Box Score
The Fairfield University volleyball team captured the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Regular Season crown with a 3-0 (26-24, 25-16, 25-16) victory over Canisius College Sunday afternoon in Alumni Hall. The victory improved the Stags to 20-8 on the year and 15-3 in league play, giving the Stags their second regular season crown in four years and 12th all-time. The Griffs dropped to 16-12 on the year and 13-5 in MAAC play.
On senior day, Brianna Dixion was the lone Stag to reach double figures in kills, finishing with a match-high 16. She also had four digs and three blocks in the Stags victory. Fellow senior Kara Reis led all players with 23 digs, to go along with four assists and a service ace, while senior Stephanie Cruz had five digs in the win. Camille Coffey finished with 11 digs and eight kills, while Hayley Moyer and Caitlin Stapleton both had nine kills.
The two squads played a nail-biter of a first set, that saw 19 ties, eight lead changes, and the Stags score the final three points after facing a Canisius set point. The Griffs scored three consecutive points to take a 24-23 lead and force a Fairfield timeout. Out of that timeout Moyer evened the match with a kill, and then served the Stags to back-to-back points, off Dixion kills, for the set win.
Fairfield never trailed in the second set, jumping out to a 3-0 lead behind the serving of Rachel Romansky, who finished with 39 assists, eight digs and three kills. The Griffs rallied to tie the game 6-6 on a block by Sydney Palka and Roxanne Hernadez, but an error on the ensuing serve put Fairfield back ahead for good. Fairfield scored 10 of the next 15 points to take control of the set, and took a 2-0 lead with a 25-16 victory.
The third set saw two ties and two lead changes in the first seven points of the set, with the Stags pulling ahead on three services from Reis to lead 6-4. The Griffs got back within one point, 6-5 on a Samantha Good kill, before Fairfield rattled off an 11-5 lead on the way to a 26-15 victory.
Canisius was led by the Good's 10 kills, with Logan Sulongga and Hernandez both contributing seven kills. Palka finished with 22 assists, while Allyson Severyn and Emily Elek both had 12 digs in the match.
Fairfield is the top-seed at the MAAC Championships, hosted at Alumni Hall, November 17-18. Semifinal matches will be played at 1 and 4 p.m. on Saturday, with the championship game to determine the league's NCAA Tournament representative beginning at 1 p.m. on Sunday. For ticket information fans can visit maac.ticketleap.com.
