FAIRFIELD, Conn. – The Stags are not giving away their two-consecutive MAAC titles without a fight.  Fairfield showed that fight today becoming the first MAAC team to defeat Marist this season.  The Stags were victorious, 3-1 (25-20, 21-25, 26-24, 26-24) at Alumni Hall and snapped the Red Foxes' 10-match winning streak.

“I felt like it was almost a dream,” junior outside hitter Hadley Orr said.  “It was very surreal.  It was awesome to see people stepping up…it was really cool there was just awesome confidence the entire time.” Orr tied a career-high with 16 kills in the match for the second straight day.

The first set started similar to the first set held up in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., with Marilyn Peizer leading the way for the Stags.  Fairfield (7-9, 2-3 MAAC) committed just two errors in the first game and hit .448 as a team. Peizer connected on six kills without committing an error and finished the set with a hitting percentage of .667.  Fairfield led by as many as six at 22-16 and finished the set with three kills by Peizer to take the first game 25-20.

“It was a great win,” graduate student Carsen Mata said.  “It was a complete team effort…it was tough to come back after yesterday's disheartening loss but we fought back as a team so I'm really just proud.”

Marist (14-3, 6-1 MAAC) came into the match winners of 18 of the 19 sets played against MAAC competition. The Red Foxes got back on track in the second set led by Kelsey Lahey, who did not commit an error on 11 swings and six kills.  Marist jumped out to an nine point lead at 13-4 and did not look back.  The Stags did make things interesting late in the stanza cutting the Marist lead to two at 23-21 after another kill by Peizer.  Marist would take the frame after a kill by Marisa Gilbert and then a service ace by Gilbert.

In the final two sets, Orr took over.  She would record 11 kills on just one error the rest of the way. Fairfield only committed four attack miscues in the third set and hit .237 as a team. Orr gave Fairfield the momentum with three-straight kills with the score tied 9-9.  Fairfield would however face set point down 24-21, but kills from Lindsay Weaver and Orr would tie the game at 24-24.  Fairfield took the set after a ball handling error and an attack error. Libero Camille Coffey had 11 digs in the frame.

In what turned out to be the final game, the Stags would once again find themselves down late in the set, this time by a 23-22 score. The Stags would tie up the score and force extra time after a kill by Orr and a bad set by Marist. After a fortuitous service error by the Red Foxes, Orr once again stepped up and delivered the final blow.

Along with Orr, two other Stags totaled double figures including Weaver with 10 and Peizer with 11.  Mata tied a match-high with 40 assists and Coffey led everyone with 25 digs, 21 coming in the final two games.

“I feel as a team you need a break sometimes and we got that break today,” Orr said.  “We can take a breath, we can move forward, we can get better, we don't have this pressure right now and we're ready to move forward and get so much better.”

The Stags hit the road for four-straight games starting at Rider on Saturday.