Fairfield and Monmouth Set Up a CAA Final Rematch After Wednesday’s Semifinal Wins

Fairfield and Monmouth are going back at it, and this time there’s a trophy on the line.

The top two seeds both won Wednesday’s CAA semifinals at Buckley Field in Philadelphia. Fairfield beat Northeastern 3-1 in the noon game, and Monmouth knocked out hosts Drexel 2-1 in the afternoon game. So Friday’s final, 3 p.m. ET, is No. 1 Fairfield against No. 2 Monmouth, live on FloCollege.

That’s a rematch with a recent edge to it. Fairfield took the regular-season meeting 3-2 in overtime on 23 October, and that win is what handed the Stags the top seed. All three of Fairfield, Monmouth and Drexel finished 5-1 in the league, so the seeding came down to tiebreakers, and Fairfield came out on top. Monmouth, though, have been here before. This is a programme that keeps reaching CAA finals without yet winning one, and Friday is another crack at it.

For Drexel, the exit stings more than most. The Dragons were 15-3, had won eight straight, and were playing at home. A 2-1 semifinal loss ends all that in one afternoon. Northeastern, meanwhile, bow out after a season that already had its moment: the Huskies had beaten Fairfield’s conference rivals and pushed their way into the last four as the No. 4 seed.

For our money, Fairfield start as favourites. They’ve already beaten Monmouth once, they’re the top seed, and they’ve got the regular-season title to show for it. But Monmouth have made a habit of hanging around in this tournament, and a one-off final against a team you took to overtime a fortnight ago is no one’s idea of a formality. The winner takes the CAA’s automatic NCAA bid, with the full NCAA field announced Sunday night at 10 p.m. ET.