FAIRFIELD, Conn. – The Fairfield University Volleyball team advanced their 2018 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) record to a perfect 6-0, and they did so in dramatic fashion. For the second time this season, the Stags rallied from a 2-0 deficit this time defeating in-state rival Quinnipiac in five sets (22-25, 22-25, 25-22, 25-21, 15-6) on the George Bisacca Court at Alumni Hall.
 
"I thought Quinnipiac played their tails off," Head Coach Todd Kress said. "I give them a lot of credit they pressed us from the very beginning and I thought they were the better team for a good portion of the match. We were fortunate enough to dig out of a huge hole. Couple of things went our way, we had a couple of big points from our block, from Sonja (Radulovic) on the left side, (Julia) Kallen gave us some quality points and Sophia (Hosokawa) did a good job serving at the end of the third set and had them out of system."
 
Coach Kress can't remember his team digging out of a bigger hole at home in the MAAC, but the Stags found a way. Trailing 2-0 in sets and 16-10 in the third set the Stags called a timeout and would mount their comeback. Luci Albertson came out of the timeout with a kill, followed by back-to-back attack errors by Quinnipiac which put the Stags within striking distance at 16-13.
 
The Stags would come within two points after a Jamie Calandro service ace put the score at 19-17. The Bobcats were able to withstand Fairfield's run for a bit as a kill from Lydia Jones made the score 22-20 in favor of the road side. The Stags would answer by scoring the final five points in the set helped by kills from Julia Kallen and Laura Seeger.
 
Fairfield would have to mount another comeback in the fourth set as the Bobcats grabbed a 9-7 lead following a solo block from Kaleigh Oakes. The Stags would win the next three points on kills from Kallen and Albertson which put the score at 10-9. Fairfield would not trail again in the set and ran their lead to as many as six on two different occasions, the final happening at 23-17 which put the set in favor of the Stags.
 
The deciding fifth set completely belonged to Fairfield. The Stags rattled off the first five points of the set on a pair of kills from Seeger and one from Albertson. Fairfield would put the match out of reach with a 5-0 run capped off by a kill from Sonja Radulovic making the fifth set score 10-2. The Stags would hit .526 in the fifth set on 11 kills and just one error.
 
Although the Stags finished with 67 kills in the match, setter Alexis Rich did a nice job at providing a balanced attack with nine different student-athletes recording at least one kill. Albertson led the squad with 13 kills on two attack errors for a .524 hitting percentage. She joined Sydney Williams (eight kills on no errors) as the two Stags to hit over .500. Rich would finish with 59 assists.
 
On the defensive side, Taylor Rudeen led the Stags with a match-high 23 digs, 13 of those coming after the third set.
 
Fairfield will be back in action on Wednesday, Oct. 3 when they travel to Loudonville, N.Y., to take on the Siena Saints at 7pm.