDonis said. “We relied heavily on Cyanne Coe last year for that. She was always undersized at her position, but she was really effective in doing so. Now we’ve added Lana McCarthy, who is a really big presence, a true back-to-the-basket handful.”
A two-year contributor who started 40 games at Purdue, McCarthy isn’t being asked to turn Fairfield into a traditional post-oriented team. Instead, she gives the Stags a new option within the same five-out philosophy, someone who can establish herself inside and force defenses to account for her size without sacrificing the spacing and movement that define the system. And while McCarthy’s value begins in the paint, her passing ability should allow her to function as part of Fairfield’s ball movement rather than simply as a stationary post, having averaged 2.0 assists per 40 minutes at Purdue.
As a center with true high-major size, the addition of McCarthy now allows Thibault-DuDonis to run more rotations with the 6-foot Coe guarding opposing teams’ fours, which more naturally matches her length and strength at the position. It also gives Coe more freedom to use her athleticism and defensive versatility without routinely having to battle bigger centers in the paint. It’s a subtle shift, but one that could allow Coe to be even more impactful defensively while giving Fairfield a more natural size matchup across the frontcourt as the Stags set their sights on making a run in the NCAA Tournament.
Six-foot UNC Asheville transfer Nia Green, meanwhile, brings a different kind of size to the lineup, with the athleticism to attack the rim, rebound at a high level and defend multiple positions. In her sophomore season with the Bulldogs, Green averaged 15.2 points, 7.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.2 blocks per game. Her 3.6 turnovers per game can be attributed in part to her high usage rate, particularly in forced isolation halfcourt sets, so it would not be surprising to see her efficiency and perimeter game improve in Fairfield’s system after attempting just two 3-pointers last season.
“There’s probably been a moment each week in practice where she does something and all of us look at each other like, ‘well, we haven’t been able to do that before,’” Thibault-DuDonis said of Green. “Some of those things are her getting up at the rim, rebounding and putting it back in the air. She caught a couple of lobs the other day in tip-in-type plays. She can play up and athletically in a way that, especially when we meet teams like Notre Dame, she can match that athleticism. She can also guard multiple positions. She’s different than Cyanne Coe because she’s not quite as strong as Cy, who can truly wrestle with a five when she needs to, but Nia can use her length and athleticism to guard one through four, and at times one through five. Having a couple of those kinds of weapons defensively is really valuable.”
“Even though her three-point shot is going to be a work in progress, and we anticipate her taking some this year, she still finds a way to get to her spots. Even if you choose not to guard her three, she’s quick enough and savvy enough. She’s slippery to the rim, so even if you choose not to guard her, she still can get to her spots.”
Green’s versatility is part of what could make Fairfield’s lineup combinations so difficult to predict. Thibault-DuDonis doesn’t want to put rigid labels on her players, and the Stags’ five-out system gives her the freedom to go from smaller, guard-heavy lineups to combinations featuring multiple frontcourt players without fundamentally changing how they play.
“We can really do anything and anywhere in between, which is exciting for us,” she said. “It challenges us as coaches and them to be smarter and make good decisions within that motion.”
That flexibility, perhaps more than anything else, is what makes Fairfield’s depth so intriguing. And there is plenty of it.
The team’s key backcourt addition, Bowling Green transfer Paige Kohler is one of Fairfield’s two transfers to earn preseason all-Metro honors, and the 5-foot-8 senior brings both the skill set and résumé to help replace the offensive versatility lost with the graduation of all-time great Janelle Brown.
Kohler’s game also appears to fit the Stags’ DNA more naturally than last year’s backcourt transfer Alli Campbell, who graduated after one season with Fairfield. Last season, Kohler averaged 15.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.3 3-pointers per game for the Falcons.
“I’ve really been impressed with Paige’s demeanor,” Thibault-DuDonis said. “You don’t start 93 games and not have your head on straight, and she clearly knows the game. Even as a newcomer, our motion offense can be very nuanced and take some time to understand, and she’s been able to pretty quickly start helping some of our freshmen, which is really neat to see. Her experience and IQ jump out immediately.”
