AUSTIN, Texas – Fairfield University Volleyball concluded its third consecutive Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Championship season on Friday evening at #2 Texas in the NCAA Championship First Round. The Stags fell by set scores of 25-16, 25-18 and 25-17 to finish the campaign with a record of 25-7.
 
Fairfield's 2017 season also included a 21-match winning streak that included a second consecutive 18-0 run through the MAAC regular season. The Stags will carry a 51-match winning streak over MAAC foes – the longest active run against conference opponents in the nation – into the 2018 campaign. Fairfield reached the NCAA postseason for the 10th time – a MAAC record – on the heels of their conference-best 10th conference crown.
 
"We would like to have played a little better. We kind of lost our heads at times at a few points and let Texas go on a five- or six-point run, which you can't do against one of the top two or three teams in the country," said Head Coach Todd Kress in his post-match press conference. "But all in all for us, coming out of Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, we're pretty proud of what we accomplished this year and enjoyed the experience here in Texas tonight."
 
Texas, which is the sixth-seeded team in the tournament, improves to 25-2 and advances to tomorrow's second round to meet NC State. The Longhorns have reached the Final Four in five straight seasons, highlighted by winning the 2012 National Championship.
 
Megan Theiller led the Stags this evening with 15 kills. The mark is the most by a Stag in an NCAA postseason match since Joanne Saunders' 27 finishers and Conny Paul's 25 – both in a 3-1 loss at #15 Pepperdine on Dec. 1, 2000. Theiller also recorded eight digs in her collegiate finale.
 
Skyler Day added eight kills and six digs. She finishes her three-year career as the fifth Stag to eclipse 1,300 kills with 1,305. Theiller stands sixth in the program record book with 1,288 kills.
 
Rounding out the attack, Kaylie Butts had six kills from the middle on .333 hitting, while the trio of Luci Albertson, Sydney Williams and Kaitlyn Fisher each had two. Mayda Garcia added one kill in her home state of Texas.
 
Manuela Nicolini managed the offense with 27 assists. With the effort, she finishes the 2017 season with 1,171 helpers – 10th in a single-season in Fairfield history. Sydney Buckley took the court for the final time at the setter spot and added three assists.
 
In the back row, Taylor Rudeen led all players with 13 digs. In the process, she wraps up the year with 504 digs – the eighth time that a Stags has topped 500 digs in a season. At the net, Albertson and Nicolini teamed up for Fairfield's lone block.
 
To round out Fairfield's scoring, Albertson and Sonja Radulovic each served up one ace.
 
Texas was led offensively by 12 kills from Micaya White and 11 kills on 12 swings (.917) from Big 12 Player of the Year Chiaka Ogbogu. Ashley Shook doled out 33 assists for the Longhorns, managing the hosts to a .400 hitting percentage. Libero Cat McCoy had a team-leading eight digs.
 
The Stags started the match with a 2-1 lead on kills from Albertson and Theiller before a four-point spurt for the Longhorns put the hosts in front, 5-2. Fairfield fired back to draw even at 7-7, fueled by a Radulovic ace and two kills from Day, and the back-and-forth action continued to a 14-14 stalemate. That tie – the sixth of the frame – would be the last as Texas put together an 8-0 run to build a 22-14 lead. The Longhorns closed out the set by a score of 25-16.
 
Texas carried its momentum into the second frame, scoring the first three points of the frame and leading wire-to-wire. The Stags pulled within two on three occasions, but drew no closer as a 5-0 stretch for the hosts put the set out of reach. Fairfield mounted a late 6-1 run that included two kills from Butts and one apiece by Day and Theiller, but the Longhorns ultimately closed out a 25-18 victory in the stanza and carried a 2-0 advantage in the match entering the intermission.
 
After Texas grabbed the first two points of the third set, Day hammered back-to-back kills to fueled a three-point spurt that put Fairfield on top, 3-2. However, the Longhorns came out on top in the next six rallies to build an 8-3 lead. Theiller continued to drive the attack with four more kills over the ensuing stretch of action, but another 6-0 run for Texas put the set out of the reach as the Longhorns claimed a 25-17 decision to complete the straight-set final.
 
Senior co-captains Buckley, Day and Theiller concluded their Fairfield careers this evening, with 10 student-athletes slated to return for 2018. Kress finishes his eighth year at the helm of the Stags with a record of 187-80 at Fairfield and 421-275 in 22 seasons as an NCAA Division I head coach.