The Fairfield University women’s soccer team was selected to finish third in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) preseason coaches poll, announced this week by the conference office.  The Stags also had four players named to the preseason All-MAAC team.

The Stags earned 86 points in the poll, of the 10 head coaches in the MAAC.  Loyola, the 2006 regular season champion, earned 93 points as the favorite, while Niagara, the defending tournament champion, earned 87 points, to be predicted as the runner-up.  Siena earned 62 points, to be selected fourth, followed by Manhattan, 58 points and Marist, picked sixth, with 57 points.  Iona was chosen seventh, with 33 points, while Canisius and Rider both earned 30 points, for eighth, and Saint Peter’s earned 14 points, to be picked 10th.

Three of the four Stags named to the preseason All-MAAC Team were seniors; Alex Caram (Lexington, Mass.), MT Church (Centennial, Colo.) and Brett Maron (Billerica, Mass.)  Junior Ahna Johnson (Hamden, Conn.) rounded out the quartet of Stags that were honored.

Maron, the 2006 MAAC Defensive Player of the Year, made 85 saves in just under 1,800 minutes of action.  She boasted a goals-against of 0.93 for the season, and posted seven shutouts.  Caram, a midfielder, was the Stags second leading scorer netting five goals and six assists, for 16 points.  Church is one of the key members of the Stags defensive unit, helping Fairfield to seven shutouts a season ago.  Johnson, named to the team as a forward, touched net four times last season, and added four assists, for 12 points.

The Stags will open the 2007 campaign at the Denver Invitational on Aug. 31, playing Air Force.  Fairfield will than play either Colorado or host Denver, teams which met in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, with the Buffs advancing to the Sweet 16, before falling to national runner-up Notre Dame.