“I’m excited for her because she’s someone we can definitely rely on as a secondary ball handler. We knew she was good at attacking the rim at Bowling Green, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised with her ability to handle the ball in tight spaces and be someone we can rely on there. In addition to that, she’s just a really calming presence for our team.”
Following Fairfield’s European trip this summer, Thibault-DuDonis singled out returning sophomores Milou van Vliet and Keyarah Gregory as two players who made significant strides entering their second seasons.
“Lou and KG, our two returners who were freshmen last year, both had really good summers,” she said. “I’ll go back to my dad (longtime Connecticut Sun and Washington Mystics head coach Mike Thibault) being in practice. He complimented both of them on how much better they’ve gotten from their freshman year to now. KG, at 5-foot-3, was one of our best rebounders outside of our traditional rebounders. She was someone who gave us that interior presence, getting her feet in the paint and then being able to spray it out to her teammates and find open teammates. I thought she had a great summer.”
“Same with Lou. She missed part of the summer playing with her U20 Dutch team and was fantastic for them. She came in with a ton of confidence, and I thought she did a really nice job this summer of doing all the little things and being that glue player in a different way, but a little bit of what Lauren Beach was for us. We needed her to defend, and she could defend. She got extra possessions on offensive rebounds, cut to the rim and was someone we could play inside-out through. I thought she showed some great versatility in addition to being more consistent from three.”
Reflecting on Fairfield’s freshman class, Thibault-DuDonis has been impressed not only by the group’s talent, but by its willingness to learn. Five-foot-11 guard Addison Rhodes was one of the newcomers who stood out during the team’s European trip, earning praise from her coach for both her shooting and her approach. The reigning Ohio Division V Player of the Year averaged 26.1 points per game last season at Crestview High School while shooting 44.5 percent from 3-point range.
“She shot it at a really high clip, had a ton of confidence and was super coachable all throughout the summer,” Thibault-DuDonis said. “I thought she had a great showing out in Portugal.”
Rhodes is just one of several newcomers who could push for meaningful minutes, adding another layer to what is already shaping up to be an unusually deep Fairfield roster. With so many players capable of filling different roles, the competition for playing time may be as important as the talent itself.
Thibault-DuDonis repeatedly referred to that competition as a “great problem to have,” pointing back to Fairfield’s first championship team under her leadership, which routinely played nine or ten players. She believes this group could be even deeper, with seven starting-caliber upperclassmen creating a situation where roles and rotations may change from night to night rather than being established in September.
That fluidity isn’t something Thibault-DuDonis sees as a problem to solve. It’s part of what she believes can make this team better and keep everyone pushing each other throughout the season.
“You can’t get comfortable,” she said.
And for a Fairfield program that has already raised its standard to three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, getting comfortable isn’t an option. The Stags have built the depth, experience and versatility to believe they can take another step in March. Now, the challenge is turning that potential into the kind of postseason run they’ve spent the offseason preparing for.
“Last year, we were the best of the 11-seeds and Notre Dame was clearly the best of the 6-seeds, and I’m going to beat that drum,” Thibault-DuDonis said. “But I do think that this team is built for an NCAA Tournament run. They’re great about it, and I’m not going to allow them to get ahead of themselves. We’ve got a lot to do in order for that to happen.”
“Our non-conference is set up intentionally for that experience. We’re taking a two-day trip out to Oregon (to face Oregon and Oregon State) and it’s basically the exact cadence of an NCAA Tournament weekend. Two days before, we’re playing on the road, and then we’ve got a game, an off day and a game. We’re trying to clearly mimic that. We’re giving them lots of experiences like that to help prepare them, but then we have to do what we want to do in our league. There are a lot of hurdles in between, but this team is hungry to go take that next step. I can’t tell you it’ll be a failure if we don’t, but that is certainly our goal. It’s what drives Kaety and Meg, who are going into their fourth years here every day, and they set the standard for everybody else around them for that to be top of mind every day.”
With a well-oiled two-way system built around potent scorers, selfless connectors, defensive playmakers and foot soldiers—and more size and athleticism than ever before—Fairfield has never had more ways to win. Now, the Stags have to prove they can turn all those possibilities into something they’ve never done before.
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