FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Twenty-four hours after earning a share of the MAAC Regular Season Championship, Fairfield University Volleyball claimed sole possession of the crown with a Senior Day sweep of Marist on Senior Day at the RecPlex. The win also secured the top seed in the upcoming MAAC Championship.
 
Fairfield (20-7, 15-1 MAAC) took down the Red Foxes by set scores of 25-14, 27-25 and 25-12 to polish off the 16th 20-win season in program history, all since 1996. Marist falls behind Rider and into third place in the MAAC at 17-11 on the season and 12-5 in league play.
 
"Whenever we play Marist, it's always very competitive," said Head Coach Todd Kress. "We have a great deal of respect for each other, we both have attackers who can put the ball away and student-athletes who understand the game. Today, we were very physical on the block and kept our attack errors low, and we came out on the better side of it."
 
Fairfield also celebrated Senior Day this afternoon as the closed out the home slate at the RecPlex. The quartet of Julia Kallen, Alexis Rich, Emily Schillinger and Laura Seeger all took the court this afternoon to play key roles in their 67th win as Stags.
 
In the front row, Seeger posted seven kills on .357 hitting at the pins and Schillinger put down two kills while getting a hand on seven of the Stags' 15 team blocks. Rich shared setting duties with Manuela Nicolini and recorded seven assists in her two frames of work. Kallen posted six digs and chipping in to the scoring with a pair of service aces.
 
"It was nice to see all four of our seniors contribute to the victory," noted Kress. "Seeger did a nice job on the left side, Rich played really well running the offense, Emily continues to improve as a middle getting a ton of blocks and quality touches, and Kallen has adapted from being a front row point scorer for us to being one of our better passers in the back row. They all contributed today, they've all contributed to our three straight MAAC regular season titles, and we're going to need them to keep contributing to bring back another tournament championship as well."
 
KJ Johnson led the attack this afternoon with 17 kills, swinging at a .351 clip. The MAAC scoring leader is now averaging 4.91 kills and 5.48 points per set while ranking third in the conference with a .329 hitting percentage. Mikayla Haut added seven kills on 11 errorless swings for a .636 mark on the outside. Nicolini added four kills from the setter spot and Luci Albertson put down four from the middle and right side.
 
Nicolini dished out 23 assists as she and Rich combined to run the attack to a .352 percentage.
 
The Stags' 15 blocks featured seven apiece from Schillinger, Albertson and Nicolini. Haut got a piece of four rejections, Johnson had a hand in three, and Seeger played a role in one stuff. It was the 12th time that the Stags reached double-digit blocks as a team this fall, and the sixth time they have done so despite playing just three sets.
 
In the back row, Georgia Via led all players with 12 digs. Kyla Berg added seven and Kallen recorded six. In total, the Fairfield defense limited Marist to a .054 hitting percentage.
 
Sasha van der Merwe and Gabriella Heimbauer led the Red Foxes with 10 kills apiece.
 
The Stags will close out the regular season next weekend with a road weekend in New York. Fairfield visits Iona for a Friday night clash and then wraps up the slate at Manhattan on Sunday, Nov. 14.

The eight-team MAAC Championship will be held at Siena's UHY Center in Loudonville, N.Y. from Nov. 19-21.