FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) action comes to George Bisacca Court at Alumni Hall this Saturday as Fairfield University Volleyball hosts Quinnipiac. First serve is slated for 6 p.m. Admission is free for all fans to all Fairfield Volleyball regular season home matches this season.
Promotions
Town of Fairfield Appreciation Night: Town of Fairfield residents receive free entry into a drawing to win tickets to select Fairfield Men's and Women's Basketball games.
Student T-Shirt Giveaway: The first 50 students in attendance will receive a Stags in the Stands t-shirt.
On the Air
Saturday's match will be the first
ESPN+ broadcast for the Stags Sports Network in 2019-20. J.J. Duke will have the call – his fifth season as the play-by-play voice of Fairfield Volleyball – beginning at 6 p.m.
Scouting Fairfield
Fairfield comes into the weekend at 7-4 overall and riding a five-match winning streak after knocking off Marist and Siena to start the MAAC slate at 2-0.
Joelle Battles has set the pace for the attack during the five-match run, averaging 3.67 kills per set on .371 hitting.
Julia Kallen and
Manuela Nicolini have each recorded two double-doubles during the stretch.
On the season,
Laura Seeger and Battles have been Fairfield's two most prolific attackers with 2.97 and 2.92 kills per frame, respectively. In the middle,
Luci Albertson has pounded home 1.50 kills per set and ranks second in the MAAC with a team-leading .336 hitting percentage. Nicolini is managing the offense to a .189 clip with 9.60 assists per set.
The Stags currently boast the conference's top defensive unit with opponents hitting just .182 against them. A balanced effort in the back row has five Stags averaging two or more digs per set, paced by Nicolini's 2.93 per stanza. At the net,
Kaylie Butts leads the conference in blocks with 44 rejections in 44 sets of work, and Albertson has had a hand in 35 send-backs.
Scouting Quinnipiac
Quinnipiac visits Alumni Hall with a record of 4-7 after dropping both ends of last weekend's road swing at Siena (3-2) and Marist (3-1). The Bobcats have lost five in a row overall after coming up empty in three matches at Colgate during the prior weekend. Quinnipiac went 9-21 overall and 7-11 in the MAAC last fall, and is currently in the midst of its first campaign led by former LIU Head Coach and Oklahoma assistant Kyle Robinson.
The Bobcats rank sixth in the MAAC with a .177 team hitting percentage, bolstered by the conference's most efficient hitter in Kaleigh Oates, who is swinging at a .386 clip. She slots eighth in the MAAC with a team-high 2.85 kills per frame. The Bobcats' setting duo of Aryanah Diaz and Nicole Migliozzi have doled out 5.29 and 3.89 assists per set, respectively.
The back row is led by Alejandra Rodriguez, who ranks sixth in the MAAC with 3.83 digs per set. Oates is the Bobcats' top performer at the net with 38 blocks in 40 sets of action. In total, the Quinnipiac defense ranks second in the conference, limiting opponents to a .193 hitting percentage.
All-Time Series
A 3-0 sweep for the Stags in the MAAC Championship Quarterfinals ran Fairfield's advantage to 15-2 in the all-time series. The Stags owned a 14-match winning streak against the Bobcats, which was snapped last fall went the squads split the annual series as each club earned the win on its home court. Fairfield is 8-0 all-time against Quinnipiac at Alumni Hall.
Up Next
Saturday's action kicks off a three-match MAAC homestand for the Stags. Fairfield welcomes Manhattan on Saturday, Oct. 5 and defending conference champion Iona on Sunday, Oct. 6. First serve for both matches is set for 1 p.m.
