LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. – For the 17th time in the last 22 seasons, Fairfield University Volleyball is the regular season champion of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC). The Stags earned at least a share of the 2017 crown this afternoon with a 3-0 sweep at Rider by set scores of 25-22, 25-16 and 25-21.
 
Fairfield (20-6, 15-0 MAAC) needs one more win or a Niagara (17-8, 13-3 MAAC) loss to claim the outright regular season title and secure the top seed in the upcoming MAAC Championship, which will emanate from George Bisacca Court at Alumni Hall from Nov. 17-19.
 
Today's victory also marked the Stags' 20th victory of the fall. Fairfield has won 20 or more matches in three consecutive seasons and six times in eight campaigns led by Head Coach Todd Kress.
 
In this afternoon's action, the Stags were paced by the third consecutive double-double from Megan Theiller. The senior co-captain slammed home 19 kills on .529 hitting (19-1-34) and picked up 11 digs on the defensive end.
 
"Theiller played as well as she has all season, and the entire team is glad to see her back and starting to hit her stride," said Kress.
 
The Fairfield attack also got eight kills from the right side by Kaitlyn Fisher and seven kills off the swing by Kaylie Butts. Skyler Day added five finishers, Mayda Garcia posted three and Sydney Williams notched a pair of kills.
 
The offense was managed by Manuela Nicolini, who had the Stags running at a .277 clip. The sophomore setter distributed 40 assists and picked up three kills of her own.
 
Defensively, Taylor Rudeen – who joined Fairfield's 1,000 Digs Club earlier this week – had a team-leading 13 digs from the libero spot. In addition to Theiller's 11 digs, Nicolini and Sonja Radulovic chipped in with nine apiece and Day registered six. At the net, Butts and Williams were each a part of two of Fairfield's four blocks, while Nicolini and Fisher each had a hand in one rejection. All told, Fairfield's defensive effort limited the Broncs to a .184 hitting percentage.

The Stags also netted nine points from the behind the service line. Day matched her career high with five service aces, while Nicolini landed a pair of winners and Radulovic and Rudeen dropped in one apiece to round out the Fairfield scoring.
 
Rider (14-14, 8-8 MAAC) was led offensively by eight kills on .300 hitting from Hailey Riede. Evelyn Shanefield added seven kills and Perry Williams notched six. Veronica Koval doled out 25 assists from the setter spot, and libero Emma Aldaya and a team-best 11 digs.
 
"We started off slow in both sets one and three, but started to gain some traction defensively midway through each set," Kress noted. "Rider is always a tough challenge for us because of what they bring offensively. I thought we did a solid job of limiting them after making some adjustments."
 
Action returns to George Bisacca Court at Alumni Hall on Wednesday, Nov. 8 for a 7 p.m. visit from Siena. The Stags will then cap the regular season at home with weekend contests against Niagara and Canisius. All three matches are set to broadcast live on the Stags Sports Network.