Box Score LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Step one: complete. Fairfield got one step closer to defending their two-straight MAAC titles, in a three-game sweep of Rider (25-23, 25-14, 25-22) at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. Four Stags reached double figures as the Stags defeated Rider for the 12th straight match.
“Our ball handlers did a really nice job in serve receiving and of extending the play and I thought that was the difference in the match,” Head Coach Todd Kress said. “When Camille Coffey, Bella Guanciale and Megan Theiller focus in on first ball contact, we can compete with a lot of people.”
Kress won his 112th game at Fairfield, which is now one shy of a program record.
Fairfield allowed only three service aces in the match and had a .448 percentage of receptions to kills.
It took awhile for Fairfield (18-11; 13-5 MAAC) to wake up as Rider (17-16; 10-8 MAAC) recorded four kills on their first 11 swings. The Stags also had five errors in that span and trailed 9-4. The Stags called a timeout and at an opportune time, igniting a 9-2 run. The Stags would hit only .075 in the first set but managed to sneak out a victory.
“It was nice to see us pick up our level of play after a sloppy and flat first set,” Coach Kress said.
Megan O'Sullivan hit .600 in the opening frame with three kills on five attempts. Megan Theiller led the team with five kills. Defensively, Camille Coffey led everybody with eight digs.
Fairfield found their rhythm in the second stanza, recording a .342 hitting percentage. Theiller and Caitlin Stapleton did not notch an error between them and combined for seven kills on 11 attempts. Hadley Orr also chipped in five kills in a set that Fairfield never trailed.
The Stags trailed in the third set only once, when the score was 1-0. After the second point, Fairfield hit on all cylinders. The squad notched 22 kills in the frame with 20 assists from Carsen Mata, who came in averaging 12 assists per set against the Broncs this season. Theiller led the team with six kills on a .500 hitting percentage while O'Sullivan and Lindsay Weaver combined for six kills in the middle.
Theiller led all players with 14 kills, Stapleton had 12, Orr finished with 11, and O'Sullivan had 10 with a .471 hitting percentage.
Mata had 45 assists in three sets.
The Stags are back in action in the semifinals as they take on the winner of #1 Marist and #8 Iona. The semifinal match starts tomorrow at 5pm on ESPN3.
