Fairfield University women’s basketball team has earned a spot in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll for the first time in program history.

They landed at No. 25, replacing West Virginia. They also became the fourth team from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference to earn a spot in the Top 25.

The Stags won 24 straight games and are the only team in the country besides South Carolina that remains undefeated – with one or fewer losses.

Second year head coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis told News 12 earlier this has been a long time coming.

The team said they had been pleading their case all year on the court - and even lately on social media - to earn this historic ranking.

"We worked hard for this and we weren't really expecting it, we didn't know if we'd get it, but we got it and right now we have to celebrate it and continue to keep working," said Janelle Brown, senior guard at Fairfield Women's Basketball.

“One of the reasons I came here was I thought there was great potential in women’s basketball for this to be a program that was nationally ranked and nationally recognized and can go into the postseason and be competitive. We’re on the brink of that and we still have a lot to accomplish this season,” said DuDonis.

DuDonis said she hopes a national ranking will help launch the program into the future, while strengthening ties here in Fairfield.

"I've seen it done across women's basketball at other programs across the country. And we wanted to do that in the northeast here and be that small town place that everybody wants to go to on a Saturday or Thursday night MAAC women's basketball game," said DuDonis.

The winner of this months MAAC Tournament will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.